Updated October 2026
How to Make Apple Cider Vinegar at Home
A good salad and cooking vinegar from apple juice or scraps. Not a pickling vinegar: its strength is unknown.
Ferment apple juice (or sweetened water over apple scraps) somewhere between 16 and 27°C with a cloth over the jar, stir it daily, and taste once it starts to smell of vinegar. Penn State Extension's method takes about 3 to 4 weeks from cider to vinegar. Use the result for dressings, marinades and fridge pickles only. Homemade vinegar varies in acidity, so it must never go into bottled preserves or anything stored at room temperature.
Scrap vinegar sugar guide
Scrap Vinegar Calculator
Making vinegar from apple scraps? Enter how many cups of water you are using and this works out roughly how much sugar to dissolve in it for stage one. The rule of thumb is about 1 tablespoon of sugar per cup of water.
This is a kitchen rule of thumb for scrap vinegar, not a tested recipe: about 1 tablespoon of sugar per cup of water, or 50 g per litre. Fill the jar half to two thirds with scraps and cover them with the sweetened water.
How it works
Two fermentations happen one after the other. First yeasts turn the apple sugars into alcohol, then acetic acid bacteria turn the alcohol into acetic acid. The second stage needs air, which is why the jar is covered with cloth and never sealed.
- Start with sweet apples. Autumn and winter apples have the sugar the yeast needs; Penn State notes early green cooking apples have too little. In most of Australia that means the autumn harvest.
- Juice or scraps. Press and strain apples for juice, or loosely half fill a wide glass jar with cores and peels and cover them with sweetened water.
- Cover with cloth, not a lid. A double layer of cheesecloth and a rubber band keeps vinegar flies out and lets air in.
- Keep it between 16 and 27°C out of direct sun, and stir daily. Cooler and it may not become vinegar; hotter and the mother struggles to form. A Darwin or Brisbane summer kitchen is too warm for good results.
- Strain the scraps once the bubbling slows, return the liquid to a clean jar and keep stirring and tasting.
- Filter and store. When it is as sour as you like, filter it through a coffee filter to remove the mother, bottle it and keep it out of sunlight.
Use glass, food-grade plastic, enamel or stainless steel. Acid attacks aluminium and other metals.
Mother or mould?
| Mother of vinegar: keep it | Mould: throw the batch out | |
|---|---|---|
| Look | Smooth, flat, jelly-like film or disc, pale to tan | Fuzzy, raised spots: white, green, blue, black or pink |
| Smell | Sharp, clean vinegar | Musty or rotten |
A mother is a sign it is working. Fuzzy growth or a rotten smell means the whole batch goes; do not scoop off the top and carry on.
Keeping it
Penn State's advice is to pasteurise vinegar for long storage: heat it to between 60 and 71°C, no hotter, then bottle it in sterilised bottles. Unpasteurised vinegar keeps fermenting and may grow a new mother.
Using it
Salad dressings, marinades, deglazing a pan, a splash in a glass of water with ginger and honey, and fridge or freezer pickles. Flavoured vinegars with herbs or garlic are made with finished, pasteurised vinegar. In the garden, vinegar is a poor weedkiller at kitchen strength, and pouring it on soil harms soil life.
See also: Preserving the Harvest and pickling with bought vinegar.
Sources we checked (October 2026): Penn State Extension, Making Cider Vinegar at Home; Food Standards Code Standard 2.10.1 Vinegar and related products; CSIRO, Preservation of vegetables and herbs in oil; USDA Complete Guide to Home Canning (2015) through the National Center for Home Food Preservation, General Information on Pickling.
Common questions
Can I use homemade apple cider vinegar for pickling?
Only for fridge or freezer pickles. Its acidity is unknown, so it must not go into bottled preserves or pickles stored in the cupboard. Use bought vinegar labelled 5%.
How long does homemade cider vinegar take?
Penn State Extension's method takes about 3 to 4 weeks at 16 to 27°C before it smells of vinegar. Then taste until it is sour enough.
Is the mother of vinegar safe?
Yes. It is a harmless mat of cellulose and bacteria. Fuzzy, coloured or raised growth is mould, and the batch must be thrown out.
Why does my vinegar smell like nail polish?
It is between alcohol and vinegar, usually short of air. Stir it, keep it covered with cloth rather than a lid, and give it more time.
