<<Disclaimer: Verify this information before applying it to your situation.>> Nine years ago, when I learned that I was gluten intolerant, I was informed by the Celiac Society that white distilled vinegar was made from grain, that most marketed apple cider vinegar was simply white vinegar with flavoring, and that most vinegared products (pickles, relishes, mustards, etc.) were also made from white vinegar. I decided the best route for me was to make my own vinegar. There are a lot of recipes for homemade vinegar, some using yeast, some using vinegar 'mothers', etc., but I didn't want to use yeast nor did I have a mother, so I went at it the natural way. Here's what I did. One fall, when apples were in season and very abundant, I went to an apple orchard and bought baskets of them...all kinds. For days, I peeled apples, making the apple 'meat' into applesauce, canned pie apples, dried apples, etc., and tossing the apple peels and cores into a bunch of crocks. As soon as a crock was filled with apple cores/peelings, I would fill it with water and set it in a corner. I think that I filled about five crocks full before I finished. Then, I let them sit...for weeks. Remember now that the vinegaring process requires that one kind of organism (yeast or bacteria, I forget) turns sugars into alcohol, then another kind of organism turns the alcohol into acetic acid (vinegar). Unless you have a vinegar 'mother' you have to wait for the appropriate organisms to fall into the vat and begin the process. Since they are in the air at all times, this wasn't a problem to me, but the resulting fermentation process made my house smell like I was running an illegal applejack/alcohol ring. Anyway, I made it through the initial fermentation process. Once the apple peels looked spent, I strained the vinegar-to-be and let the resulting juice continue to ferment (throw out the peels and cores). After that, it was simply a process of letting the vinegar age and then topping off (by using a siphon) the pure liquid while leaving behind the residue at the bottom of the crock. After a while, you will find a thick scum forming on the top of the vinegar. This is what is known as the mother. When I was ready to bottle my vinegar (I used those glass gallon jugs that apple juice and wine come in), I skimmed off the mother and siphoned off the clear liquid, throwing away the residue. I bottled the mother for future use and wound up with some 6 gallons of apple cider vinegar. A few tips: 1) Keep your eye on the vinegar over the next two years as it may continue to accumulate residue. You may need to siphon off the liquid another time or two in order to separate it from the residue. 2) The apple cider vinegar resulting from this recipe seems to be more acidic than the stuff in the stores, although I haven't tested it with litmus paper or a pH-meter. As such, it is probably safe to substitute in any pickling recipes you might want to try. 3) When your store of homemade vinegar begins to run low, you can replenish it by either of two methods. 1) Add a small amount of your vinegar to a gallon of commercial FRESH apple juice or cider (don't use 'made from concentrate' stuff) and allow it to sit and ferment just like the original recipe. 2) Save the peels and cores from apples and go through the process again, this time adding some of your saved mother to provide the beasties needed for the vinegar-turning process. I know that this process sounds tedious and like too much work, and it is, during the first year. My six gallons of vinegar lasted for about 8 years. Only last year did I have to make more.