Artisan Malt Vinegar

What the Experts Say

‘Malt vinegar on another level.’

Great Taste Awards judge

‘Quite unlike any other malt vinegar previously tasted...With an almost chocolatey/coffee note on the aroma, paired with an acidity and then malty, vanilla/bourbon notes on the palate, this vinegar begged to be re-tasted.’

Great Taste Awards judge

‘Artisan Malt Vinegar is delicious. It’s got this brilliant depth of flavour that you just don’t find elsewhere.’

Josh Eggleton – Michelin starred chef

No Ordinary Malt Vinegar

Artisan Malt Vinegar isn’t any ordinary malt vinegar. Made with the finest Maris Otter malt and Cornish spring water. Naturally fermented, oak-matured, then drawn straight from the barrel – live, unfiltered and unpasteurised. The result is a mellow acidity, with mouth-filling, rounded flavour. Artisan Malt Vinegar brings a touch of class to chips, but it can also be used wherever you might use a fine wine or balsamic vinegar: ideal for dressings, marinades and sauces, as well as sublime chutneys and relishes. It is equally at home on the delicatessen or grocery shelf, as a beautiful addition to the restaurant table, or as an ingredient in the fine- food kitchen. Multi-award-winning. You can find plenty of malt vinegar that’s cheaper than this – but you won’t find any better.

A Quality Condiment

For many years malt vinegar has been the poor relation of the vinegar world. At the Artisan Malt Vinegar Company we have pioneered the re-creation of Britain’s native vinegar as a fine food. We try to make malt vinegar as good as it can be.

Artisan Malt Vinegar doesn’t taste of thin, sharp acid. It tastes …. of malt! The acid of the vinegar is balanced with the rich malty flavours you might expect to find in a fine cask ale, or a steaming mug of Horlicks, or in a Malteser. But it doesn’t just taste of malt – connoisseurs will be able to sniff out notes of caramel, or dark chocolate and of oak. Some even say they catch a whiff of days gone by.

An Alchemical Process

Vinegar-making is alchemy. We start with the very simplest of ingredients – the best malted barley money can buy, and Cornish spring water. A bit of yeast. Nothing else. No flavourings, no colourings, no chemicals, no acids, or sweeteners, or stabilisers, or sulphites. With the right conditions, plenty of time, and some know-how, those ingredients transform into something else. Then, as if by magic, they transform again! And the entire process is completely natural.

Aged to Perfection

Good vinegar needs time. It needs time to make, and then a lot more time to mature. Every drop of our vinegar is barrel matured for as long as we can manage. And looked after properly, it keeps indefinitely.

A Living, Natural Product

All vinegars are made by natural beneficial bacteria. Most vinegars – and almost all other malt vinegars – are sterilised before sale. Artisan Malt Vinegar is ‘live’ vinegar. It is unsterilised, unfiltered, drawn straight from the barrel without any adulteration.

We use no finings in our production – Artisan Malt Vinegar is suitable for vegetarians and vegans.

Our vinegar contains ‘the mother’. While we aren’t qualified to make any claims ourselves, it’s fair to say that many people believe live vinegar containing ‘the mother’ to have health-giving properties.