Preparation of the Sample for Testing
If the vinegar is turbid from any suspended matter, it should be filtered. The samples should be analyzed at once, and in the laboratory they should always be kept in glass-stoppered bottles.
General Observations.—Ignite a little of the vinegar residue on a clean platinum wire in a colorless Bunsen flame, and if it is pure cider vinegar the flame will be colored the characteristic lilac color of potassium. The sodium flame is absent or only a mere trace of it is present. But in all artificially colored vinegars, spirit sugar and glucose vinegars, the sodium flame predominates.
The residue of cider vinegar is thick, viscid, or mucilaginous, of a light brown color, astringent acid taste though not unpleasant. The solids of sugar-house vinegar, those from colored spirit and wood vinegar, each have a bitter taste on account of the caramel used to color them. The residue of the sugar-house vinegar has the odor of molasses. Wood vinegar when present gives a residue with a tarry or smoky taste and smell. Glucose vinegar gives the odor of scorched corn. Solids of fruit vinegars are quite soluble in alcohol, except a granular residue in grape vinegar, while the solids of malt and glucose vinegars are almost insoluble.
The ash of fruit vinegars and malt vinegars has a distinct alkaline reaction, while that of spirit and wood vinegars is very feebly alkaline.