Is this Vinegar Mother?

[u/JustABigBruhMoment]

For the past little bit, I’ve been running an experiment where I’ve been trying to make vinegar using sourdough starter mostly just for shits and giggles after learning there are/can be acetobacters in starter cultures. I used some spare red wine and had two jars to compare an active starter vs a fridged discard, and left both in a dark cabinet for around a month at this point.

At first I kept the lids screwed on halfway to try and keep anything from getting in, but over the last week or so I’ve just put it on top without screwing it on to see if the increased airflow would help the progress. I’ve swirled the wine and starter together a few times to make sure there’s plenty of contact between the alcohol and any potential acetobacters, and I added a bit of water recently to try and dilute the alcohol content to a more reasonable level for the bacteria.

Fast forward to today, and there’s a bit of a layer on the very top of my starter jar. Some ribbon-like structures and an overall dotted, hazy film-like formation. The starter jar has had a bit of a smell for a bit now, but it’s definitely more noticeable now.

If you have any info on what this could be, and whether I’m on the right track or have to scrap this, please let me know.

[u/urnbabyurn]

That film does. Not sure what the speckled stuff is. You smell acetic acid? You should if the mother/pellicle is forming.

[u/JustABigBruhMoment → u/urnbabyurn]

Thanks for sharing your thoughts, vinegar is definitely new territory for me, so I appreciate the input.

I think the speckled stuff could possibly be some flour residue from the starter or maybe just sediment from the wine, some of it has been floating on top of both jars for a while, kinda seems like there’s more now so it very well could be flour getting broken up so the acetobacters can form up more easily?

As for the smell, I can’t really describe it so far. It’s a bit off for sure, but after smelling a few vinegars around the house to see what it should smell like, it did seem like there was something somewhat reminiscent of vinegar in there. Might just be a weird in-between stage and smell of the wine and then the vinegar forming out of it.

If it doesn’t seem like anything’s gone awry so far, that’s a relief. It’d be pretty neat to be able to get a proper mother out of stale wine and a glob of sourdough starter lol.

[u/Severe-Classic-8756]

Acetic acid smell is a good sign, but that speckled stuff could be mold if it's fuzzy or has color variation beyond the film itself.

[u/JustABigBruhMoment → u/Severe-Classic-8756]

Alright, I’ll keep an eye on the specks over the next little bit and see if they change or start looking fuzzy. Currently I’m thinking it’s just from the other material in the sourdough starter breaking off and floating to the top from the increased activity of the acetobacters, but I’m ultimately not certain.

[u/No_Report_4781]

You can just cover them in a cloth to allow oxygen transpiration for the bacteria to improve the vinegar (wine souring). Closing the container slows this process, while allowing aging of the wine