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Vinegar from Italy

Aceto di miele (honey vinegar)aceto di miele

Honey vinegar is made in two stages, first fermenting honey diluted in water into mead and then letting acetic bacteria turn the alcohol into vinegar. In a laboratory study, honey diluted to 21 % solids fermented to 8 % alcohol in 84 hours and was then acetified to vinegar with up to 9 % acetic acid. The Italian aceto di miele is described as golden, fragrant and milder than wine vinegar.

Fully documentedVinegar46 days – 60 daysFamily: Mead (base flow)

Recipe

Amounts from a sourceThe laboratory-scale method of Ilha et al. (2000), not an Italian recipe. No Italian source gives amounts.
Honey1 kgGives about 5 L of vinegar in the laboratory method[ilha2000]
WaterEnough to bring the must to 21 % total solids in the laboratory method. Bancks (1905) gives 1 part honey to 7–8 parts water by weight, about 5 % acetic acid at 1 part to 8.[ilha2000][bancks1905]
Ammonium sulfate and ammonium phosphateYeast nutrients added in the laboratory method[ilha2000]
Saccharomyces cerevisiae4 g/LAdded yeast in the laboratory method; traditional honey vinegar is left to ferment slowly[ilha2000]
Starteradded yeast, then a mixed acetic culture (laboratory method)

Total time across the recorded steps: 46 days – 60 days

Start
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What changes: Honey is stirred into water to make a thin must

Step 1 of 4
Dilute the honey in water
Time
Not documented
Temperature
Not documented
Salt
None given
Acidity
Not documented
Which microbes the steps name, step by step
Yeasts
Saccharomyces cerevisiae
Acetic acid bacteria

Output: honey must.

Flavour
Not documented
Texture
Not documented
Colour
Not documented

Microbes at work in this step

Not documented for this step.

Method

Measured measured in a studySet fixed by a specification or tested recipeReported one source reports itTypical a general value, not sourced for this fermentUnconfirmed not yet checked against a source

At a glance

Honey vinegar is made in two stages, first fermenting honey diluted in water into mead and then letting acetic bacteria turn the alcohol into vinegar. In a laboratory study, honey diluted to 21 % solids fermented to 8 % alcohol in 84 hours and was then acetified to vinegar with up to 9 % acetic acid. The Italian aceto di miele is described as golden, fragrant and milder than wine vinegar. Made in 4 steps over 46 days – 60 days. The longest step, acetify the honey wine, takes 42–56 days (Bancks G.W. 1905) and runs at 21–27 °C (Bancks G.W. 1905). Saccharomyces cerevisiae, added for the alcoholic stage in the laboratory method and Acetic acid bacteria do most of the fermenting.

Key numbers
Main step42–56 daysReported[bancks1905]Acetify the honey wine
Temperature21–27 °CReported[bancks1905]Acetify the honey wine

What makes this one different

Made from honey, so a mead stands where wine or cider would stand in other vinegars. The laboratory method adds ammonium salts to the diluted honey to feed the yeast.

Related ferments

Safety

Bancks (1905) says honey vinegar must never stand in glazed or metal vessels, because the acid dissolves them and contaminates the liquor. He also warns that if the alcoholic fermentation is too slow, part of the liquor can putrefy and the vinegar is spoilt [bancks1905].

History and sources

Every number is labelled with how it is known. How this atlas is made

Italian Wikipedia calls it probably the oldest vinegar, since mead is held to be the oldest alcoholic drink [s1]. It fell out of use when wine vinegar became cheaper [s1]. It is not on Italy's national list of traditional food products (PAT), 25th revision of 2025 [masaf-pat].

  1. [ilha2000] Ilha E.C., Sant'Anna E., Torres R.C., Porto A.C., Meinert E.M. 2000, Utilization of bee (Apis mellifera) honey for vinegar production at laboratory scale, Acta Científica Venezolana 51(4):231–235 (abstract via Europe PMC, PMID 11460793)paper
  2. [cambray2025] Cambray G.A., Kalinski J.-C.J. et al. 2025, Microbial characterization of a Zambian honey vinegar, Food Science & Nutrition 13:e4549paper
  3. [bancks1905] Bancks G.W. 1905, The Production of Vinegar from Honey, 4th edition, Perry & Son, Dartford (Project Gutenberg eBook 24510)book
  4. [masaf-pat] Ministero dell'agricoltura, della sovranità alimentare e delle foreste (MASAF), Venticinquesima revisione dell'elenco dei prodotti agroalimentari tradizionali, table by region and category (xlsx), 2025, read 2026-10gov
  5. [s1] Wikipedia (it), 'Aceto di miele' (read 2026-10)wiki