Home › The Principles of Cookery › Vinegar, Malt

Vinegar, Malt

In Great Britain vinegar is usually made from malt. By mashing with hot water, one hundred gallons of wort are extracted in less than two hours from six bushels of malt. When the liquor has fallen to the temperature of 75 deg. Fahr., four gallons of the barm of beer are added. After thirty-six hours it is racked off into casks, placed upright, having a false cover, pierced with holes, fixed at about a foot from their bottom. On this a considerable quantity of rape, or the refuse from the makers of British wine, or otherwise a quantity of low-priced raisins, is laid, the liquor is turned into another barrel every twenty-four hours, in which time it has begun to grow warm. Sometimes the liquor is fully fermented without the rape, which is added towards the end to impart flavour.