Beer vinegar

Vinaigre de bière

What it is

Beer vinegar is what happens when acetobacter reaches a beer left open, and northern kitchens have made it deliberately since long before anyone bottled it — the malt and the hop bitterness both survive acetification. Malt vinegar is a different animal: it starts from unhopped malted barley wort, which is why it reads sweet and caramel where beer vinegar stays dry and bitter.

In the kitchen

Its acidity rarely tops 5 per cent, so it will not make a preserve safe on its own — top up with cider vinegar for anything you mean to keep. Deglaze pork chops or braised red cabbage with it: the hop bitterness reads as depth once it has cooked out.

Goes with

Pork Cabbage Shallot Mustard Herring Potato

Same species

Barley Barley malt syrup Diastatic malt powder Mugi miso Roasted barley tea

Also used with

Bog myrtle Maroilles

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