[Objective] The paper was to compare the quality of apple vinegars prepared by different methods and screen an optimum brewing method for apple vinegar production. [Methed] The quality of apple vinegar brewed by three traditional brewing methods and a new method developed by our previous work was analyzed. Three traditional methods were solid state fermentation （SSF）, liquid state fermentation （LSF） and immobilized microorganism fermentation （IMF）, and the new method was multi-microorganisms co-immobilization technology（MMCT）, which used co-immobilized beads of ethanol-producing yeast, aroma-improving yeast and lactic acid bacteria （with a ratio of 6：3：1） for alcoholic fermentation and then used immobilized acetic acid bacteria for vinegar fermentation. [Result] The general quality of apple vinegar brewed by MMCT was superior to the others. Its total acidity reached to 3.845 g/100 ml, unvolatile acidity was about 0.600 g/100 ml, amino-nitrogen was higher than 0.510 g/100 ml, and the composing of flavor compounds was almost similar to that of SSF brewed apple vinegar. [Conclusion] The MMCT method was proven to be the optimum one for high quality apple vinegar brewing and might be widely used in the future.
