vinegar from old canned stewed fruit?

I have a great crop of apricots coming, at last, after 5 years without any.

I still have a couple of dozen pints from 2010. I put them up as "honey reduced". Add a small fraction of honey to get the juices to run, then reduce the volume by 1/3. They are exquisite, and with the new ones coming, I've been thinking aoubt clearing out the old stock. I've given some away already but tonight I realized I could probably make some great vinegar out of the fruit and honey.

I wonder what is the best way to do this. Do I need to ferment to alcohol then use the mother to go from alcohol to vinegar? Also, as these are preserved/concentrated, I will need to dilute them. I have a refractometer, so I can measure the amount of sugar in the solution.

What is the best specific gravity or % dissolved solids for fermenting to alcohol. If I am going straight to vinegar, then concentration of sugars does the mother want?

hey...

i ve done it with storebought apple juice, which was too old. i think, it depends on your strain of yeast, if you will need to dilute it. some yeasts will stop at a certain level of alcohol.

do you have an airlock?

probably it would make sense to ferment it into kinda wine, let it sit in closed bottles for 6-12 months and then test it. if you like it, then you have the wine. if not, you can still add mother and make vinegar.

Years ago after an uncle died I cleared out his house . He had been hoarding food for many years lots of tins of fruit past their sell by dates . So I gave it to a friend who made great fruit wine with it . So if you can make wine why not vinegar ?

A 15% sugar solution will produce a concentration of about 7% alcohol that leads to about 7% vinegar...

Thanks Joseph. Now I just need to decide what to ferment in. I have some nice glass 5 gallon bottles, but cleaning them afterwards might be a real pain. I have a nice cool basement, and I probably have an air lock. I guess I'll ask them at the wine and been makers store about methods of cleaning the inside of the bottle.

I am sure they would sell me some kind of yeast, but would bread yeast work to get alcohol? I have a big bag of that.

I typically use bread yeast, and/or wild yeasts for fermenting wine. It works fine for me. I target about 13% alcohol for my wines.

I haven't had any problems cleaning glass carboys. I use a bottle brush, and soapy water. In any case, I only use them for fermenting wine or vinegar, so it doesn't matter to me if there is some residue...

some yeast will leave a certain taste in the wine (which then becomes vinegar... or not, you choose). some yeast will not leave a taste.
some yeast will clump stuff together, so it will be easier to filter it and get a clear product.

bread yeast and/or wild yeast will produce alcohol. but it depends ... you re not so much in control of the quality of the end-product then,