Liquor + Air = Vinegar: Make It From What Grows Here

Does the Cleanser (vinegar) have to be brown rice vinegar, and how do you make it from local fruit?

End of Drake's Q&A. An audience member asks whether brown rice vinegar is needed or whether banana vinegar, more local to Hawaiʻi, will do. Kim Chang, the interpreter, first answers in her own voice. Cho had followed the room without English and takes over at the flip chart, writing 玄米酢 (brown rice vinegar) / 炭水化物 × 누룩 (carbohydrate × nuruk) / 술 + 酢酸菌 (liquor + acetic acid bacteria). She then interprets, standing beside him.

• Vinegar (Cleanser), the general method — Carbohydrate (rice, banana, papaya, any fruit) × nuruk (koji or yeast) → liquor; leave the liquor open and acetic acid bacteria from the air turn it to vinegar in 3 to 5 days, depending on temperature. No quantities given. (Cho's Korean and the board; the interpreter dropped the 3-5 days.) The prescription handout doesn't cover vinegar making.
• Coconut vinegar — Draw off the coconut juice separately; add koji or yeast (nuruk also works) to make alcohol; it then turns to vinegar. Scrape in the white flesh too for better quality. Use the old (mature) coconut. No quantities. (Cho's Korean; the interpreter.)
• Banana vinegar with brown-rice power — When making the banana liquor, mix in a little (조금) cooked brown rice; the brown rice's power goes into the vinegar. Confirmed back to the questioner: 'you've learned well'. (Cho's Korean.)
• Acidity check (Kim Chang and an audience member) — At least 4-5% acidity to extract calcium and calcium phosphate (Reproduction, Structure). An audience member: pH 2.4 or lower on a strip is about 5% acetic acid.

1. Use local material for vinegar; it needs at least 4 to 5% acidity

   Kim Chang, in her own voice: Cho uses what's available where he teaches if there's no brown rice; the acidity is what extracts the calcium and calcium phosphate.

   ▶ 2:05:57 As spoken

2. Teach the lineage first (brown rice vinegar), then the local adaptation (banana vinegar here), and keep track of your changes

   Drake Weinert.

   ▶ 2:06:27 As spoken

3. Competency means high-quality solutions: make them, show them, keep notes, photograph the whole jar

   Kim Chang: on projects, CGNF often found level 2 farmers' own solutions unusable and had to bring theirs. Then learn the nutritive cycle: 'you just look for the sign'.

   ▶ 2:07:16 As spoken

4. pH 2.4 or lower on a test strip means at least about 5% acetic acid; legal vinegar is 4 to 5%

   An audience member's rule of thumb, not Cho's.

   ▶ 2:09:25 As spoken

5. Don't insist on brown rice vinegar alone; make it from whatever is around you

   Cho says he caught the question by reading the room, without English.

   ▶ 2:11:39 As spoken

6. In Hawaiʻi: papaya, mango and banana all work; the best quality is 'mango-stick', probably mangosteen

   The interpreter said 'mango skin'.

   ▶ 2:12:04 As spoken

7. Coconut vinegar: coconut juice plus koji or yeast makes alcohol, which turns to vinegar; scrape in the flesh; use the old coconut

   Asked ripe or young: 'the old one', then Cho's question 'who's stronger, an old person or a young one?'

   ▶ 2:12:39 As spoken

8. Carbohydrate × nuruk → liquor; liquor + acetic acid bacteria → vinegar

   Board: 玄米酢 / 炭水化物 × 누룩 / 술 + 酢酸菌.

   ▶ 2:14:39 Written on the board

9. The acetic acid bacteria come from the air

   Banana, papaya, rice, it's all the same: once liquor forms, the air's bacteria get in with a little time. Same as makgeolli going sour.

   ▶ 2:16:22 As spoken

10. Liquor turns to vinegar in 3 to 5 days, depending on temperature

    And, Cho adds, on how much of the Creator's loving power comes through. He frames it with the wedding at Cana: the creating power fills the air.

    ▶ 2:20:00 As spoken

11. Vinegar isn't made by technique but by the power of nature

    ▶ 2:20:27 As spoken

12. The material changes the quality; the vinegar itself is the same

    Brown rice, papaya and banana carry different nutrients, so what's made differs in quality.

    ▶ 2:21:03 As spoken

13. For brown-rice power in a fruit vinegar, add a little cooked brown rice when making the banana liquor

    ▶ 2:21:33 As spoken

14. Healthy vinegar needs healthy, rich raw material

    Like a healthy mother and a healthy seed making a healthy baby.

    ▶ 2:22:22 As spoken

15. Koji is not IMO: IMO are microbes collected from the soil

    Bought koji may have been hung in the shade or come from a liquor factory; either way it isn't indigenous soil microbes.

    ▶ 2:24:22 As spoken

16. White rice is brown rice with its clothes stripped off; brown rice keeps the minerals and nutrients

    So Cleanser made from brown rice makgeolli is far better (last word unclear).

    ▶ 2:26:26 As spoken