The vinegar was one of the things in the pantry I wanted to get out. It had stopped smelling like hard cider and more like vinegar a while back. It needed to be filtered and bottled up and put in the root cellar.
The first jar I did had a seal over the top, just like the safety seals on products. It was fairly substantial and sealed the jar. As I poured out the vinegar through the filter, I discovered this jar had not made a new mother. The old mother was there, on the bottom, and looked ok, but had not made a new mother.
I’d not seen this happen before and am not sure what caused the seal to form or what it was made of. The seals were around the upper edge, well away from the cider.
Most of the jars had made a new mother that incorporated the old mother (on left side). These new mothers were strong and healthy. But any jar that had a seal did not make one.
Because the jars had buttercloth tops there had been evaporation. I went from 4¼ gallons down to 3¾ gallons. I labeled the tops and they all went to the old root cellar.
I hope to get a pH testing kit or strip to test the pH of this vinegar. It would be nice to know that it’s at least 5%.