Cider Vinegars

ACV is just an acronym for apple cider vinegar. It is kind of like seeing EVOO for extra virgin olive oil - it's fancy and sometimes confusing...

Yes. All of our vinegars, including our apple cider vinegar, are slow fermented and raw. They contain live vinegar bacteria. We never add any preservatives to our fermented vinegars nor do we pasteurize.

Yes, but. Our vinegar is raw and does contain live vinegar bacteria. You will see that some of our vinegars contain or develop sediment or mother. This process happens naturally because the vinegar is still alive and the bacteria may continue to work as they are exposed to oxygen. We do not, however, specifically bottle vinegars in a way to force giant chunks of mother into the bottle for marketing purposes.

There is a lot buried in this question.

We believe that cider vinegar and other vinegars are good for you because cooking with vinegar usually means healthier cooking and eating. We focus on the taste and quality of our vinegar but are also proud of the fact that our vinegar is slow fermented and raw.

That said we know there is a lot of information out there on the health benefits of apple cider vinegar and other vinegars. Some of it is grounded in science and learned experience, other claims are a bit scary and may prevent people from seeking treatment for real medical problems. We never want to be part of the later and encourage you to use our vinegar to promote a healthy lifestyle and diet not as a medical treatment.

Medical journals and articles from academic institutions are a great source of information on what has been tested, proven, disproven or is untested regarding the specific health benefits of vinegar. You may want to start with this article from the University of Chicago Medical School.

Please don't take pure vinegar shots. We know it is a thing and that as vinegar makers we should welcome the business. We do not. Vinegar is an acid. Drinking pure vinegar means you are exposing the enamel of your teeth to acid. Instead get the same benefits by using vinegar in your food (unheated) or by making some great vinegar drinks or cocktails. Frankly it just tastes so much better as well!

When you let our vinegar settle in the bottle you will see that it is often clear and has a bright color. That is actually connected to how we make our vinegar. Industrial vinegar production produces very cloudy vinegars that then need to be highly filtered to become the clear commercial vinegar you see on grocery shelves.

Our vinegars are produced using a traditional method that naturally produces clear vinegar. These vinegars are alive, however, so they will have sediment and vinegar mother and those are the floaters you may see in your bottle.

We never filter our vinegars. We do, however, strain vinegar through stainless steel mesh to remove the giant chunks of mother that would make your vinegar more solid than liquid.

Yes.

Some of our ciders use pure apple cider as the fermentation base. This is true for our Cranberry Apple Cider Vinegar which uses only hard apple cider as the fermentation liquid.

Some of our other cider vinegars use both perry (hard pear cider) and hard apple cider as the fermentation base. Our Pear and Apple Cider Vinegar is about 80% perry, whereas our Hot Vinegar is about 80% apple cider.

The reason just comes down to taste. We think using hard ciders that have a blend produce more interesting vinegars and are fortunate that there is a long tradition of making both perry and apple cider in the world's cider-making regions.

All of our cider vinegars are labeled to indicate if they have apple, pear, or both apple and pear ciders as their hard cider fermentation base.

No, not at all.

Our Apple and Pear Cider Vinegar is definitely a vinegar and not a hot sauce. It is a bit hot but smoke is its more defining quality. It also has savory qualities. It is everything and we love it.