For some time I have been making vinegar from my homemade wines. I have been using a 1/2 gallon canning jar and while it seemed like it would be plenty when I started the fact is that it takes quite a while for the vinegar to finish and I never seemed to have enough. I wasn’t crazy about the glass jar either as it meant disturbing the mother whenever I wanted to add or remove vinegar. That and the fear of lead in the crock kept me from using an old crock I have on hand. What I really wanted was an oak vinegar barrel. As luck would have it, I recently found myself with a little bit of Paypal credit and decided to finally take the plunge and get a vinegar barrel with it. While it is more expensive than the glass jar I had been using, the oak barrel will last the rest of my life, keeps the vinegar dark (it likes that) and will allow me to make a never ending supply of awesome wine vinegar. The barrel will also impart its own wonderful flavors to the mix.
It is currently filled with water and is soaking to swell the staves. As per normal with a new barrel there were a few leaks when the water was first introduced. It has been sitting for a couple of hours and already most of the small leaks have sealed up. I will keep the water in there till tomorrow, check it again and if all is dry add my batch of vinegar to the barrel.
5 responses so far ↓
1 Lisa // Mar 19, 2009 at 9:00 pm
Are you still happy with your barrel? I keep considering getting two for my white and red wine vinegars, but they are just so costly…
2 kerry // Mar 20, 2009 at 9:38 am
Lisa,
I LOVE LOVE LOVE my vinegar barrel. Like you, I hesitated because of the price. I finally decided to splurge with the thought that this would be something that might outlive me. I love the flavor that the barrel imparts, love the look of it and love that it can sit on the counter doing it’s thing and the goodies inside are protected from the light. No my kitchen doesn’t smell like vinegar at all. Another bonus, I finally have a thick mother on top, something I never did get using glass jars. The spigot is nice too. I don’t have to disturb the mother to harvest some vinegar. I do have to be careful when I add wine though. If you just pour it over the mother it will fall to the bottom and eventually plug your spigot. I use the tube part of a turkey baster and a funnel. I position the tube to the edge of the mother and slowly pour the wine in.
Several months ago I harvested most of the barrel. I ended up draining about 3/4 of what was in the barrel and adding a couple of bottles of wine. Rather than fool with trying to get so much wine down a small tube, I went ahead and removed the mother and discarded it (nobody wanted it). I already have a new one forming in it’s place.
3 Nathan // Jul 21, 2009 at 11:14 pm
What size barrel do you recommend?
4 kerry // Jul 22, 2009 at 9:47 am
I guess that depends on how much vinegar you want. I chose a smaller size and have yet to fill it completely. I believe mine is a 1.5 gallon. I purchased it from this company. http://www.artisanbarrels.com/mainpage.html?products/al-vinegar I am VERY happy with it.
5 Pearlene // Aug 25, 2011 at 2:40 pm
I’m interested in purchasing a small barrell to make my own vinegar. On websites I’ve seen the barrels positioned in a stand up version or the horizontal way. Does it make any difference which way they are positioned? From what I read in an above comment, the mother floats on the top…I thought it would stay on the bottom. Any comment would be appreciated. Thanks!
Leave a Comment