Bread wine (Polugar) is a traditional Russian drink whose recipe has been lost. Recipe for making polugar (bread wine) at home

Bread wine is a type of distillate that is considered a fortified drink by Russians. That is, it is a high-grade alcohol made from fermented. They get such a drink almost like - with the help of malt and bread flour, adding grains of wheat, oats, barley or rye.

What is polugar

Many are interested in polugar - what is it. This is the name of homemade, restored using traditional technologies, on grains of wheat or rye. This drink has been produced since the 16th century, has a strength of 38.5% vol. and the aroma of rye bread. Traditional Russian vodka got its name from "semi-burnt wine" and "semi-burnt wine".

The production technology of a polugar is similar to the manufacturing process, or. The only difference is the cleaning method. Modern connoisseurs of traditional drinks are reviving polugar recipes by making it at home. As a purification, natural filtration methods are used - charcoal, milk, bread.

For the last 120 years, polugars have not been produced or sold. Among the alcoholic products, the old polugar was not the last place, because it had a low cost. But he prevented the vodka monopoly in Tsarist Russia from making big profits, as a result of which in 1895 the drink was banned and replaced with vodka.

Types of bread wines

Among the variety of bread wine, types such as:

Choice of wheat or rye distillate

If you choose which is better - wheat polugar or malt polugar, you should keep in mind that the second type of drink will be more modern and the ingredients for it will be slightly different.

For the production of a wheat drink, only wheat grains are required, while for a malt polugar it is necessary to add rye as well. In the modern version of the alcoholic beverage, additional ingredients are added to improve the taste. There are no spices in wheat.

Polugar Recipes

If we consider the classic polugar, the recipe will consist of a minimum of ingredients. Among them:

1. Barley, rye or wheat malt - 5-6 kg.
2. Drinking water - 20-25 liters.
3. Yeast - 60 g dry or 300 g fresh.

Which malt to choose depends on taste preferences, but according to the classic old Russian recipe, rye was used to produce a traditional Russian drink called rye polugar.

From the inventory you will need a container and a thermometer, because during the production process it is necessary to measure the temperature of the wort.

The manufacturing process will be as follows:

How to drink and what to eat

The resulting rye polugar is drunk from glasses with a capacity of 50-150 ml. Pre-cool the dishes or rinse with cold water. According to the old Russian tradition, a glass is not drunk to the bottom in one gulp. Bread wine, polugar, is savored, because only in measured use its taste qualities are revealed.

To emphasize the taste of the drink, use a good meat appetizer or pickles. Since the drink is traditionally Russian, then Russian snacks will be good - jelly, lard, pickles.

When the conversation turns to hard liquor, the interlocutors usually think of vodka, cognac or whiskey.

Meanwhile, we Russians have another drink, the recipe of which was well known to our ancestors in those days when vodka had not yet been invented.

In terms of taste, it is in no way inferior to good whiskey and vodka, while it is prepared quite easily at home. This is bread wine, otherwise called “polugar”.

The original name of this alcohol was thanks to the method of checking its readiness and quality. Checking whether it was ripe enough for consumption, the Russians poured it into a ladle and set it on fire. If, after the end of combustion, the volume of the remaining liquid was half of the original volume, the drink was considered ready.

In part, polugar is similar to: its strength is 38.5%, it is unsweetened and transparent. But there is a fundamental difference: only alcohol and water are used to make vodka. Polugar is prepared on the basis of three types of raw materials - malt:

• rye;
• barley;
• wheat.

In this case, the fermentation method is used, after which follows double distillation. Often (but not always) polugars are cleaned with:

• milk;
• charcoal;
• bread.

But the main difference is Polugar has a bright bread aroma, which vodka cannot have.

How to make bread wine?

The process of preparing polugar is not so complicated, but it is lengthy. Be patient, and then you can surprise your friends who came to visit with an unusual drink. The main thing is to strictly follow the sequence of cooking steps.

Cooking malt

Some prefer to germinate the malt themselves. In this case, you should buy grain and treat it with a solution of potassium permanganate. Germination takes 3 days. The malt is then dried and ground using a blender. Raw materials should be obtained, the size of grains of which is similar to the size of grains of buckwheat.

Mashing

The next step is rubbing. For rubbing you will need:

• water - 10 l;
• malt - 2.5 kg;
• yeast.

We put water on the stove and heat it up. First, bring the water to a boil, and then cool it to 55 0 C. Pour malt into the water and stir. Slowly heat up the mixture. When the temperature reaches 65 0 C, close the raw material with a lid and simmer.

It is necessary to ensure that the temperature does not fall below 60 0 C, otherwise the malt will not split. Remove the mixture from the heat, wrap it in a blanket and let it sit for a while.

Fermentation

When the mashing phase is over, you will need to place the wort in a container with a water seal. Fermentation takes place at a temperature of 26 to 28 0 C. As soon as the temperature reaches the indicated values, we breed the yeast, following the instructions on the pack, and add it to the wort.

We keep the wort under a water seal for 3 weeks. As soon as the yeast settles, the foam goes away and there is no hiss, it's time to pour the young wine into a distillation vessel.

First distillation

Bread wine is distilled twice. For the first time, the prepared raw materials are drained from the sediment, doing this very carefully so that nothing gets into the distillation cube. Then the raw material is distilled as quickly as possible, cutting off about 3% of the head and transitional fractions.

The result is alcohol. Before the second distillation, it is diluted with water up to 30%.

Second distillation

Make a calculation of the volume of product cut off on the calculator. When cutting off "heads", their volume should be no less than 10% of the total volume. For selection in the “body”, drop a drop of young wine into your palm and rub it. If there is a smell of fresh bread, you can start distillation. Only such raw materials are suitable for selection in the "body".

After distillation, it turns out very strong - from 77 to 93% - alcohol. It is needed to get 38.5%.

cleaning

Some people skip the cleaning step, believing that it is not so important. However, purification allows you to get a drink, devoid of harmful impurities, which could remain in alcohol, so experienced winemakers are advised to spend a little more time and still clean up.

How it's done? It is necessary to choose an adsorbent, the role of which is most often coal.

Note! Activated charcoal sold in pharmacies is not very suitable for this purpose. Experts advise using charcoal.

The adsorbent is mixed with bread wine and left overnight at room temperature. Next, the drink is drained from the sediment.

Storage

Taste young wine. If it seems too strong to you, dilute it a little. Then bottle and refrigerate. 2 weeks the wine should be "on vacation" - only then it will turn into an interesting drink, ready to serve.

Types of polugar

Today we know three varieties of bread wine, perhaps our ancestors knew more of them. This is a semi-garb:

• wheat;
• rye;
• buckwheat.

The first is obtained by double or even triple distillation from wheat raw materials. This wine has a mild bread aroma, and while drinking it seems as if the taste of white bread is felt on the tongue.

The second after two distillations is cleaned with birch charcoal, after which it is subjected to a long exposure. It is interesting that this polugar is aged in oak barrels, like cognac (read:). Exposure time - 3-4 years. The taste of wine - with a hint of butter and rye bread.

The third is prepared on the basis of buckwheat raw materials. The wine will have a pleasant smell of buckwheat honey.

How to drink bread wine?

Like any alcoholic drink, bread wine must be consumed in accordance with certain rules so that its taste and smell are not “lost”.

Polugar must be cooled before serving to guests. Then poured into a transparent decanter and put "at the head of the table." They drink from small glasses, because it is a strong drink. You can take the ones you use for vodka.

Before you drink, you should have a bite to eat so as not to get too drunk during the celebration. For a snack, use light salads, such as cabbage or cucumbers.

As main dishes for bread wine, prepare:

• cabbage soup (sour cabbage soup is especially good);
• meat cutlets;
• roast veal.

Any fish is perfect for a snack, there should be a lot of fresh herbs on the table: dill, onion, parsley.

Polugar goes well with barbecue. When planning a summer meal in the country, replace the usual vodka with bread wine.

The main thing - never forget about the sense of proportion: this alcohol should be consumed a little bit. Connoisseurs recommend drinking it not like vodka, "in one fell swoop", but little by little, in small sips, to taste the taste and enjoy the aroma.

Remember that polugar, despite its name - bread wine, refers to strong alcohol, rather close to vodka. Therefore, if you suffer from gastrointestinal diseases, it is better to refrain from using it.

Have you ever made bread wine? Maybe you have a recipe left by your great-great-grandfather? If you made wine according to this recipe, it probably turned out to be tastier than its store-bought "brothers" - vodka and whiskey, and in any case - healthier.

Write to us about your unique experience and tell us what you prefer to eat bread wine with. Maybe these are some "signature" dishes that are prepared only in your family?

The desire to improve, updating wine experiments with modern nuances, is only one vector of the development path. It is much more interesting to find out more about the traditions of antiquity by trying to adapt some outlandish old recipe to the realities of our time. An excellent option would be bread wine, which was a favorite drink of the distant 17th century. Let's dive into the past - let's travel back in time!

Bread is the head of everything

Today, among connoisseurs of alcohol, bread is often associated with vodka, moonshine or beer, and few people know that bread wine, or polugar, its original name, was the first to occur. The first recipe, according to historians, could have originated as early as the 15th century. Until the end of the 17th century, it gained universal recognition, even in the 19th century it had various variations in strength (from 38 to 75 °): polugar, foamy wine, three-trial wine, four-trial alcohol, double alcohol.

The popularity of this drink is confirmed by the lines of many works of Russian fiction of those times, the characters of which are not averse to touching the “beautiful”.

The name "polugar" comes from the outdated technology of determining the strength of the drink - annealing, which consisted in determining the amount of evaporated alcohol under the influence of heating. Since bread wine “burned out” by half (up to 38 °), they began to call it “semi-burning”; over time, the word was simplified - and this is how polugar arose.

In 1895, polugar was forbidden to produce independently, monopolizing the production of a drink that was considered the standard of strength. After the technology and the exact recipe became unavailable, an erroneous opinion appeared that polugar can be obtained by diluting alcohol with a quarter of water.

Depending on the type of grain used during the preparation of an alcoholic beverage, polugar can be malt, wheat or barley. Each of the cases involves a careful approach to the selection of the main ingredients, namely cereals (they must be recent) and water (unrefined spring water is best).

Dictionary

• Wort - a mixture of the main ingredient with water aged for a certain period;
• Braga - wort after fermentation;
• Raw alcohol - alcohol obtained during distillation, without purification;
• Moonshine cube (distiller, moonshine still) - a device for distillation; alcohol settles from the steam formed by heating the mash;
• Distillation (distillation) - the process of evaporation in order to condense the resulting vapor.

Old Polugar Recipe

For those who are familiar with the simple technology of making wine at home, but are unfamiliar with moonshine, this recipe will not seem completely clear. Although, in reality, all the complexity is dissipated, and knowledge, experience and high-quality semi-gard are multiplied.

Proportions

• malt - 1 kg;
• water - 4.5 l;
• yeast - 1 pack. (for sourdough);
• milk, egg or bread (for cleaning).

Cooking process

Polugar looks very ordinary, but the taste that lies in its strength and grain origin puts it on a par with other noble alcoholic beverages. The advantage of this bread wine is its closeness to people for more than 200 years.

If you take this recipe with its proportions, but instead of distilling the polugar, using the standard water seal that is used to make most wines at home, you get a bread beer - a great mash drink.

Polugar stronger

If you want to get a polugar with a strength above 40 °, that is, stronger than the classic polugar, we offer the following recipe, which will differ in a few, but quite important points.

Ingredients

Let's start cooking

Such a drink reveals its taste characteristics in combination with meat or fish dishes, helping them to fill up with new shades too.

Finally

Whatever the recipe turns out to be, whatever the result - but still making alcohol at home - has always been and will be a great hobby for lovers of various experiments with their tangible products. Today you made bread wine, and tomorrow it could be a single malt whiskey or a new beer that not only makes you proud of your work, but also brings a lot of joy to tasting lovers around you!

Rye distillate is used to make polugar. Braga is made from selected coarse rye and pure spring water, which is not completely purified. When the mash is ready for distillation, it is distilled in special copper stills. To cleanse the drink, fresh egg whites and natural birch charcoal are used.
Very often, the recipe for bread wine is confused with the preparation of vodka. In fact, this drink has nothing to do with modern vodka.

A strong, clear alcoholic drink does not need to be refrigerated before drinking - the mild taste of rye bread comes out very well at room temperature. The aroma of fresh bread and the rich oily structure of the drink makes it look like a strong liquor.

Recipe for bread wine polugar from flour

Pour warm water over wheat or rye flour and mix well so that the bulk of the flour dissolves.

On low heat, heat the flour mass and cook for an hour at a temperature not exceeding 70 degrees. The sourdough should be well mixed until the wort acquires a light brown hue.

Remove from heat and leave to cool to room temperature. Add yeast and sugar to the wort, mix well and leave to ferment.

After 3 days, the mash will need to be overtaken - it will be desirable to drain the sediment. In the case of steam distillation, the precipitate can be left.

After the first distillation, two liters of alcohol should be obtained. Dilute the raw material obtained with water - 1:1 and carry out the second distillation in a distiller.

To improve the taste, you can overtake a third time, and then clean with activated charcoal or egg white.

Polugar bread wine prepared according to this recipe turns out to be quite strong - 42-45%. Despite this, it has a mild taste and is easy to drink.

Chronicles of 1517 are the first source that mentions the use of polugar, but it may have been cooked in Rus' earlier.

Bread wine, the recipe of which goes back centuries, is a strong alcoholic drink (35-50 °), prepared by distilling grain mash.

We will find out how it differs from ordinary vodka, and how to prepare this natural drink for home feasts on your own!

Why bread wine is called polugar

This wine is called bread because it is prepared on the basis of cereals: rye, barley, wheat and others. And they began to call him a polugar back in tsarist times, and here's why.

Origin of the name Polugar

Then the optimal strength of bread wine was 38.5 ° - no more, no less! In order for the drink to be just such a strength, in 1842, Nicholas I issued a “Decree on testing alcohol for strength using an original method.”

The wine was poured into a copper container and set on fire: if it was of high quality, half of the liquid should have burned out. Hence the name of the wine - "polugar", which means "half burnout".

Not a single royal feast could do without a polugar with a pronounced rye aroma!

For four centuries (from the 16th to the 19th), polugar had the status of a national Russian alcoholic drink. It was produced in any estate, and it could be bought in any drinking establishment, whether it was a tavern or a tavern.

What is the difference between bread wine and vodka

Polugar differs from vodka in the following nuances:

1. Production process

Polugar is obtained through distillation, which allows preserving the taste of wheat, rye or other grain raw materials. Real bread wine smells and tastes like bread.

Vodka alcohol, for the production of which distillation columns are used, has neither the taste nor the smell of the feedstock.

2. The process of drinking

Vodka is drunk cold and in one gulp, pouring into piles. Polugar is cooled to 10°C, poured into 100-150 gram lafitniks and drunk in sips to enjoy the taste.

But the appetizer can be the same for both vodka and half-gar! They are good to eat with pickles, sauerkraut, dishes with garlic and meat, traditional Russian snacks.

The taste of polugar is influenced by many factors: what the malt is made of, what quality water and yeast are used, what material the devices for its production are made of, how accurately the temperature regime is observed during mashing, how the wine is clarified...

And, of course, the correctness of the polugar recipe is important! Learn how to make bread wine at home according to an old recipe.

Polugar: a recipe for an ancient intoxicating drink

Ingredients

• — 24 l + -
• Rye malt - 6 kg + -
• - 60 g + -

It is better to use spring or bottled water. If there is no rye malt, we use wheat, buckwheat or barley.

We also stock up on a thermometer to maintain the required temperature when mashing the wort.

How to make bread wine

The preparation of bread wine consists of the following processes:

Malt crushing

Grind well-dried malt using a grain grinder. It should not be ground into flour: it is desirable to obtain a medium grinding.

Mashing

Pour water into a saucepan and bring to a boil. Now we proceed to saccharification, or mashing, to break down the malt starch into fermentable sugars:

1. We cool the water to 55 ° C.
2. Pour the ground malt into the pan and mix well to get a mixture without lumps.
3. We heat the mixture (mash) to 63 ° C, stirring it all the time.
4. We close the pan, warm it and keep the temperature 62-65 degrees for 1.5 hours.

This temperature must be maintained throughout the saccharification process in order for the mashing to be successful and the wort to ferment.

Wort fermentation

We quickly cool the saccharified wort to 26-28 degrees by placing the pan in a container with very cold water. You can also buy a chiller and cool the wort with it. Go ahead:

1. Pour the wort into a bottle where it will ferment.
2. Pour in the yeast, diluted according to the instructions.
3. We install a water seal on the bottle.
4. We remove the bottle with the wort in a warm place where the temperature is kept at 20-25 ° C.

The fermentation process can take from 4 days to a couple of weeks: it depends on the temperature maintained and the quality of the raw materials. The finished mash is bitter in taste and becomes lighter.

At the same time, bubbles of carbon dioxide cease to be released. If so, the fermentation process is complete.

Distillation of moonshine, or raw alcohol

We filter the mash and pour it into a cube for distillation. We distill the brew for the first time at full capacity in order to drive out more moonshine, so we do not select tails and heads. We complete the selection when the jet of alcohol will have a strength of 15-20 °. As a result, we get an opaque and sharp-smelling moonshine, or raw alcohol.

Raw alcohol purification

To clear it of unnecessary fractions, we proceed as follows:

1. Pour moonshine into a cube and dilute with water to 20-30 °.
2. We select drop by drop at low power the head fraction in a volume of 150 to 200 ml.

You can’t try this liquid if you don’t want to end up in a hospital bed!

Then we increase the heating power and select the main fraction so that the strength of the moonshine in the stream is 40-45 °. After that, we select “tails” into another container, which can be useful in subsequent stages of the mash.

Distillate Purification

To ennoble the taste and smell of polugar, you need to clean the distillate from impurities. The pungent smell that hits the nose will disappear, a bready aroma and taste will appear, the wine will become soft, pleasant and easy to drink.

To achieve this, we dilute the distillate with clean water to 45-50 degrees and purify it by passing it through a carbon filter. To bring bread wine to readiness, we dilute pure moonshine to a fortress of 38.5 °. The output should be about three liters of excellent polugar.

We cork it in glass bottles and stand for a week.

Then you can start tasting delicious homemade polugar, arranging a friendly feast.

Now you know how to make your own bread wine, the recipe of which has been tested for more than one century! It remains to engage in the process of making a polugar and enjoy the result.