can you turn vinegar into wine?

[trinder]

Well not quite that but I have been given three demijohns full of red liquid looks like wine but it is slightly vinegary not awful but definitely harsh. I do have glycerine (that's dead sweet init) and yeast could I restart it and feed it?
thanks (Mike)

[Davie Crockett]

In a nutshell, no. If it has been exposed to air for any length of time, bacteria which convert alcohol to vinegar will enter it and start the process it is irreversible. You might be better off going for a full conversion to vinegar.

Snipped from http://italianfood.about.com/library/we ... 05100a.htm

You'll want good quality wine that's not too strong -- 10-11% alcohol -- because too much alcohol inhibits the activity of the bacteria that transform the wine. If the wine is too weak, on the other hand, the vinegar won't keep well.

There are several ways to proceed.

The simplest is to leave an open, 3/4 filled bottle of wine in a warm place for a couple of weeks.

This technique yields just one bottle, however. For a steady supply of vinegar, take a wide-mouthed glass jug whose capacity is at least a gallon and pour a quart of wine and a cup of vinegar into it. Keep the container covered most of the time, but open it for a half hour every day. In a couple of weeks the madre, a viscous starter, will have settled to the bottom of the jug, while the vinegar above it will be ready for use. Add more wine as you remove vinegar to keep the level in the jug constant.

If you want to make wine vinegar in larger batches, procure a 1-gallon (5 liter) cask that has a spigot at one end. If it's new, rinse it with vinegar and let it dry. Next, fill it to within a couple of inches of the top with wine and put it, uncovered, in a place that's about 68 degrees F (20 C). In a couple of weeks the wine will be vinegar. Drain it from the cask using the spigot, and, if you can, bottle it during a waning moon because it will be clearer. Replace the vinegar removed with more wine, pouring it into the cask with a length of hose so as to leave the surface molds undisturbed.

[MKG]

Now that has to be the most original question in the history of internet forums.

And the answer is .... errrmmm ..... well ..... (cough, cough) .... aah .... errrmmm ...

First of all, if it really is supposed to be wine, it's going to have (have had) a reasonable amount of alcohol in it. It's difficult enough to restart a stuck fermentation which has about 5% alcohol in it, so I'd be very surprised if you could find a yeast which would start in full strength wine - even the turbo yeasts wouldn't like it very much.

Two things are possible. The first is that there has been a genuine infection of acetobacter. If this is the case, you could poison it with a massive dose of metabisulphite. However, that would make the wine stink of sulphur for an awfully long time and you would still be left with any traces of vinegar which had already been formed. I think this scenario is unlikely as it would entail either three demijohns becoming infected at the same time - highly unlikely - or someone transferring a completed but infected wine from a 5-gallon fermenter into the three demijohns. As any vinegar smell would have been noticeable at the point of transfer, I think this is also highly unlikely.

The second is that you have a rough wine. There are other substances which can form in wine and which make it smell a bit like vinegar when, in fact, there's no trace of acetification whatsoever. Ideally, that smell should dissipate when the wine is in a glass and open to the air. It would still taste rough, though, although that could be masked by sweetening (don't bother trying with glycerine because the amount it would take would make your wine feel like syrup - use ordinary sugar).

The rough wine is, I think, by far the most likely. The easiest way to tell is just to leave it alone for a while. If it's an acetobacter infection, the process will continue and the vinegary smell will become more and more obvious - and you'll end up with three gallons of perfectly acceptable red wine vinegar. If it doesn't get any worse, you have a rough wine which you can then have fun with determining exactly how much sugar makes it acceptable.

Best of luck

Mike

[frozenthunderbolt]

Alternatively (assuming rough wine) you could grab some white oak (from barrel staves is best) toast it in the oven for a bit and then chuck it in with the rough wine for a year or two - should help smooth it out a bit.
Depends if you can be bothered and have that kind of time on your hands!

[oldfella]

On the other hand chuck it in the bin and buy a bottle Tisco's best, which maybe better than what you've got at the moment.

[trinder]

hum . Thank you all for your advice. I think I've got a couple of years left (frozenthunderbolt) . Now where did I put that white oak......Or more to the point where do I get it ? shops ?
I did not you in the original post that the demijohn that I have opened the cork was rotten and breaking as I was trying to get it out.

[MKG]

Ahhhhh. Then be prepared for anything in that demijohn - it could be vinegar. If you haven't opened the other two yet, you may be pleasantly surprised. Or evilly disgusted. Or you might have enough vinegar to keep you going for donkey's years.

Mike