Remember when I made beer vinegar with chef Ryan Santos? Well, 8 months later it’s done and glorious.

It’s actually been done for a while, like since the summer. I sort of um, forgot about it. Which, at first was the point, since it needed about three months to get all vinegary and delicious.

And then it was November. Oops!

Good news is it’s definitely done, and it’s time to make some more.

As described in the original post, making beer vinegar is ridiculously easy.

All you need is raw vinegar (like Bragg’s Apple cider vinegar) to make a “mother,” and a growler of beer. Pour yourself a pint of beer to drink from the growler, and pour in the vinegar. Cover with cheese cloth, store in a dark place, and in about three months you’ll have a full growler of vinegar to use however you please. (I like to keep bottles like the one above. It was a vodka bottle and now it’s the perfect storage container for our vinegar. Sometimes I’ll keep jars and other things too for home made mayo and other condiments. It looks so much cuter than tupperware.)

Vinegar might seem like a sort of strange thing to make, but sometimes you can actually re-purpose things that would otherwise be thrown away. For example, you bought a growler of beer and suddenly it’s extremely flat, or maybe you made a beer which you weren’t completely thrilled with, drinkable, but not great? Make vinegar!

You can do the same thing with leftover or old wine. When we have five gallons of a beer that is just ok, and we have other beers to replace them, this is the perfect use. For the first vinegar we used an amber beer we brewed that was just a touch too sweet. It turned into a wonderful vinegar though, so not only did we not waste beer, we turned it into something else delicious!

Vinaigrette is kind of an obvious way to use the beer vinegar, but really there are a ton of uses. From a splash to de-glaze and brighten up sauteed veggies, to a whole cups worth in my favorite sweet and sour pork recipe.

There are also a zillion ways to make vinaigrette too, obviously, but this one is my current favorite.

LBLF Beer Vinaigrette

2 oz of home made beer vinegar

1 rounded, packed tbsp brown sugar

1 tbsp dijon mustard (or a bit more if you like it extra zesty)

8 oz of good olive oil

salt (I use ~1 tsp) and pepper to taste

Pour all ingredients into a blender or food processor. Blend well, making sure all the brown sugar is dissolved. I just started using the blender method and I don’t think I’ll ever pick up a whisk to make vinaigrette again.

Voila! You have delicious beer vinaigrette for salads, marinades etc.

Anyone else out there make vinegar before? What’s your favorite vinaigrette recipe?

Cheers!

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