This process also facilitated the rise of vinegar made from pure alcohol called spirit vinegar or distilled white vinegar. Known as the packed generator, it circulated alcohol over beechwood shavings to reduce fermentation times from several months down to 1–2 weeks. The first large-scale industrial process for vinegar production was invented by Karl Sebastian Schüzenbach in the Kingdom of Baden in 1823. In the 19th century, vinegar production underwent many dramatic changes, such as rapid industrialization and scientific analysis. Balsamic vinegar also began its evolution in the Duchy of Modena in Italy, though it would not become widely known until the Napoleonic Wars after being sold abroad by French troops. During this time, malt vinegar also began to develop in England, where it was first known as alegar. In the late Middle Ages, vinegar making was slowly being professionalized in Europe, with the French city of Orléans becoming particularly famous for the quality of its vinegars through a formalized fermentation and aging process, which became known as the Orléans process. The Roman Columella described the ingredients and process for making several types of vinegars in his work Res Rustica. The Spartans had vinegar as a part of their traditional broth melas zomos. The Greeks and Romans frequently used vinegars made from wine.

Many Chinese vinegars and their uses for culinary and medicinal purposes were written down in the agricultural manual Qimin Yaoshu (齊民要術). Most vinegar making then was concentrated in what is now Shanxi province near the city Taiyuan, which remains a famous vinegar-making region today. The book Zhou Li mentions many noble or royal households had a 'vinegar maker' as a specialized position. In East Asia, the Chinese began professionalizing vinegar production in the Zhou dynasty. Traces of it also have been found in Egyptian urns. They primarily made vinegar from dates, figs, and beer and used it for both culinary and medicinal purposes.

While vinegar making may be as old as alcoholic brewing, the first documented evidence of vinegar making and use was by the ancient Babylonians around 3000 BC. Vinegar contains numerous flavonoids, phenolic acids, and aldehydes, which vary in content depending on the source material used to make the vinegar, such as orange peel or various fruit juice concentrates. The conversion of ethanol (CH 3CH 2OH) and oxygen (O 2) to acetic acid (CH 3COOH) takes place by the following reaction: CH 3CH 2OH + O 2 → CH 3COOH + H 2O Polyphenols The word 'vinegar' arrived in Middle English from Old French ( vyn egre sour wine), which in turn derives from Latin: vinum (wine) + acer (sour). Fast aerobic fermentation stainless steel vessels

Cider vinegar