r/vinegar

I am pretty new to making vinegar, and I have recently been making batches of red and white wine vinegars. During the first 2-3 weeks when the pellicle is starting to form, the vinegar smells and tastes beautiful, vibrant, and very sour. After around 5-8 weeks, once the pellicle is thick, it starts to develop a weird mushroomy flavor to it and the vibrant notes are dulled. Am I fermenting the batches too long? Is it possible it is fully converted to vinegar in 2-4 weeks? Can the pellicle contribute to the mushroomy flavor? I am using store bought wine, diluting it to ~7.5% abv and letting the sulfites off gas for ~48 hours before inoculation. Has anyone else experienced this? Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Total newbie here. I have had a bottle of white wine fermenting for six weeks. It is in a jar with cheese cloth over it and I used a starter to get it going.

I just checked it and it smells like bread yeast. According to the web, that is good progress. It also seems to have developed a mother thing floating in the bottom of the jar. Two questions —

(1) How do I tell when it is done? Will the yeast smell be replaced with a vinegary smell? What should I be looking for before using it or bottling it?

(2) And once it is done, how to I reserve the mother for use another time? Do I have to use it right away? Do I need to put the mother somewhere special with more wine?

Thanks for your help!

Anyone have experience with whiskey vinegar? Can't get mine to form a mother. The alcohol content is at 8 percent, temp is good, o2 access is good. Not sure what is going on​​