Vinegar mother?

Does anyone know where to obtain vinegar mother? My last attempt to make vinegar from leftover wine failed. I used organic apple cider vinegar to start it, and I'm looking for an alternative.

I don't know where to buy it, but it seems if I leave an open bottle of cheap grocery-store balsamic around long enough, it will have one mother of a long slimy mother in it. I don't know if the balsamic-y nature of it would affect your final product, though. (yet another one of those "who thought it was a good idea to ingest this" types of things)

You can buy a kit online here. Googling also suggested retail home wine-making and home-brewing stores might carry a culture of this bacteria.

You just need some acetobacter. Here's one source (unfortunately, not local);

http://www.leeners.com/vinegar.html

Damn ... Michele beat me by two minutes

I was going to suggest unfiltered organic apple cider, but it seems you've already tried that. The brand I have (Eden Organic) says that it contains mother of vinegar. I would call Brew & Grow and Bev Art and see if they have any acetobacter:

Bev Art Brewer & Winemaking Supply
10033 S. Western Ave
Chicago, IL 60643
(773) 233-7579

Brew & Grow Chicago
1824 N Besly CT
Chicago, IL 60622
(773) 395-1500

Saveur's top 100 for 2009 featured lots of make-your-own recipes, including vinegar:

http://www.zinio.com/pages/Saveur/Jan-F ... 2461/pg-44

They recommended this for red wine vinegar:

http://www.localharvest.org/organic-red ... ter-C10988

Thanks for those suggestions. The local brewer's supply spots don't carry it. Looks like it might have to be mail order.

Check the health food stores or health food aisles in your grocery store. I found a bottle @ Kroger.

FWIW, the folks over at Ideas in Food did a piece at Popular Science about Making Vinegar at Home that I read a while ago. It's got some good tips, temperature suggestions, and even a recipe for Maple Vinegar that sounded really good.

-Dan

I am also looking for a vinegar mother. Any local sources found since March?

Thank goodness I noticed this topic, as I was trying to figure out what vinegar mother actually was.

I have a question regarding making vinegar. I have seen recipes for raspberry vinegar, honey vinegar and some other vinegars. Does anyone know if you can make vinegar using other fruits? Perhaps watermelon? Any advisement is helpful. Also, what vinegars have you made?

Thanks.

Any juice with sugars in it should be able to be made into vinegar. Just ferment it, add acetobacter, and in a few weeks you have a specialty vinegar, that'll get better with age.

Chiarugi Hardware on Taylor Street is supposed to have it; I've got a call in to them and will confirm this.