Polugar or bread wine is an old Russian drink. Polugar (bread wine) - a forgotten Russian alcoholic drink

Not everyone knows what Polugar is - some consider it vodka, but in fact it is rye, wheat or barley drink, which is most often referred to as bread wine.

This article tells more about this malt distillate, describes step by step the recipe for its preparation at home.

Talented marketing is able to arouse the interest of the public, both in new products and in traditional, but undeservedly forgotten ones. This is exactly what happened to strong alcoholic beverages, now united by the common name - Polugar.

This word does not reflect either the recipe or the method of making the drink. This is an old term for its strength.

He describes the way in which the most important characteristic of the intoxicating potion was measured in ancient times:

  • Our resourceful ancestors poured an alcohol-containing liquid into a container and set it on fire.
  • If half of it remained, then the product was awarded the title - polugar.
  • With the invention, it was found that its strength corresponds to 38.5 - 40 degrees.

Reference! Polugar is not vodka or tincture, but a different category of alcoholic beverages.

The distilleries of that time produced mainly bread wines, so the name Polugar is associated with alcoholic beverages made on the basis of grain mash. Malt made from germinated barley, oats and rye was used to give a special taste.

Plant materials were used in pure form or mixed in various proportions. The lion's share in the blend was traditionally occupied by rye. This made it possible for craftsmen to get soft, warming drinks with dominant malt notes in the taste.

Watch a video in which a connoisseur of alcoholic drinks explains what kind of drink it is:

Owners of modern distillers have the opportunity to cook Polugar at home today.

Traditional homemade recipe

The production of this distillate can be broken down into several main steps.

How to make malt?

Trade offers ready-made malt in whole and crushed form. But many distilling enthusiasts prefer to make their own.

In the old days, the grain of cereals that grew in the area was taken as the basis. Therefore, you can take any unprocessed grain either in its pure form, or use several varieties of cereals.

Important! Each component of the future mixture is processed separately.

Cooking:

  1. Rinse the grains thoroughly with running cold water. Remove floating grains.
  2. Disinfect with a weak manganese solution. This is necessary to destroy the microflora living on the surface of the grain, which will spoil the future mash. Soak for 8 hours.
  3. Completely drain the water and lay out the raw materials for germination. For this purpose, use plastic fruit boxes lined with a soft cotton cloth.
  4. Moisten and stir the grain twice a day.
  5. Germinate for about three days. The size of the sprout should not exceed the length of the grain.
  6. Spread in a thin layer and dry.
  7. Grind in any way possible.

You can grind malt with a meat grinder, for example.

Congestion

  • Pour three times the weight of the malt into the mashing container with water.
  • Heat water to 38 degrees, add vegetable raw materials and mix thoroughly.
  • Continue to slowly raise the temperature to 66 degrees.
  • Keep the mixture at this heating for 60 minutes. This is the main temperature pause during which the starch contained in the grain is converted into sugar by the action of enzymes.
  • Heat the mash to 78 degrees and soak for about three minutes. This reduces the viscosity of the product and can be filtered.
  • Boil the resulting thick liquid for an hour. This is necessary for sterilization and removal of compounds containing sulfur.
  • Quickly cool the solution to 25 degrees.

Important! Carry out a saccharification test: drop iodine into a small amount of the resulting wort. If it does not turn blue, then all the grain starch has turned into sugar.

Here is a white mash preparation scheme. It was it that the distillers of the 16th century used.

Getting mash

At this stage, yeast is added to the mash. Can be purchased professional wine cultures or in use dry or wet alcoholic baker's yeast. Their packages must be marked "for the preparation of drinks."

In the old days, ordinary bread dough was used for fermentation, so fans of traditions use strains used for baking.

The required amount of alcoholic pressed yeast depends on the starch content of the raw material.

The percentage of starch in cereals used to make Polugar:

  • Wheat 65-75;
  • Rye 57-66;
  • Barley 58-67;
  • Oats 41-50.

Multiply the starch content of your raw material by the weight of the grains you used. For 1 kilogram received, 100 grams of yeast will go.

Braga preparation:

  1. Dissolve the yeast in a small amount of lukewarm water and pour into the chilled wort.
  2. Close the fermentation container tightly and install a water seal.
  3. Maintain the room temperature + 20-22 degrees.
  4. Ferment for 4-6 days.
  5. Place the container with the mash in a cool dark place to lighten for 12 hours.

The fermented liquid should have a pleasant, fresh smell.

Raw alcohol

Cooking:

  1. Carefully drain the raw material without raising the sediment.
  2. Distill as quickly as possible in a distiller, cutting off at least 3% of the head and transitional fractions.
  3. Finish the process when the strength of the jet falls below 5%.
  4. Dilute the resulting alcohol to a strength of 30%.

Fractional distillation

The purpose of this stage is to separate the body, or rather the heart of the distillate, from the heads and tails.

  • Determine the estimated volume of the final product using address calculators. Cut off heads will be at least 10% of this indicator.
  • Focus not only on numbers, but also on organoleptic indicators. A drop of alcohol, rubbed between the palms, gives them the aroma of fresh bread.
  • Take only such a distillate into the “body”. A change in odor indicates that it is time to separate the tailings.

Dilute it with water for a traditional 38.8 proof bread wine.

Important! Cool both liquids to 10 degrees to avoid a chemical reaction with the formation of by-products.

cleaning

Fans of bread wine did not agree on its necessity.

Opponents of purification argue that a well-made distillate does not contain a large amount of harmful impurities. They do not carry out this process, wanting to preserve the maximum of aromatic substances.

Proponents refer to the fact that old books mention the settling of distillate in barrels with charcoal. For cleaning, they use well-proven - milk, egg white or charcoal.

The technology is simple: the adsorbent interferes with the drink, settles for a day and merges with the resulting sediment.

Reference! Use only charcoal. Pharmaceutical activated charcoal tablets are not suitable for this process.

Leisure malt drink

The resulting clear drink with a pleasant malt aroma is poured into glassware and put on "rest" for two weeks.

The softness and drinkability of the product increases with the increase in its shelf life. Aging in wooden casks does not always benefit the distillate because the characteristic smell of wood interrupts the delicate aroma of bread.

Video

The awakening of interest in Polugar is the revival of the best traditions of the national feast. Lovers of strong alcoholic drinks, mastering the technologies of their ancestors, strive not to get alcoholic intoxication, but to new impressions of the aroma and taste of grain wine.

Watch a video showing how to make this distillate at home:

How to use bread wine?

Drinking traditions of Polugar were closely connected with the way of life of his admirers:

  • Ordinary people got less refined forms of grain distillate.
  • The nobles used complex bread wines. In home distilleries, they made drinks with the addition of garlic, horseradish, juniper berries and fresh cherries.

Old books from two hundred years ago contain detailed recipes and manufacturing techniques for various Polugars. Modern mass media give them unlimited access.

Despite the variety of varieties, the general rules for their use remain.

Polugar is a drink for a feast. They were washed down with dense first and second courses of Russian cuisine. To obtain true gastronomic pleasure, distillates from various cereals were used for different types of dishes.

The choice of drink can be compared to the choice of a slice of bread that is consumed with a meal.

  1. For example, rye Polugars appropriate for sour cabbage soup, roasted piglet or kulebyaka.
  2. And softer ones wheat, suitable for spring soups made from fresh vegetables or meat stewed in sour cream.
  3. Kebabs or game are good with bread wine made from barley malt.

Polugar should not be chilled before serving. Bready notes and a warming malt aftertaste sound brighter in a drink at room temperature.

In the tradition of using this Russian national distillate, a special place is given to the size and appearance of the dishes used.

  • An ensemble of a decanter for strong alcoholic drinks and small lafitniks will complement the pleasure of a feast.
  • Containers for pouring Polugar should not exceed a volume of 25 milliliters.
  • In the old days, glasses-flies were used for this drink, in which only 15 ml of intoxicating potion was placed.

The reward for the modern distiller who made Polugar will be the opportunity to taste the drink that our ancestors loved and that overseas guests enjoyed with pleasure.

Vodka is considered a traditional alcoholic drink in Russia. But long before its appearance, the Russian people drank polugar. In the tsarist empire, this popular drink interfered with making super profits in the vodka business, so in 1895 its production was banned by order of S. Yu. Witte. The lost symbol of the Russian feast returned to us a century later, but most people still do not know what a polugar is.

What is polugar

Polugar bread wine is a malt distillate (see), obtained by double and sometimes triple distillation of grain mash. Its traditional strength is 38.5%. This intoxicating drink can be rye, wheat, buckwheat, barley. The polugar recipe for drinks made from different types of malt is the same. Wheat or rye are most suitable for obtaining malt. These crops have a thin skin, so they germinate quickly and are easily crushed. Therefore, wheat polugar and rye polugar are more popular. But no less tasty wine is obtained from buckwheat or barley malt. You can take a mixture of malts.

Polugar malt for purification was distilled and purified three times. This was how high-quality bread wine was obtained, the recipe of which was found and restored by vodka historian Boris Rodionov.

Polugar Recipe

How to make bread wine at home? For cooking you will need:

  • Malt (any kind) - 2.5 kg
  • Pure water - 10 l
  • Dry yeast - 25 grams (or 150 grams pressed), if you use special yeast for example for malt, see the dosage on the package there, for example, it can be 4 grams per 10 liters of wort

Spring or well water is ideal for making polugar. You can also use raw bottled water or carefully filtered tap water.

Malt preparation

To obtain malt, the grain is washed, soaked and then germinated, as is done.

You can buy malt in the store - this is the best option with a minimum of costs and hassle, the price at the moment is not so high and everyone can afford to buy malt. Be sure to check the shelf life so as not to spoil the polugar.

Grind the malt to a coarse grain. To do this, it is better to use a roller mill or use a meat grinder, food processor.

Mashing

During the mashing process, the starch contained in the malt is broken down by enzymes into simple sugars.

Mashing process:

  1. Pour water into a saucepan of a suitable volume and bring to 65 degrees
  2. Pour all the malt into the water, mix well until you get a homogeneous mass, the temperature of the mash should be 62 degrees, if not, then bring to this temperature
  3. Close the pan with a lid and insulate, for example with a blanket
  4. Maintain this temperature for 1 hour, after 30 minutes open, stir and check the temperature, if it drops, raise it. If you do not adhere to the desired regime, the starch will not completely turn into sugar and the wort will not ferment or the yield will be small.
  5. Cool the wort to 25 - 30 degrees

Fermentation

  1. Pour the cooled wort into a fermentation vessel and add the yeast
  2. Mix everything thoroughly, close hermetically with a lid and install a water seal

A water trap is a device in the form of a valve that removes carbon dioxide from a container with mash and prevents air from entering; without a water trap, the mash can turn sour.

  1. Leave the mash in a dark place at a temperature of 18-25 degrees
  2. Fermentation lasts from 4 to 16 days
  3. It is necessary to mix the mash once a day for the first 3 days, because a hat will rise from the grain that can turn sour, and then close it tightly again
  4. The mash, ready for distillation, does not gurgle, as the release of carbon dioxide ends. It becomes lighter, tastes bitter, without sweetness

First distillation

  1. Pour the mash into the distillation cube, before that filter it from the grains through several layers of gauze, otherwise it will burn. If you have a PVC (steam boiler) filtration is not required, you can distill with grain
  2. The first distillation is done in litter mode without separation into fractions
  3. Take almost to the water until the strength in the stream is 5-10% alcohol content or until the temperature in the cube reaches 99 degrees, the output will be cloudy raw alcohol with a pungent odor

Second distillation

  1. Dilute the raw material selected during the first distillation with water up to 20-30%
  2. Pour it back into the moonshine
  3. Calculate absolute alcohol
  4. Select the "heads" - this is the first 10% of absolute alcohol. This is a technical fluid that contains hazardous components.
  5. Next, collect the drinking fraction "body" 70% of absolute alcohol or until the temperature in the cube reaches 92-93 degrees.
  6. Collect the "tails" in a separate container for further processing

cleaning

Optionally, you can additionally clean: , or . A combination of methods is allowed.

Before purification, dilute the distillate with water to 38.5% alcohol content. We believe that the simplest and most effective method is activated carbon cleaning.

Dilution and storage

This is the last step, dilute the drink with good water to a strength of 38.5%, this is the standard for traditional bread wine.

Pour the finished drink into glass bottles and keep in a dark, cool place for at least 7 days.

Types of popular modern polugars

You can often hear “polugar is the vodka that we have lost. But this drink has its own characteristics, it is obtained by distillation, and vodka by rectification (). Any bread wine tastes much softer and more pleasant.

Polugar wheat is produced by double or triple distillation, it has a mild aroma, with a strongly pronounced taste of rustic white bread.

Aged rye polugar undergoes additional cleaning with birch charcoal. This drink is aged in oak barrels for three to four years. Rye polugar has an intense taste of freshly baked rye bread with butter.

Polugar buckwheat is made from buckwheat. This drink turns out to be transparent in color, has a spicy aroma with hints of buckwheat honey. This unusual drink is appreciated by distillate gourmets.

It is customary to drink Polugar in small sips. It is served chilled to 10 degrees. Pour the drink into small glasses or faceted piles. Bread wine perfectly reveals its taste characteristics in combination with meat or fish dishes.

What is a halfgar? Tell us about the history of this drink.

This product cannot be called either vodka or tincture. This is a new class of drink that has appeared on the market relatively recently. Producers call pougar bread wine. It is made according to old traditions in copper alambicas by triple distillation, and then refined with birch charcoal and egg white. The method, in principle, is the same as in the manufacture of whiskey, only without subsequent aging in barrels. Previously, there were no distillation columns, and it was impossible to achieve absolute purity.

The name has its own history. When there were no alcohol meters, the strength of alcoholic beverages was determined by setting them on fire. Polugar burned down just half, and this was considered the optimum.

What types of polugar exist? How do they differ from each other?

Initially, rye, malt and wheat polugars were sold. They differ only in raw materials, the method of preparation is the same. We recently launched a new line in 0.5 liter bottles: rye-wheat, garlic-pepper, honey-pepper, cumin-coriander. These products are cheaper, they are not filtered with egg white. In my opinion, they are more suitable for the masses. The classic polugar is still expensive, especially for the first acquaintance, when the buyer does not yet know what to expect. It is also worth mentioning the "Krivachi" - these are versions of the polugar with a strength of 61 and 41 degrees.

How different is polugar from vodka?

Many, starting from the production process. Alcohol for vodka is made in distillation columns, it is chemically pure and devoid of foreign tastes and odors. Polugar is a bread drink, and traditional distillation cannot remove the taste of raw materials from the finished product. Polugar has a bright taste and aroma of bread. If you can compare with something, then with whiskey. Unlike vodka, it is better to drink polugar not in one gulp, but in small sips to feel the taste. In general, it does not look like ordinary vodka at all.

Is polugar popular in general and in your bar in particular?

Do you buy directly or through distributors?

Previously, when the manufacturer was almost unknown on the market, sometimes deliveries to restaurants and bars went directly. Now the scheme is more standard, we buy from distributors.

Does the word “polugar” mean anything to guests?

According to my observations, no. Those who have not tried it have no associations or expectations. When I worked at Pushkin, I came across guests who came to drink exactly polugar, which surprised me. A lot of polugar “spilled” there - three bottles a day. It was in Pushkin that I saw how popular this drink could be.

Who likes Polugar more?

Mostly to our compatriots, but also to foreigners who love whiskey. And if I saw that a person was drinking whiskey, I could offer him to try polugar, and he agreed. But those who drank vodka, for some reason, usually refused.

Do you often invite guests to try new things?

Yes, if I see that a person drinks the same thing all the time - why not introduce him to something else? Especially if it is really something that a person has never tried in his life.

And what are the reviews?

Mostly positive - whiskey lovers were generally shocked. They did not understand how it was possible to achieve such a bready taste.

How is the demand for polugar changing?

Is it more drunk in its pure form or in mixes?

I would recommend drinking it neat, like an aged whisky. This is especially true for rye and malt versions, which are expensive to purchase, and the cost of a cocktail with them is too high. Polugars No. 3 and 4 are more suitable for mixes. A lot depends on the cocktail too – we laugh when we order a twelve-year-old whiskey and cola, and in more elegant cocktails, complex alcohol may be more appropriate.

Nevertheless, a thematic master class on polugar in a barcitySpace was dedicated specifically to cocktails!

When a new product appears, alcohol companies try to launch it to the masses through tastings, master classes, etc. The cocktail theme inevitably appears in bars. This is a kind of promotion. Cocktails just drink more.

What should be the cocktail in order not to ruin the taste of polugar?

Simple, strong, classic, no sweeteners or unnecessary ingredients. Something like Manhattan.

How was the cocktail menu built at Acapella?

When I arrived, the kitchen was already working, so it was easier to decide on the theme of cocktails. We looked at what products chefs use and adjusted to the menu. The map is simple, it's twists on classic cocktails.

What dishes go well with polugar?

First of all, I would recommend not very fatty hot meat dishes, not necessarily Russian cuisine. But I want to say that polugar is not wine that emphasizes this or that dish. This is a self-sufficient product that is worth trying to drink without food, like a digestif.

Polugar is a product from the "Everything new - well-forgotten old" series. It was with this drink that a century and a half ago our ancestors accompanied their meals and treated guests. And today, for most of us, this word does not mean anything. The invention of rectification and, as a result, the production of vodka, which received a state monopoly, replaced the traditional polugar for the times of Tsarist Russia.

What is polugar

Polugar or bread wine is a double-distilled grain alcohol produced in Russia from the 16th to the 19th centuries. The traditional strength was 38.5°. Wheat, rye, barley, less often buckwheat served as raw materials for a strong drink. Because of such a cereal base, the drink was called “bread wine” for a long time, later it was called polugar.

The second name "polugar" is connected with the method of measuring strength or, as our ancestors used to say, "kindness". For this, special devices were invented: a bottle and an annealer. In the annealer, the polugars were ignited and the burnt-out volume of liquid was determined from the applied marks. To meet the mandatory strength of 38.5 °, alcohol had to burn out exactly half: “semi” - “gar”. The volume and scale of the annealer itself were determined by decree of Emperor Nicholas I, as we would say today, standardized.

Polugar appeared much earlier than vodka and differed from it for the better:

  • grain crops served as raw materials;
  • only natural cleaning methods were used: bread, coal, milk;
  • the finished distillate had the aroma of the feedstock.

bread wine recipe

According to ancient sources, culinary and household books of tsarist times, modern gastroenthusiasts and life historians have tried to restore the recipe and production of bread wine. After translating traditional weight measures into modern ones and a little adaptation, a fairly simple recipe for making a bread polugar was obtained:

  • malt (from rye, barley or wheat) - 2.5 kg;
  • distilled water - 10 liters;
  • dry yeast - 25 grams or pressed - 150 grams.

From the type of cereal chosen as the basis for the polugar, the recipe will not change. The method of preparation is the same, but the smell of the finished drink will be different. In traditional distillation in Russia, rye and wheat were most often used. They were preferred due to their soft and noble taste. Barley, buckwheat were used much less frequently. And often not in the form of a monosort, but as an additive to decorate wheat or rye polugar.

No less attention was paid to water. In original times, they took water from a well or spring. Nowadays, bottled is suitable at home. Tap water can be passed through a filter and allowed to settle.

How to make your own bread wine

Malt preparation

You can get malt in different ways: germinate yourself or buy ready-made. The first method is more time consuming and requires skills. There are many instructions for sprouting and malting grains in the public domain, with which you can make a completely authentic polugar.

In the absence of time for such subtle manipulations, ready-made malt can be purchased. It is sold in specialized stores or on the market. Many grain producers also deal in malt. Be careful: the shelf life of green malt is 3 days, white - several months.

The malt will need to be ground to a medium-sized grain. For this, a grain crusher, food processor, blender is suitable. It doesn't need to be turned into flour.

Mashing malt

Mashing was a method of saccharification of starch. To decompose starch polysaccharide into simple sugars suitable for yeast nutrition, only water and a special temperature regime were used. At this stage, it is necessary to control the temperature with an accuracy of one degree. Therefore, the use of a thermometer is mandatory.

  1. We put all the water on the fire in a large saucepan and bring to a boil. We take a thermometer and wait for the water to cool down to 55-60°C.
  2. Time to add malt. Pour it in small portions, constantly stirring the contents of the pan. It is necessary to avoid the formation of lumps and burning of the mass.
  3. Now we bring the temperature of the contents of the pan to 65 ° C and close the lid.
  4. Now our task is to keep the temperature of the "malt porridge" within 60-65 ° C for an hour and a half. To do this, the pan can be tightly wrapped with a blanket. At temperatures below 60°C, the starch will not be completely broken down, and a small amount of sugar will affect the quality of fermentation.

Wort fermentation

At this stage, we finish the preparation of the wort and ferment it. We cool the boiled malt to 26-28 ° C - a temperature comfortable for the life of the yeast. We activate the yeast according to the instructions attached to it and add it to the wort. It is better to do this immediately using the containers in which the mash will stand.

We put the mash under a water seal and put it in a dark place with a temperature of 20-28 ° C. The average duration of fermentation is 2-3 weeks. Throughout this time, the mash must be mixed. Do this quickly and always with a clean object (hands) so as not to introduce bacteria.

By the end of the second week of fermentation, you need to start watching for signs of readiness of the mash. The taste of mash from sweet becomes bitter. Yeast precipitates, and the surface brightens. The surface calms down: the hissing and foaming processes stop.

First distillation

When all the signs indicate the readiness of the mash, you can proceed to distillation. Drain the mash from the sediment and filter through a cotton-gauze filter. This will help remove coarse sediment from the rest of the malt.

We distill the mash at a low temperature in order to extract the alcohol to the maximum. We do not split into factions. We expel alcohol almost to the last drop, until the fortress in the stream drops below 30 °. The resulting alcohol - raw has a cloudy color and a specific smell.

It is necessary to measure the volume and strength of the resulting distillate. Multiplying these two figures, we get the pure alcohol content. This will be required in the next step.

Second distillation

Before re-distillation, we dilute the raw material to 20 °. To purify the drink from impurities and odors during the second distillation, we separate the fractions. The selection of heads will allow you to get rid of poisonous technical alcohols. The number of heads is 12-15% of the pure alcohol content.

The field of heads is expelled by the body - the main part of the distillate. This is bread wine. Its amount is about 70% of the pure alcohol in the raw after the first distillation. We expel the body to 40 ° fortress in the jet. Everything else is tails and is not used in polugars.

Polugar cleaning

Before the start of cleansing activities, bread wine is diluted to 45-50 °. In this case, the molecular bonds are weaker than in alcohol, and the substances bind more easily.

To clean the polugar, only natural products are used that do not affect the taste and smell of the drink: coal, milk, bread crumb, egg yolk. The methods practically do not differ from each other. It is necessary to mix one and a half with an adsorbent that will absorb the remaining impurities.

The only difference is the way coal is used. Here, in addition to mixing, you can build a coal column. You will need a funnel and cotton pads.

Finishing touches

We bring the drink to a nominal strength of 38.5 °. Now the finished bread wine can be bottled for future storage. By the way, you can use polugar after 3-4 days. Unlike eminent relatives of cognac and whiskey, it does not require long exposure.

Polugars from different malts differ from each other in taste. Wheat reminds the taste of freshly baked white bread. Polugar rye smells like rye edge and butter. Buckwheat drink is considered a unique taste for great originals. Each moonshiner will eventually be able to find his own taste.

Attention, only TODAY!

Polugar, also known as bread wine, is an alcoholic drink with a strength of 35-50 degrees of alcohol, made by distilling grain mash. The first time this drink was mentioned in the annals of 1517. The name "bread wine" itself appeared due to the fact that all kinds of cereals are the main product for its production.

In the article:

Polugar - the history of the drink and its composition

The recipe for this unconventional wine is very simple. The main thing is to get malt, for which grains need to be germinated, dried and ground. The malt brought to the state of flour was diluted to the density of jelly with hot water and seasoned with yeast or sourdough. The wort was allowed to ferment from two to seven days, then it was distilled 2-3 times. The technique completely repeats the whiskey production recipe.

During the reign of the kings, one of the best and most respected alcoholic beverages was polugar. The fortress was strictly 38.5 degrees, and the taste contained a rye aroma. In 1842, Tsar Nicholas the First proclaimed a decree to test alcohol for strength in a special way. To do this, the wine was placed in a copper vat, which was put on fire to burn out half of the product. This is how the name Polugars appeared.

Bread wine had the status of a national Russian drink for four centuries, until the nineteenth century. All taverns and taverns were engaged in the sale of such a drink, even the landowners were engaged in the production of this alcohol.

The taste properties of polugar can be affected by the quality of the malt composition, yeast, water, the state of the equipment for preparation and the recipe.

Polugar varieties

Initially, there were two types of drink on sale: malt-wheat and rye. They differed only in the type of raw materials from which they were produced, the recipe and technique were the same. For the production of rye varieties of wine, selected rye is used. Subsequently, a triple distillation of the distillate is made.

Types of polugar

It is purified with egg white and filtered with birch charcoal. This drink has a bready aroma, tastes mild and has a clear color. Recently, rye Polugar has been produced by mixing two malts, rye and wheat, and various seasonings have been added to the recipe. The updated drink was named "Krivach", with a strength of 41 and 61 percent.

A quality product is very expensive. Previously, fearing low-quality vodka, there was a method of verification. For him, they took a little liquid in a dry palm, rubbed the other dry and determined the quality, the palm had to have the finest specific aroma.

What is the difference between polugar and? In the manufacture of vodka, alcohol is created pure, for this distillation columns are used. For bread wine, distillation is used to preserve the taste of the raw material base. Therefore, high-quality alcohol has a smell and taste reminiscent of pastries.

The process of drinking polugar has its own characteristics - it is drunk gradually in small sips from a lafitnik (a small faceted glass with a volume of 100-150 ml) and chilled to 8-10 degrees.

Snack with traditional pickles - sauerkraut and pickled tomatoes.

Classic Polugar Recipe

Consider the classic recipe. Components required for the production of polugar with the use of an apparatus for brewing moonshine:

  • 5 kilograms of rye / barley / rye malt;
  • 20 liters of distilled water;
  • 50 g dry / 300 g pressed yeast.

In general, rye malt is best, but wheat or barley may be used. Water comes from a spring/well.

Polugar manufacturing process

Now let's move on to how polugar bread wine is made - the recipe:


Polugar classic bread wine has a strength of 38.5 degrees, this can be achieved by diluting with water. Having obtained the necessary consistency, the liquid is distributed in bottles, tightly closed with stoppers and stored in the dark and cool.

Unfortunately, now this drink is almost completely forgotten, although its taste is not inferior to cognac or whiskey.