What is Vinegar?

I am have been posting alot about uses of vinegar lately and some have asked me what is vinegar exactly?  This I had to research, my husband has made some homemade vinegar from ashes, lets say it never quite turned out!  After reading many, many articles I decided this was one thing someone else wrote better than I could dream of.  I am posting the definition of vinegar from www.wisegeek.com, it says it best.

Vinegar is a versatile liquid that is created from the fermentation of ethanol. The key ingredient is acetic acid, which gives it an acidic taste, although there may be additions of other kinds of acid like tartaric and citric. The typical pH of vinegar ranges anywhere from 2 to 3.5, although the store-bought kind usually measures 2.4. In food preparation procedures, it is a multipurpose product as an ingredient and condiment. Outside of cooking, vinegar has medicinal, household cleaning, and agricultural applications.

The name comes from the Old French vin aigre, which translates into "sour wine." Vinegar is made from the oxidation of ethanol in an alcohol-containing liquid, such as wine, fermented fruit juice, or beer. There are two processes of fermentation that differ by speed of production. While the fast fermentation process takes only hours to days, it requires the use of machinery to promote the oxygenation.

The slow fermentation process takes weeks to months and occurs naturally. At the same time, a nontoxic slime called mother of vinegar accumulates in the liquid. Composed of acetic acid bacteria and cellulose, mother is also available in stores and consumed by some despite its unappetizing appearance. Another part of the fermenting vinegar may include the non-parasitic nematodes called vinegar eels, which are free-living creatures that feed on the mother. While they are shown to be harmless to humans, manufacturers still filter them out of the product before bottling it.