Mother of vinegar
Mother of vinegar is a biofilm composed of a form of cellulose, yeast, and bacteria that sometimes develops on fermenting alcoholic liquids during the process that turns alcohol into acetic acid with the help of oxygen from the air and acetic acid bacteria (AAB).
"[2] In 1822, South African botanist, Christian Hendrik Persoon named the mother of vinegar Mycoderma, which he believed was a fungus.
He attributed the vinegar production to the Mycoderma, since it formed on the surface of wine when it has been left open to air.
[3] Martinus Willem Beijerinck, who was a founder of modern microbiology, identified acetic acid bacteria in the mother of vinegar.
[2] In 1935, Toshinobu Asai, a Japanese microbiologst, discovered a new genus of bacteria in the mother of vinegar, Gluconobacter.
[2] Mother of Vinegar forms a grayish veil which can be fine or more solid depending on the conditions.
The veil forms in conditions that include nutrients like proteins that are found in wine, limited acidity, and ideal concentrations of alcohol.
The raw materials and other manufacturing features determine what genus the bacteria that composes the AAB is from.
Polymerase Chain Reaction Denaturing Gradient Gel Electrophoresis (PCR-DGGE) was used to detect the bacterial components and genera in vinegar.
These groups include: Acetobacter, Acidomonas, Ameyamaea, Asaia, Gluconacetobacter, Gluconobacter, Granulibacter, Komagataeibacter, Kozakia, Neoasaia, Saccharibacter, Swaminathania, and Tanticharoenia.
This is because they are in competition with other microbial groups during the time the mother of vinegar is in the viable but not culturable (VBNC) state.
The genera, Gluconacetobacter and Komagataeibacter produce high levels of bacterial cellulose, which is what mother of vinegar is composed of.
[6] Lactic acid bacteria are also present in mother of vinegar to aid in the breakdown of carbohydrates in the alcohol fermentation process.
[7] Mother of vinegar is also composed of yeasts that ferment the sugars in the wine, cider, or other alcoholic liquids into ethanol.
In the making of Shanxi mature vinegar, the Daqu alcoholic fermentation starter mainly includes S. cerevisae, P. anomala, and Candida spp.
Hence the acetic acid fermentation starts with relative few species of yeasts, mainly S. cerevisae.
