This year, my collections of books, bitters, and vinegars have grown substantially. Since there’s nothing to do – books! Since I’m now plying my own self with cocktails – bitters! And since we met Rodrigo Vargas a few months ago – vinegars! Rodrigo founded American Vinegar Works in Lowell, MA because he wanted to make vinegar the old fashioned (read: labor intensive) way using the most flavorful ingredients he could find. As he points out, “we are living in a renaissance of incredible American craft fermentation,” thus now is an excellent time to get into the small batch vinegar game.

When Rodrigo and his team decided to open American Vinegar Works, they hit the books, researching fermentation processes from the early 1800s before industrialization hit the vinegar industry. They modeled their fermenting equipment off of etchings and writings from the era and adapted past vinegar-makers’ methods to create the most deeply flavored product. The last step was to choose the perfect alcohols as the foundations of the vinegars. All the ciders, sakes, wines, and beers Rodrigo uses are from the USA, and from New England whenever possible, to give the vinegars more of a sense of the place. Sound familiar? We talk about this all the time with cheese! Just another reason to love American Vinegar Works! 

So finally, after alllll this research, they started making vinegar! But vinegar, like wine, is a hurry up and wait kind of situation because the fermentation of the alcohol to vinegar takes two or three months, and then they let it age for up to a year in American oak whiskey barrels, and THEN we can have it. All about building flavors, baby!

IPA Beer Vinegar
We were immediately drawn to this one. Made with an IPA from Mayflower Brewing Company, this vinegar is yeasty and citrusy. Add a few shakes to breaded fish, French fries, or chili.

Chardonnay Vinegar
Our newest flavor! It is delicate, clean, and perfect to sprinkle over oysters, add to a pan sauce, or to dress a simple green salad.

Junmai Rice Vinegar
This vinegar is made with Junmai-grade sake out of California! It is BRIGHT, dude, BRIGHT! It jazzes up peanut sauce, dipping sauce, barbeque sauce, rice, shrimp, cucumbers

Cranberry Apple Cider Vinegar
I love a sweet vinegar and this delightfully sweet and tangy. Cider and cranberries from MA of course! Drink this, I’m not even kidding, or sprinkle it liberally over quinoa, grilled chicken, or roasted squash

Apple and Pear Cider Hot Vinegar
I had never had a spicy vinegar before and, no shocker, it was amazing. This zingy condiment is so good over pizza, pulled pork sandwiches, or for pickling red onions.

Don’t you want to add to your vinegar collections, too??

For the love of cheese and obsessive producers,

Kiri

PS. My cousin, Alex, showed me this clip from dancer Kitty Phetla. It is so enthralling and beautiful, I wanted to share.

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