191 4 



BETTER FRUIT 



Page 13 



Utilization of Waste Fruits for the Making of Vinegar 



By B. F. 



VINEGAR, according to the latest 

 technical definition, is a dilute 

 solution of impure acetic acid, pre- 

 pared by the acetous fermentation of 

 alcohol or of substances which yield 

 alcohol when suitably decomposed. 

 This is technical enougii explanation of 

 what vinegar is, but what wc are in- 

 terested in are a few of the more prac- 

 tical factors concerned with its making. 

 These points will be dealt with in ])lain 

 terms, leaving the technical for those 

 dealing with the subject from a purely 

 technical standpoint. 



Speaking simply, vinegar is dependent 

 upon one main thing: That there be 

 sugar present in the liquid desired to 

 be converted to vinegar. Then in the 

 making, two chief actions must ensue. 

 First, the change of the sugar present 

 into alcohol; second, the conversion of 

 the alcohol into acetic acid. How these 

 changes are brought about will be ex- 

 plained later in dealing with methods of 

 manufacture. The color, and to a con- 

 siderable extent also the odor and taste, 

 of vinegar are influenced by the mate- 

 rials from which it is prepared. The 

 chief sources are from fruits and grain. 

 A small amount is made from the waste 

 molasses of beet-sugar factories and 

 from starch sugar or glucose, but the 

 quantity is limited and the quality not 

 inviting. 



Of fruits, only a few carry sufTicient 

 sugar on the average to produce enough 

 alcohol to convert to acetic acid of 

 strength conforming to National or 

 State Pure Food Law standards. Apples, 

 grapes and liiuifed quantities of pears 

 and peaches are the chief sources of 

 fruit vinegar. Late experiments of 

 Professors Bioletti and Cruess at our 

 State Agricultural Experiment Station 

 demonstrate the possibility of oranges 

 as a source of vinegar, but there are 

 obstacles to be overcome before this 

 source is established. Pineapples are 

 another possible source of vinegar, and 

 a very exceptional product can be made 

 from their juice. Some pineapple vin- 

 egar has been put on the California 

 market, but sales have never been 

 pushed, with the result that it is a little 

 known commodity. Let us return to 

 present available fruit vinegars and 

 deal with their preparation. We 

 know them as cider vinegar and wine 

 vinegar. 



Cider vinegar constitutes about 15 

 per cent of the average total annual 

 output of vinegar in the United States. 

 Of the total amount of cider vinegar 

 sold, in the neighborhood of 90 per cent 

 of it is made in factories by the quick 

 process, which I will explain later. 

 Before the advent of the quick process 

 the source of supply was mostly farm- 

 ers who, because of the low price of 

 apples at apple harvest, pressed quite 

 a bulk of their crop into cider and al- 

 lowed the cider to take its natural, slow 

 course of "turning to vinegar." Only 

 in isolated towns do we today find 

 cider vinegar for sale which has been 



Butler, Chief Chemist Golden Gate Compressed Yeast Co. and Potrero Yin 



made on the ranch or farm. Most 

 every reader of this article is quite 

 familiar with the general ranch method 

 of making cider and its subsequent 

 slow conversion into vinegar. The 

 same general methods prevail in all 

 sections of the country. In making 

 cider vinegar on the ranch, the alco- 

 holic fermentation of the cider is car- 

 ried on by the native yeasts on the 

 fruit and from the air. In the factory 

 the cider is generally feriuented by 

 commercial yeasts to insure a more 

 rapid, stronger and more certain alco- 

 holic fermentation. Cider vinegar 

 made in factories embodies still fur- 

 ther different factors than the product 

 made on the ranch. The apples used 

 are the culls; those which, Ijecause of 

 rot, worms, small and other defects, 

 are unmarketable as apples, for pie 

 fruit or other products. These culls 

 and some fruit peel and cores from 

 tributary canneries are known as vin- 

 egar stock. If the reader could see the 

 condition of this vinegar stock going 

 by carloads into some of the large 

 cider vinegar plants at apple harvest 

 time, the warm season of the year — 

 this rotten, fly-blown, sour, foul-smell- 

 ing conglomeration of material — to be 

 made into a condiment for your con- 

 sumption and that of your families, 

 you would invoke your right of the 

 initiative to legislate against its manu- 

 facture into and sale as vinegar. The 

 product, cider vinegar, is a full, force- 

 ful and the best exemplification of the 

 subject of this article, "The Utiliza- 

 tion of Waste Fruits for Vinegar Mak- 

 ing." This assertion is clearly demon- 

 strated by the following facts and fig- 

 ures: One hundred pounds of apples 

 yield on the average seven gallons of 

 cider. Taking canning apples at $1.25 

 per hundred pounds, the cost of raw 

 material for one gallon of cider vinegar 

 would be eighteen cents; to which must 

 be added the cost of manufacture and 

 the cost of selling. With cider vinegar 

 selling wholesale at 12 cents per gallon 

 without the container, or 6 cents below 

 the cost of sound apples to make that 

 gallon, from a commercial standpoint 

 it is quite apparent it cannot be made 

 from such fruit, but is made from the 

 previously mentioned vinegar stock, 

 costing a mere fraction of the price of 

 sound apples. Eliminating the small 

 per cent of cider vinegar made on the 

 ranch and for sale, I feel perfectly safe 

 in stating that 90 per cent of the cider 

 vinegar on the market is a product in 

 direct violation of the purpose of the 

 National Pure Food Law. 



Wine vinegar is made from the juice 

 of grapes. When faulty fermentation 

 gains the upper hand in wine making, 

 the juice is converted to vinegar to save 

 it from total loss. Oftentimes the 

 acetic ferment (acetic acid bacteria) 

 gains sway and by natural slow 

 process the juice is converted to vin- 

 egar in a comparatively sliort time. It 

 is, however, a rather uncerlain thing to 

 put too much reliance in nature's slow 



cgar Works, San Francisco 



process because of the presence in all 

 grape must of various bacteria which 

 can cause a disturbance in the acetifi- 

 cation by the vinegar bacteria. For 

 this reason the larger per cent of grape 

 must which has failed to produce a 

 passable wine is promptly forwarded 

 to plants where it can be converted 

 into vinegar by the quick process. 

 Very few, if any, grapes are pressed 

 with the purpose of making the juice 

 into vinegar. Wine vinegar, as ex- 

 pressed above, is really the result of 

 saving from total loss wines which 

 have gone "bad." This los.s — the differ- 

 ence in price between wine and wine 

 vinegar — to the vineyardist would be 

 practically eliminated if the use of cul- 

 tivated — pure cultured — yeasts were 

 adopted. Their use in proper pitching 

 quantities would insure a cleaner, 

 healthier fermentation of the grape 

 must, with a resultant better flavored, 

 higher quality wine, commanding a 

 better market price. 



Grain vinegar constitutes 80 per cent 

 of the average total annual output of 

 vinegar in the United States. It is no 

 more than just to consume a little more 

 time in a short description of its pro- 

 duction. Grain vinegar is divided into 

 two distinct classes, viz., malt vinegar 

 and distilled vinegar. Malt vinegar con- 

 stitutes a very small proportion of the 

 two and is for sale almost exclusively 

 in small, fancy containers at fancy 

 prices for so-called fancy trade. The 

 manufactuie of the two vinegars is 

 identical up to the end of the alcoholic 

 fermentation. In the case of malt vin- 

 egar the fermented liquor, after filter- 

 ing, is mixed with a proportion of fin- 

 ished vinegar and run over the gen- 

 erators for conversion to vinegar. In 

 the case of distilled vinegar, the fer- 

 mented liquor is put through a still and 

 the alcohol distilled off and collected 

 in dilute form called "low wines." 

 These low wines are a clean, ])ure, 

 dilute alcoholic liquor carrying 10 to 15 

 per cent alcohol by volume, or 20 to 30 

 proof; besides they carry the volatile 

 esters or bouquet from a pure alcoholic 

 fermentation of the extract of clean, 

 sound, ripe grain. This process is 

 under L'nited States government in- 

 spection. 



The materials from which grain vin- 

 egar is made are barley-malt, rye and 

 corn. Barley-malt is the chief com- 

 ponent. Some factories use no corn, 

 but the majority use rye. For most 

 factories the grain is bought entirely on 

 analysis, which comprise chemical de- 

 terminations and physical examinations 

 by men trained to the line of require- 

 ments the grain must meet. Only the 

 choicest sound, ripe grain is bought, 

 in the majority of cases it being neces- 

 sary to pay good premiums over the 

 market price. These i)remiums are 

 willingly paid in order to iirocure the 

 very best of raw materials. 



The grain before use is thoroughly 

 cleaned by passing through grain-clean- 

 ing machines which separate from it 



