Made fire cider for the first time three weeks ago. Horseradish, ginger, garlic, onion, chillies and orange in raw cider vinegar, shaken most days. It has gone properly murky with a thick layer of sediment, and there is a jelly-like disc floating near the top.
It smells sharp and spicy and right. But the disc is unsettling and I grated everything rather than chopping it. Have I got a problem or is this what it looks like?
That is what it looks like, and the disc is a vinegar mother: a gelatinous layer of cellulose and the bacteria that make vinegar, which forms in raw unfiltered vinegar. Odd looking, entirely normal. Strain it out or leave it, most people strain through cheesecloth before bottling.
The murk has four sources all working at once. Raw vinegar is cloudy to begin with, the roots release starches and fibres, honey clouds it further if you add any, and citrus pulp and oils do the rest.
Does grating rather than chopping make a difference worth changing next year?
It makes it considerably cloudier and gives you more sediment, which is cosmetic rather than a fault. Chunkier pieces give a clearer infusion and a bit less sludge at the bottom. Grated extracts faster. Pick whichever annoys you less.
If you are using a metal lid, put parchment under it. Vinegar corrodes the lid and you end up tasting it.
To answer the underlying question directly: clear fire cider would be the unusual outcome. Hazy, slightly murky, golden orange, with sediment at the bottom, is the normal appearance, and you shake it before using it for exactly that reason.
Strain after the steeping period, store somewhere cool and dark or in the fridge depending on your recipe, and stop looking for clarity that was never going to arrive.
@above_the_vinegar · last wk.
The actual failure mode in fire cider is almost always ingredients poking up above the liquid, which is where mould gets a foothold. So keep everything fully submerged and push it back down when you shake it.
Bin it for fuzzy mould on the surface or on anything sticking out, coloured spots in green, black or pink, or a rotten smell instead of sharp and spicy. Yours smells right, which is the test that matters most.
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