Homemade Apple Cider Vinegar (ACV)

Published by homesteadingswiftly on May 15, 2022May 15, 2022

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Do you process apples come fall time and have lots of scraps leftover that you just hate to throw out? Let me introduce you to a super easy, low work project that will reward you with and amazing and useful product, apple cider vinegar!

All you will need to do this is:

A clean container (I used a five gallon food grade bucket)

Distilled water (Water Distiller)

Granulated sugar (I typically buy mine in bulk from Costco)

Clean (organic if possible) apples or just apple scraps.

Optional: Bottle or Spray Bottle

To start, just core, slice, and peel the apples to freeze, process, or consume however you desire. I use this awesome Corer, Peeler, Slicer (#2430) from Pampered Chef to core, peel, and slice apples to either dehydrate, freeze for pies later, or to make pies fresh! Or if you are just looking to peel and core them for apple dumplings this Corer (#100267) and Peeler (#1072) is great!

Save all the scraps, cores, peels, seeds, stems, all of it! Place the scraps into the clean container of your choosing. My first batch the bucket was about ¾ full and the second batch was about ½ full. You can use tap water but for the best quality I recommend distilled water. If you’re like me and you use a lot,
and I mean A LOT, of distilled water I highly recommend buying a water distiller. In less than six months ours had a return on our investment and continues to save us money. This is the water distiller I have and it has held up very well since it was purchased in 2019.

The ratio is one tablespoon of sugar to one cup of water. This meant I used one cup of sugar to one gallon of water. I added the appropriate amount of sugar and gave it a good stir to help dissolve it into the water. You can also estimate how much water you think it will take and mix the water and sugar
together first and then cover the scraps. Either way will work just fine!

After I added the water and sugar and gave it a good stir, I then covered it with a flour sack towel (you may also use cheesecloth). This helps keep the bugs out and still allow the mixture to breathe. I used a stretchy cord or rubber band to hold the towel in place and let it sit in a warm place out of direct
sunlight. Let it sit for about 2-3 weeks to ferment, stirring it every few days to mix the floating apples into the liquid to prevent mold from growing. If any of the pieces on top looked bad scoop them off and put them into the compost or in our case, the bucket we take to our chickens.

After the 2-3 weeks the mixture should have a sweet, cidery smell to it and no longer bubble. At this point you will strain the apples out, re-cover with the flour sack towel, and let it finish the fermentation process. This step is where the mother (probiotics!) forms across the top as the happy bacteria does its thing.

After awhile you will notice that it still has a sweet, cidery smell but it also begins to smell like vinegar. Once it smells more like vinegar and there is a mother formed on top, approximately a month after
straining, then your vinegar is complete and ready to be bottled! I recommend a smell and taste test to check for quality, if you are planning on using it for preserving I suggest buying pH strips to
verify the correct pH. The best pH of your acid for preserving is below a 4.6 (source), anything above that botulism can form.

I strained some of the mother off to use for another batch but you can just leave it in the bottle and use it that way.

And that’s it! It is a very low input project that yields rich results! A few things I suggest using your fresh ACV for are:

Fire Cider-this is great for your immune system!

Hair Rinse-fantastic for your hair or if you have a dry, itchy scalp (source)

Cleaning Spray-did you know vinegar is a better (and food safe) disinfectant than bleach!

Daily Consumption (for gut health and blood sugar regulating)

Somethings to add:

*An added bonus is that this project can end up being zero waste! Instead of just throwing the scraps away you can do multiple things with them, adding them to your compost bin is one and feeding them to your livestock is another. Our flock of chickens, quail, and ducks love the table scraps we give them, plus
the fermentation is good for their gut health!* 

My first batch I did not use distilled water and I don’t feel it turned out right, it had a funky color and smell to it so sadly, but for safety reasons I threw it out. My second batch I used distilled water and it came out beautifully, a lovely cider, vinegar smell, with a gorgeous mother across the top.

You can do this with frozen apples too. I wanted to start one batch to see how it was going to go so I froze the apples for the second batch until I was ready for them. I did thaw them out in the sink overnight before adding them to the bucket and beginning the process.