Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
arrested once the conversion has completed or you'll end up
with no vinegar at all.
The conversion process can be stopped in two ways. For
purposes of aging the vinegar, it can be placed in a canning
jar with a tight-fitting lid that excludes oxygen. This leaves
the vinegar alive, but dormant. For purposes of long-term
storage or use in an environment where oxygen might be
admitted, the vinegar is pasteurized. Vinegar is pasteurized by
heating it to 150 degrees for 30 minutes with the lid adjusted
as for canning to prevent evaporation. Once it has been
pasteurized, it can be stored in any clean container for a
nearly indefinite period of time.
Ethanol to Acetic Acid Conversion
If you are using commercial beer or wine to make vinegar, the
amount of alcohol (by volume) is listed on the label. If you
are using your own, you should have a good idea how much
alcohol is in your beer or wine from the hydrometer readings
you recorded.
The chemical equation for the conversion of ethanol to
vinegar is:
C2H5OH + O2 → CH3COOH + H2O
So ethanol plus oxygen gets converted to acetic acid plus
water. Looking at the equation, each molecule of ethanol is
converted into one molecule of acetic acid. The molecular
weight of ethanol is 46.07 and its density is .789 g/cm3. The
molecular weight of acetic acid is 60.5 and its density is 1.049
g/cm3.
