Acetic Acid in Vinegar?

Someone mentioned a ph tester for $50 to $100...Gurneys used to sell one for quite a bit less. Also, someone mentioned the ph test strips. I'm not sure how accurate they are, but should work for ball parking the acidity well enough. If you are thinking about long term, such as teaching the next generation how to do things for themselves in the absence of stores...maybe the egg test or red cabbage test are the best ways to find out the general acidity of your vinegar. I would look it up online, make a few batches of my own vinegar and test each batch to see how it is going. I think once you have the experience under your belt you will have a good idea of what the acidity is for future reference.

If you think about it, if the shtf and we are living in a world with no stores, you will have more pressing problems than the acidity of your vinegar. But, of course, it is important to be careful with your family's health.

Easiest test I know is to drop in a little bicarb of soda and see how much it takes to make the vinegar go flat.

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I believe in God's willingness to heal.

Cyngbaeld's Keep Heritage Farm, breeding a variety of historical birds and LaMancha goats. (It is pronounced King Bold.)

so what's the scale for that test? 1/2 teaspoon baking soda = what percent acid?

Best to titrate it yourself so you know what you are looking for.
Get a 10 cc syringe from the feed store. Put 1 tsp of baking soda in enough water to make 10 cc of solution. See how many drops or cc it takes to make 1/4 cup of 5% vinegar go flat (stop fizzing).

__________________
I believe in God's willingness to heal.

Cyngbaeld's Keep Heritage Farm, breeding a variety of historical birds and LaMancha goats. (It is pronounced King Bold.)

This is the website I found when I started making vinegar:

http://gangofpour.com/diversions/vinegar/vinegar1.html

I just started out using a mother from some Bragg's vinegar placed in a big glass jar with a loose lid or cheescloth and add leftover wine when I have some. I keep the jar in my pantry. I have also used a "new" mother (red wine mothers are dark purple) to make apple cider vinegar.
I don't know why I've never tested the pH because I do have strips. To me, the homemade vinegar seems stronger. Making vinegar is one of those low tech, kitchen chemistry/microbiology activities I love to do.

Here is a link from Henriette's Herbal on vinegar making:

http://www.henriettesherbal.com/arch...vinegar-3.html

For the hardcore, I wish I could find a video I saw once about making your own vinegar mother. If I recall the guy put something in a plastic bottle (maybe a banana peel?) as bait and hung the bottle outside for a period of time. Insect action, bacterial production, etc produced a product that would produce vinegar.

I found the video mentioned above. To make a vinegar mother "you need the dirty little feet of flies"

I really like this guy's series of videos on foraging alot. This one is just on vinegar: