Dear Readers, I have to post the results of my apple cider vinegar experiment so you will know how it might look when it all goes wrong. Unfortunately, at 4 weeks when I was advised to remove the apple slices and take out the weight holding down the apple parings I must have introduced bad bacteria. Even so, at 5 weeks my ACV looked like it was doing all right. At 5 weeks I checked on it and even noticed slime forming which I interpreted as the Mother or SCOBY (symbiotic culture of bacteria and yeast) forming. There it is. On the 6th week when the vinegar should be ready to go, I find this.
I have not been able to confirm with my fermenting friends that this is, indeed, mold but in my long history of making food in many forms and styles my experience tells me that this must be mold and no doubt about it. It’s fuzzy and brown! I am so disappointed! Strangely enough, it doesn’t smell bad. If anything, it smells like what I would describe as sweet vinegar. The liquid beneath the layer of mold is clear and peach colored.
This just shows that you can do everything right or think you did everything right and it still doesn’t work. Once the ball is rolling on this process of fermenting apple cider vinegar, as far as I know, there is nothing a person can do to prevent it. What will be will be.
To quote one of my favorite newscasters from my childhood, Paul Harvey. “And now you know the rest of the story.”
