This should be interesting.
I’ve been seeing people make vinegar from apples, sugar, and water all over social media, and every time I see it I think the same thing: can something this simple actually turn into a vinegar I’d want to use?
I’ve never fermented anything before, so this is completely new territory for me.
There was a time when that alone probably would have stopped me. What if it doesn’t work? What if I screw it up? What if I waste my time?
But I’m trying to do things a little differently these days. I’m challenging myself to try something new about once a month, even when I don’t know how it’s going to turn out.
So for Experiment #2, we’re making apple vinegar.
And if you want to make it with me, you absolutely can.
One Quick Note Before We Start
You may see this type of recipe called homemade apple cider vinegar. Traditional cider vinegar is made from apple juice or cider. Since we’re starting with chopped apples, sugar, and water, I’m simply calling ours apple vinegar.
That’s all the time we’re spending on that.
We have apples to ferment.
Save the Recipe
Our experiment is intentionally simple: apples, sugar, and distilled water.
I’m using a combination of Honeycrisp and Granny Smith apples because I want some sweetness from the Honeycrisp and tartness from the Granny Smith.
We’re starting with a quart jar because this is an experiment. If it sucks, I don’t need half a gallon of disappointment sitting around afterward.
I’m also using distilled water simply to take one variable out of the experiment. The method I’m following calls for water without chlorine, so distilled water makes that part easy. A university-published apple-vinegar method uses the same basic ratio we’re using, 1 tablespoon of sugar for every cup of water.
Three ingredients.
Let’s see what they can do.
Why Am I Trying This?
Honestly, curiosity started the whole thing.
I was skeptical when I first saw these recipes. Apples, sugar, water, and time are somehow going to turn into something I actually want to put on food?
I need to see this for myself.
And fermentation is something I’ve never tried before, which makes it perfect for these experiments.
That’s becoming one of my favorite things about doing this series. I’m not showing up after I’ve perfected something and pretending I knew what I was doing from the beginning.
We’re starting at the beginning.
If it works, you’ll know.
If it doesn’t work, you’ll know that too.
What Would Make This Experiment Worth It?
Just successfully making vinegar isn’t enough for me.
Yes, I want to watch the process. I’m a science nerd, so apples bubbling, changing color, getting cloudy, and generally doing weird things in a jar sounds pretty fascinating to me.
But ultimately, I want something useful.
I’m predicting that our finished vinegar will be a little milder, fruitier, and maybe slightly sweeter tasting than the apple cider vinegar I normally buy.
That’s only my prediction. I haven’t tasted this stuff yet.
And I’ve already decided how we’re really going to test it.
Creamy green chile dressing.
I’m thinking lots of roasted green chile, garlic, cilantro, and enough of our homemade apple vinegar to give it some bite.
Not a timid little dressing where you have to hunt around trying to figure out whether there’s green chile in it.
Major green chile.
If that dressing is the bomb and our vinegar gives it a flavor I can’t get from regular vinegar or store-bought apple cider vinegar, I’ll probably make another batch.
If it doesn’t?
I’m buying the bottle.
I love making things from scratch, but I’m not interested in creating extra work just so I can say I made something myself.
It needs to be worth it.
So What Happens to Those Three Ingredients?
This is the part I’m most excited to watch.
Vinegar doesn’t happen in one step. Sugars are first fermented into alcohol, and then acetic acid bacteria convert alcohol into acetic acid. Vinegar production also requires oxygen, which is why our jar gets a breathable cover instead of being sealed airtight.
During the first stage, the apples stay in the sugar water for about a week.
I’ll stir them with a clean spoon at least once a day. Some of the apple pieces will naturally float, and stirring helps keep them wet instead of leaving fruit sitting exposed at the surface.
After about a week, I’ll strain out the apples.
Then the liquid goes back into a clean container with its breathable cover and continues doing its thing.
The method I’m following gives that second stage roughly another two weeks to a month, although fermentation doesn’t run on my blogging schedule. The smell should gradually change from fruity to lightly alcoholic and eventually become distinctly sour and vinegar-like.
If mine takes longer, it takes longer.
I’m much more interested in documenting what actually happens than forcing it to meet an arbitrary deadline.
What Am I Watching For?
I’m keeping notes throughout the experiment because eight weeks from now I don’t want to be standing here saying, “I think it got cloudy sometime around Week 2?”
I want to know what actually happened.
I’ll be watching the color, bubbles, cloudiness, sediment, smell, changes in the apples during that first stage, and what happens to the liquid after the apples come out.
Eventually, I’m also going to taste it.
I’m less excited about that part.
But somebody has to do it.
One of the things I’m already learning about fermentation is that different doesn’t automatically mean bad. Bubbles, sediment, cloudiness, and changing aromas can happen while microorganisms are doing their work.
Fuzzy or colored mold is a different story.
If I grow obvious mold, I’m not scraping it off and pretending everything underneath is fine.
That batch is done.
We’re starting over.
I’m willing to trust the process. I’m not gambling with fuzzy mystery organisms.
About That Smell…
This is probably the part I’m least excited about.
Vinegar isn’t my favorite smell, but I live with two Sphynx cats and change their litter box twice a day.
I know what a horrible smell is.
If you know, you know.
Still, the vinegar is probably going to live in my storage room with the door closed.
I am willing to trust the fermentation process.
I don’t necessarily need to smell the process all day.
How Will I Know When It’s Done?
This is something I’m going to have to learn as we go.
The aroma should gradually move toward that recognizable sour vinegar smell, and eventually we’ll taste it and decide whether the flavor is where we want it.
But there’s something important that smell and taste cannot tell us.
The exact acidity.
And that affects what we’re allowed to safely do with our finished experiment.
What Can We Actually Use It For?
Assuming we end up with something that tastes good, I want to use this vinegar where its flavor can actually matter.
Salad dressings, marinades, sauces, and everyday cooking are all possibilities.
I’m also saving some completely plain before we start adding anything to it because I want to evaluate the actual vinegar we made.
Then comes the green chile dressing.
That’s our final exam.
One Important Safety Rule
Our homemade apple vinegar is not for canning or shelf-stable pickling.
Homemade vinegar doesn’t come with a guaranteed acidity level. Tested home-canning recipes commonly rely on commercial vinegar standardized to 5% acidity, and Extension food-safety guidance specifically says not to substitute homemade vinegar of unknown acidity.
So ours is staying out of the canner.
We’ll keep it refrigerated and use it for our dressing, marinades, sauces, and cooking.
When I’m canning, I’ll continue using the vinegar and acidity specified by the tested recipe.
Some things are fun to experiment with.
Canning safety isn’t one of them.
Want to Try It With Me?
You can save the recipe card above and start your own quart alongside mine.
Or you can let me go first and see whether I end up with delicious homemade apple vinegar or a jar of questionable brown liquid.
Either option is completely acceptable.
I’ll share updates on our social pages as this experiment changes because I think watching it happen is half the fun.
If it bubbles, I’ll show you.
If something weird happens, you know I’m showing you.
And if I open the storage-room door one morning and immediately question every decision that led me here, you’re probably going to hear about that too.
What Counts as Success?
I want to decide this now, before I know how the experiment ends.
For me, success means the finished vinegar tastes good enough and has enough practical uses that I’d actually bother making it again.
We’re not trying to prove that homemade is always better.
We’re finding out.
That’s the whole point of these experiments.
Maybe this becomes something I make regularly.
Maybe the creamy green chile dressing turns out so good that keeping homemade apple vinegar around becomes completely worth it.
Or maybe eight weeks from now I’ll tell you that buying vinegar is one of modern civilization’s greatest achievements.
I genuinely don’t know yet.
And I kind of love that.
For now, I’m going to start my jar, try to remember to check on it, trust the process, and give the rest to the universe.
When it’s finished, we’ll come back here and talk about what actually happened, how long it really took, what surprised me, what it smells like, what it tastes like, and whether I’d ever make it again.
Then we’re making that creamy green chile dressing.
Because making vinegar from three ingredients is pretty cool.
Making something from it that I actually want to eat is what will make the experiment worth it.
