Good question! I keep regular white and cider in the pantry, plain and flavored balsamic by the stove, and red wine and rice vinegar in the fridge - now why is that? The one thing I have learned is that my delicious lemon balsamic from Trader Joe's is evaporating because of the cork top stopper. Next time I get some I will decant it into a glass bottle with a twist on top.

I keep my vinegars in the pantry. I also make my wine vinegars in the pantry, so it smells something like a winery in there! :D

I've never had a vinegar go bad...I'm not sure if they can go bad?

I keep all my vinegars in a cupboard and have never had a problem and I must have every flavour of vinegar known to mankind!

I have some Regina Brand raspberry vinegar I have had for many years. Is it still good?
It was cheap vinegar from the get go.

I have kept vinegars for year and they have been fine. It is a little creepy when you pick an old one up to use and there is a big honking mother in it though. I know they are still perfectly safe, but I've always tossed those because of the visual factor.

Alexa

When wine goes bad, it turns to vinegar. When vinegar goes bad, it turns to . . . vinegar?

I've never had a vinegar go bad. Maybe the taste changes or it gets a bit sediment-y, but if you taste it and can't tell the difference, then it doesn't much matter. Commercial vinegar is pasturized and keeps indefinitely, per Cooks Illustrated and others.

When wine goes bad it turns into bad wine....it doesn't turn to vinegar without the addition of the "bugs" which make it vinegar called "mother of vinegar".
I keep all my vinegars in the cupboard.
Linda C

Here is a link that might be useful: wine to vinegar.

No need to refrigerate vinegar. I also keep mine in the cupboard.

Ann

I keep mine out in the kitchen and have never had one go bad. And I live in Houston, so heat and humidity evidently don't affect it.

I got my wine vinegars started without benefit of added "bugs." It's chancy, and takes time, but vinegar was originally a naturally occurring product after all, so I knew it could be done.

There are several ways a wine can go "bad" and becoming vinegar is one of them. God knows I have opened a few bottles of vinegar in my restaurant life. Better that than when they get "corked" (smells like aged, sweaty socks mixed with mildew.) They can also become aerated, which just means that the air has gotten to them. I suppose the alcohol evaporates, leaving you with what is essentially thin, insipid grape juice?

I had several jars of wine covered with muslin (to keep buggies and dust out) in my garage for months before a couple of them grew a mother, but it was worth it. Home made wine vinegars can't be beat, the barely flavored stuff most grocery stores offer isn't even worth comparing.

I do keep my unfiltered Apple Cider Vinegar in the refrigerator though.... the label even says "Refrigerate After Opening".

But everything else is in the pantry.

Grace

I've never put vinegar in the fridge until recently. My bottle of rice vinegar says to fridge it after opening. Fine that way because I drink it in shots.... seems to settle my stomach and pick me up.

: )
lyra

A red wine, even if it has been well re capped...once opened rapidly gets sour....but not like vinegar. Just sour and nasty.
Perhaps if I were patient some of the bits in the bottom of a bottle might get lucky and capture some of the bacteria necessary to make real vinegar....but I prefer to capture the mother from a bottle of unpasteurizec vinegar and add to the wine.
Linda C

so much appreciation for your wise help. I was worried I'd have to find room in that over full fridge for 7 bottles. I'm loving learning to use vinegars. Some really horrible
and some really delightful results.
once again, thanks

saddee

Lyra, the owner of a Japanese restaurant where I worked many years ago used to drink shots of rice vinegar to settle his stomach. I thought it was weird until a few years back I began storing my stress in my tummy! I don't drink vinegar, but pickle juice and it settles it right up.

I don't think I could drink it room temp though, so chilling vinegar makes sense if you're planning on using it that way.

Linda, part of the problem with getting good wine vinegar going from bottled wine is that the opening isn't big enough. You do better with a crock or a jug. Dunno if the desirable bacteria like the air or if it's just that the wider opening allows for greater initial access?

I have opened bottles and found mother in them...so why the heck did it take so long to get one going when WANTED??? :D

Well, as long as you feed it once in a while, you never have to go through that again. I've started a number of people going with their own wine vinegar production by bringing them a snips off my mothers.

Funny, but I had a heck of a time getting the white wine vinegar started. Couldn't do it, even though it was sitting on the shelf right next to the flourishing red wine jug! Finally, I cut a piece of the red wine mother, rinsed it, and dunked that in. My "white wine vinegar" was initially a bit pink, but is just fine now. So, though my red wine vinegar was done the old fashioned way, I cheated a bit on the white.

Saddee, if you like onions, try quartering some (leaving the root end intact...it helps hold it together) and soaking them in balsamic vinegar that has been reduced by about half. Then grill them, brushing the remainder of the balsamic reduction on as you grill, like basting a chicken. Very yummy!