Varieties

The world of vinegars

Most of the international vinegars are made from alcohol or wines. Industrial vinegars or big selling vinegars are made from diluted alcohol, which is fermented into vinegar. Some companies add flavours, apple juice concentrate and extracts to give the alcohol vinegar a better taste. Only some percent of vinegar makers use fresh juice and ferment this to fruit wine and vinegar. Wine vinegars are made from cheap and low level wines. Specialist of vinegar producing use quality wine or sweet wines. Around 90 % of the sold vinegars are made with large scale submerged systems.

Vinegar made from alcohol

For these types of vinegar industrial alcohol made from sugar, molasses and/or grain is used for vinegar fermentation. After dilution down to 10 % vol of alcohol and adding bacteria food it is fermented to white vinegar.

Vinegar made from starch

To this group we count all vinegars, which are made from vegetables or grain, which contains starch, without distillation. Main products are rice vinegar and potato vinegar.

Wine vinegar

Wine vinegar is made from wine. Industrial companies use bad qualities of wine, named vinegar wine. For a perfect quality the buyer should look for small companies which produce from fresh and typical wines. Sweet wines give also sweet vinegar.

Fruit vinegar

The highest quality of vinegar are made from fresh fruit wines. Industrial companies work with juice concentrate. This has not the typical flavour but it is cheap. For a perfect vinegar ask your producer, if he works without concentrate.

Flavoured vinegar

To this group we count all vinegars, which have not the natural flavour inside. The flavour could be added with flavour, or with fruits, herbs, salt and other ideas. Most of them are cheap and do not have a good quality. More about  our vinegar varieties with a detailled information you will find at our online shop or at the vinegar lexicon. See also the chapter about balsamic vinegar.