green mold on cider vinegar attempt

[Paul Neufeld]

Hi all,

I wanted to make cider vinegar. I've successfully fermented cider before, but wanted to go straight to cider vinegar. I had a jug of juice that I'd pressed in fall and put into the freezer for a few months. I took it out, thawed it and poured it into a 1 gal glass jar, put a cloth over the lid, secured with a rubber band and left it on a shelf. I didn't look at it again for a week. When I peeked today, I noticed a bunch of circles of bright green mold floating on top of the liquid, plus a nice white fuzzy patch too. Not good, I assume. I guess I should have been stirring it?? I didn't sanitize my jug either, so perhaps there was some source of the mold in the jar.

I'm assuming that this batch is toast and I should pour it out and wait until I can get a good bunch of organic apples again next fall? Any other tips?

[Sara]

Paul, I'm with you. I too have been trying to make vinegar and after a week of leaving it alone I've noticed greenish-white mold circles floating on the top. I followed the recipe as written in Wild Fermentation. What gives? I made the apple juice from organic apples in my Omega juicer since that is the only way to get unpasteurized juice where I live- did I do something wrong there? Could the temperature be playing a part in this? It's very cold in my kitchen. Lastly, I saw Paul mentioned something about stirring- is that something I need to do rather than let it sit. I hope someone can help Paul and me! Thanks!

[KimAB]

I've got vinegar going right now, too. I picked the bits of mold off and gave it a stir. I noticed that it had a LOT of carbonation under it. I'm making scrap vinegar, though. I thought it was doing what it was supposed to!

[godPotato]

I'm guessing that there was moisture in the gallons. Probably dirt too.

How about if you clean it real good, and leave it out on the sun to dry (and sterilize) it?

[godzilla]

Hey folks, this might clear things up a bit, or confuse them:
I've got a batch of cider vinegar going that seems do be doing fine and dandy, and yes during that first week there were patches of white foam on top.
The process went: go to apple orchard, fill truck bed with apples, bring apples to tractor-powered cider press, and voila: cider. The guy who runs the press explained that when making vinegar, you leave your bucket of cider open with a piece of cloth tied over the opening. The yeasts on the cider turn it into an alcoholic ferment in the first week, and then the vinegar culture eats the alcohol. Yeast eats sugar, poops alcohol, vinegar eats alcohol. THEN you cover it up and let it age 3-5 years. So I don't know what to say about the green mold, but carbonation and white foam aren't problems.