vinegar results from a process in which a beer or wine undergoes a secondary fermentation, transforming ethanol into acetic acid; if left alone in the proper conditions, all fermented beverages will turn to vinegar. Most culinary vinegar is produced from grape wine or fortified wine such as sherry, but such beverages as beer, apple cider, other fruit wines, and rice wine can also be used for vinegar production.
Vinegar is occasionally used in distillation: in Jamaica, for example, some varieties of pot-still rum have cane vinegar (from fermented cane juice) added to the wash, which adjusts the fermentation environment to favor certain strains of yeast and aids in congener formation. See fermentation. Vinegar is also used in mixed drinks, both on its own (in drinks such as the Caribbean Switchel, where it is mixed with molasses and water) and mixed with spirits—it appears as a citrus substitute in punch as early as 1670. See punch and shrubs.
McGee, Harold. On Food and Cooking. New York: Scribner, 2004.
By: Michael Dietsch