Craft Beer Vinegar

Beer vinegar, also known as ‘alegar,’ is a tangy complex double fermented vinegar. The basic process involves the fermentation of malt sugars using ale and lager yeast strains to make alcoholic beer. Beer is then oxygenated and added to a ‘mother of vinegar’ which contains acetic acid bacteria. These bacteria then consume the alcohol in the beer over a period of weeks to months to produce acetic acid. Our beer vinegar is made from a blend of all our core range beers which are added to a native wood chip substrate to kick off the second acetic acid fermentation. Our vinegar is ultra flavoursome and complex resulting from the use of no less than thirteen different NZ malts and sixteen different hop varieties.

How is Workshop beer vinegar different to malt vinegar? Most mass-produced malt vinegars are made from a single malt variety making them simple and one dimensional. In addition to the large number of malts and hops in our vinegar, we also add various spices to amplify the flavour even more! What can you use beer vinegar for? Beer vinegar when added to a quality olive oil makes an excellent vinaigrette. Beer vinegar is also amazing as a meat marinade (e.g. for a slow cooked bbq lamb shoulder: mix beer vinegar with olive oil, salt, pepper, fresh crushed garlic, honey and a touch of soy for a kick ass basting marinade). Another common use for beer vinegar is to put it in a little spray bottle and spritz on hot fish and chips or to use it for balancing the acidity in stews and gravies. Beer vinegar also makes a great solution for long term pickling of various fruit and vegetables. More recently we have been experimenting with our beer vinegar as a component in two types of super delicious non-alcoholic craft beverages called ‘switchels’ and ‘shrubs’.