this might be a silly question but what will you use it for? I mean will you can with it and use less than the recipe calls for? Since all the recipes are written for 5% how do you adjust? or will you use it for weed control? Will this let you be able to can "grandmas" recipes? or is that still too risky?

I think it will make a better sour pickle, instead of using 5%. Here, I pickle some things with full strength 5% vinegar and don't use any heat processing, and would like the vinegar to be up to 7%. I would expect that if an old recipe that called for a 50:50 ratio would most obviusly be safe to can if this strength was used, as that would give a 10% acidity. You would still need to make sure that your adding of low acid items would not severly impact the acidity, if it does, simply use less water.

Yes, it is also useful as a weed killer and I have used it nearby my garden. Store bought weed killers do soil damage and can also injure nearby plants that are not even sprayed with a commercial weed killers. For weed killing, I would add a few drops of Jet Dry or a little dish soap to act as a spreader sticker, and apply the 20% undiluted.

Ok that makes sense. I hate using chemicals in the lawn and usually resort to hands and knees pulling of weeds and that is no fun at all!! Vinegar sounds like a great idea! Thanks Ken

Hmm...if it's 5% acetic acid in a solution of water vs. 20% acetic acid, the combined pH of a 50:50 mixture wouldn't be halfway between, would it? Because pH is a log scale.

Mixing equal parts of 5% and 20% would give 12.5% acetic acid though, unless I'm thinking about this wrong. We just don't know the pH of that solution.

I agree that I wouldn't use this for untested recipes, just for the kinds of uses Ken is talking about, where he didn't have a recipe anyway.

Melissa

Pepperoncini is now inside the big canister and will bubble a few minutes more. The photo shows the dual piston pump, moisture trap and Food Saver cansiter filled with full strength 5% vinegar and pickling salt to taste. Also a shot of the skewer I use to pierce each pepper twice to let air out and brine in. Next comes the removal of the 'soaked' peppers and they get placed in jars, then filled with a fresh vinegar salt brine. No water added! No cooking needed and the end result is a very safe very crisp pepperoncini!

{{gwi:920618}}

Just a followup on the above. No, the ratio of 50:50 with water will only half the acidity. That means 20% vinegar can be diluted to 10% acidity by adding an equal part of water. Logarithmic equations are needed to accuratly calculate the pH of the mixture, as adding equal parts of water to it will not cause its pH to rise substantially. Yesterday the peppers were still bright green like just picked, but now, they have darkened as they absorb the vinegar, as shown in another thread photo.

Please be very careful when using 20% vinegar. It is best practice to handle this very caustic product using full safety gear. Rubber gloves, Safety Glasses and Mask.
This can burn your skin, blind you if you get in the eyes and cause lung scarring if inhaled.

I have dealt with glacial acetic acid, sulphuric, phosphoric, nitric, hydrochloric, and the very dangerous hydrofluoric acid that can quickly eat flesh. Can you imagine spraying this with a pump sprayer and applying to weeds. My other organic based weed killer uses stinky clove oil and that dissolves plastics. Its left a coating on my other sprayer and when I tried to use some dish soap to wash the clove oil off, it would not come off. A few days later my hands exposed to the clove oil started to peel skin however. Not bad, but was like the dry unwashable coating you get when you handle very ripe orange squash.

My goodness! 20%.

Meratic (SP) acid that is used to clean bricks is only 15-18% adn that stuff is nasty. you don't want to get any on you. it kills cloths just like battery acid.

be very careful.

WM

An old friend of mine worked in a chem lab and got a tiny splash of hydrofluoric acid on his finger. He washed it, coated it with baking soda, and allowed water to flow on it for half an hour. It was under the fingernail and kept eating away. A few hours later, he had to get hospitalized and the nail removed. The doctors told him it was heading into dangerous areas. According to the Wikopedia the Acidic acid is milder, compared to nitric, sulfuric (battery acid) and a few others. Heinz used to sell the 20% vinegar product in supermarkets some years ago. It was packed in quart bottles and labeled for home canning use. There was a warning on it stating to dilute it with 2-3 parts water before using it in any salads or other cooking.

Muriatic acid is another name for Hydrocloric acid (HCl), which is much stronger than Acetic acid (CH3COOH).

20% acetic acid (MW 60.05) is 200 Grams per liter or a 3.33 M solution. At room temp the pKa is 4.76 so the Ka is 1.737X10^-5 Ka=[A-][H+]/[HA]=[Conjugate base][Acidity]/(Associated Acid]=[x]^2/[3.33-x] Solve for x and you get 7.599X10^-2=[H] -Log10 of that gives you pH=2.119.

For 12.5% pH=2.22
For 10% pH=2.26
For 7% pH=2.34
For 5% pH=2.42

The problem comes when you add some bases and you tie up the acids and your final solution is less acidic, the 20% can handle a lot more than the 5% as you approach the pH's that botulism grows in.