Dave wrote:

> Layne Westover said:
>
>>I'd like to hear from those who have successfully done it
>
> rather than those who have read about it or just have an
> opinion about it.
>
> I made a pail of it, as an experiment, from washings from cappings.
> It smelled good. But I did some checking in the meantime, decided
> it wasn't worth the risk, and it went down the drain.

I have made honey vinegar but by accident (airlock popped on the
fermenting mead) and did not like it. I have made cider vinegar and it
was so-so but I did not like the flavor and would not use it for
pickling, which was my intent. It would have overpowered the taste of
the pickles. I tried using airborne yeasts to make a nice grape
(concord) wine and got a good wine vinegar. But its use was limited to
cooking (flavor) and not pickling. My wife never used it much, so I gave
up on making it.

It all depends on what you want. If you do not mind the flavor of your
local yeasts and bacteria, fine. I have given up on trying those in my
area because they just do not give good results, even sourdough bread,
as I noted in another post.

I doubt if any mead maker uses airborne yeasts to ferment the honey but
buys a good wine yeast starter. I did the same when I was making wine.
It is the only way to get good results on a consistent basis. Same with
vinegar.

As far as botulism, except in infants, it is the storing of the item
that gives the problem. Then you can get an anaerobic condition which is
what botulism needs as long as everything else is in its favor.

http://12.31.13.107/healthyliving/nutrition/jul03nutritionbotulism.htm

is a good synopsis of botulism poisoning. The most interesting statistic
is that of the 110 cases of botulism in the US yearly, infants are 72%
of botulism poisoning, because their systems cannot handle the toxin. It
is just not that common among adults. It can be deadly, which is why it
makes the news, but we get more food poisoning every day from ill
prepared foods that are seldom reported since who cares if you have a
bad case of "stomach flu".

Bill Truesdell (this thread will ferment along until it turns to vinegar)
Bath, Maine

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