First let's go back in time to September when this all started. I went apple picking, making a ton of apple things, and had a lot of cores and peels I didn't want to go to waste. So I whipped up a couple jars of apple cider vinegar. The first step was to ferment the peels and cores for two weeks in a sugar water. I accidentally forgot about it and ended up fermenting the peels and cores for about 2 and a half weeks but they were fine. It's an old school things to make so it doesn't have to be perfect. Plus it was getting colder and that means it would take more time.
After I strained the peels and cores out of the mixture I returned them to my fermenting cabinet with a tea towel and rubber band to secure it on top. This time they needed to keep going for 4 or more weeks. Overall I let them go for about 5 weeks. At this point it was a cloudy mixture and there were stringy bits and little dark chunks of the microorganisms living the best life in these jars.
To bottle them I used a couple of the flip cap bottles I use for my kombucha. These are perfect for ferments and things that are more acidic. I did strain them before bottling. This probably isn't super important but I did want to end up with a big mother chunk inside as they sit in the pantry waiting to be used. Even the store bought kind get's these chunks so a little straining action to remove the started clumps before bottling, labeling, and storage.
At this point they are ready to use! They have a super strong vinegar scent just like store bought ACV. I can not wait to use them up in recipes or in my homemade toner! Yes I use diluted vinegar on my face every day, but I'll keep that for another post. Since it's so acidic and has live microorganisms still living inside it will continue to get more acidic and won't need to be preserved in any fashion for long term storage. It will be fine on it's own, at most I'll just have chunks to strain out after awhile.
Overall this was super easy, simple, and fun to do at home. It was a great way to use up some scraps I had from baking in my kitchen and I already use ACV so much in my life that it's nice not to have to buy a couple bottles now that I have some homemade! If you attempt this at home let me know how it goes in the comments! Home fermenting and creating a healthier kitchen is so much fun and there's so much to learn from each other!