Bread wine is a type of distillate considered to be a fortified Russian drink. That is, it is high-degree alcohol made from fermented. They get such a drink almost like using malt and bread flour, adding grains of wheat, oats, barley or rye.

What is a half-cook

Many are interested in, a half-burn - what is it. So called reconstructed using traditional technologies homemade on wheat or rye grains. Such a drink has been produced since the XVI century, has a fortress of 38.5% vol. and the aroma of rye bread. The traditional Russian vodka received its name from “semi-wine wine” and “semi-wine wine”.

The half-production technology is similar to the manufacturing process, or. The difference is only in the cleaning method. Modern connoisseurs of traditional drinks revive half-bar recipes, producing it at home. As a cleaning, natural filtration methods are used - charcoal, milk, bread.

For the past 120 years, half a year has not been produced or sold. Among the alcoholic beverages, the old half-grain did not occupy the last place, since it had a low cost. But the vodka monopoly in tsarist Russia, he prevented 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, we can distinguish species such as:

The choice of wheat or rye distillate

If you choose which is better - a half-wheat or half-malt malt, it is worth bearing 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 will be required, while rye must also be added for the malt half-bar. In the modern version of the alcoholic beverage, additional ingredients are added to improve palatability. In wheat, there are no spices.

Half-cook recipes

If we consider the classic half-cook, 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.

What kind of malt to choose depends on taste preferences, but according to the classic old Russian recipe, rye was used to get a traditional Russian drink called rye half a cup.

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 half a cup 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, half a gourmet is savored, because only in measured use reveals its taste.

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

“Then they brought Ilya Muromets a cup and a half buckets, the wine is green ...” It was said in one of the old Russian tales. Wine is green - it is not named that way for color and not for belonging to the green serpent. Potions used to be called cereals, grain. AND especially strong drinks did   from cereals, calling them still bread wine. Over time, there was a need to somehow standardize the strength, and hence the quality of the drink. Then an interesting method was invented, as a result of which a new name arose for the national strong drink. The well-known Russian vodka will appear only after almost two hundred years.

First, a few words about the technology for producing alcohol from grain.

To prepare a strong, drunken drink, they took a good, ripe grain and sprouted. Then dried and crushedthus obtaining malt. In the process of germination, special enzymes are formed in cereals that can convert starch, protein and cellulose into sugar. In malt made from malt, alcohol is formed from sugar by the action of yeast. By distillation, the alcohol is removed from the mash along with the accompanying substances.

To determine the strength of the resulting distillate, it was poured, measuring the volume, in a special bowl. He was heated almost to a boil and set on fire, after which they waited until the liquid went out by itself, due to the natural burning of alcohol. The volume of remaining liquid   measured, and if it was half of the original, the party recognized as suitable for further improvement and use and called it a half-burn. If there was more than half the liquid, all the liquid was distilled again.

Thus, initially, half a grain is the initial, reference raw material for the further production of vodka by purification and brewing. Subsequently, people begin to call a ready-made, refined, and brought to the fortress 38.5 drink half a cup. Now he is back in fashion, and, if available moonshine still   You can make homemade vodka half a cup yourself. It differs from traditional Russian vodka in that distillation, rather than rectification, is used in its manufacture, this is a prerequisite.

What you need to get a half-burn

Half-grain bread wine recipe is as follows:

First you need to get raw grain alcohol. Then re-distill it, separating the head fractions containing methyl alcohol, acetone and other especially toxic substances, then clean the distillate and dilute to the desired strength.

Getting crude alcohol

For this recipe you will need:

To cook the mash, you need to produce grouting - heating the malt   with water to accelerate the breakdown of starch into sugar. Without this procedure, bread mug can roam for months. The water is heated to a boil, cooled to sixty degrees, the ground malt is poured out and stirred. Then they are heated to sixty-five to seventy degrees and maintain this temperature for an hour and a half.

The wort is cooled to 30% and the yeast is poured out. Once again, mix and put under a water shutter in a warm dark place. Braga is kept until carbon dioxide ceases to be released. Two weeks on average. Ready mash has a bitter taste, without any sweetness.

Then the resulting liquid through cheesecloth is carefully drained from the precipitate. The less turbidity in the Braga, the higher the quality of the distillate. Distillation is carried out at the maximum temperature for the existing apparatus. From time to time, wet the paper with a few drops and set it on fire. Distillation is continued until the distillate stops igniting.

To get three liters of half a gram, you will need:

• 6 kilograms of malt
• 24 liters of water
• 100 grams of dry baker's or spirit yeast

Re-distillation

As a result of the above steps, it turned out to be a crude alcohol with a strength of approximately 55-60%, for which it should be diluted approximately twice. Clean preferably distilled water. When the first drops from the moonshine still appear, the heating is reduced to a minimum, so that one drop of distillate drips in one second. Thus, 10% of the volume of crude distilled alcohol is selected. This liquid is poisonous, you can not use it in food.

Then the heating is increased and distillation is carried out until the distillate again ceases to light up on paper. In principle, it turned out to be an almost ready-made half-cooker, of the lowest quality, the so-called breadbox. In order to feel the delicate taste and aroma of a high-quality half-grain, it must be properly cleaned.

Cleaning

There are four traditional recipes for purifying distillate from impurities:

1. Charcoal. Pencil-thick birch rods blasted without air access have traditionally been used, but modern activated carbon designed for water filters will give a better result. You can simply add half a glass of coal to a three-liter jar and hold for several days, mixing the contents every day. It is best to pour coal into a pipe with a diameter of 5 cm and a length of at least half a meter. The bottom of the pipe is tied with gauze, the distillate is poured into small portions on top.
2. Egg white. The protein of one egg is stirred in three liters of strong bread wine and wait for the complete precipitation. Then the liquid is filtered through cotton wool, gauze or filter paper.
3. Milk. Three liters of distillate will require one hundred milliliters of fresh fresh milk. Milk from the store is practically not suitable for this purpose.
4. Rye bread. The bread crumb and the calculation of one hundred grams per liter of liquid crumbles and is added to the product being cleaned. After a couple of days, the finished drink is carefully filtered.

Do not use soda and potassium permanganate, they greatly spoil the taste of the drink.

For rye malt half a bowl, cleaning with rye bread, according to experts, is unnecessary, as a rule, it is recommended to carry out, then dilute the distillate to a strength of 40% and pass through a charcoal filter. Before use, the dates should drink at least two weeks to rest.

In the absence of home-made moonshine still, you can buy ready-made malt half-tart, seasoned rye half-tart or wheat half-tart made by professionals, however, a drink made with your own hands is much more pleasant to drink than plain vodka.

Attention, only TODAY!

For the manufacture of half a rye distillate is used. Braga is prepared from selected rye coarsely ground and pure spring water, which is not subjected to complete purification. When the mash is ready for distillation, it is distilled in special copper distillation cubes. Fresh egg whites and natural birch charcoal are used to cleanse the drink.
Very often, a bread wine recipe is confused with the preparation of vodka. In fact, this drink has nothing to do with modern vodka.

A strong transparent alcoholic drink does not need to be cooled before consumption - the soft taste of rye bread is very good at room temperature. The aroma of fresh bread and the rich oily structure of the drink make it look like a strong liquor.

Half-flour bread wine recipe made from flour

Pour wheat or rye flour with warm water and mix well to dissolve the bulk of the flour.

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

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

After 3 days, the mash will need to overtake - it would 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 resulting raw water - 1: 1 and conduct a second distillation on a distiller.

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

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

Nowadays, few people know what a half-burn is, although back in the 19th century this word was heard by everyone. So called wine from bread, which our ancestors made of wheat, rye or barley.

It got its name thanks to the original method of verification. After preparation, a little clear liquid was poured into a copper saucepan and set on fire. When the flame burned out, the remainder of the drink was measured. If there was half left, then half a cup turned out to be glorious and it can be served on the table.

Gradually cooking technology bread wine   was forgotten and replaced with ordinary vodka. But in the old books there were unique recipes, according to which you can cook half a cup and enjoy a traditional Russian drink.

Bread Wine - A Classic Recipe

You will need:

• Malt made from rye, barley or wheat grains, 5 kg.
• 20 liters of filtered or settled water.
• 300 grams of fresh yeast.

It is very important to choose the right raw materials for malt. To do this, grind the grains with large grinding or purchase the finished product in the store. Make sure it is dry and clean.

Cooking:

1. Pour water into a pan and boil. Wait until it cools to 55 ° C and pour the prepared malt into it. Stir all lumps thoroughly and heat the mixture to 61-64 ° C.

Cover the container with a lid and let the malt stand for an hour and a half, keeping the temperature in it up to 65 ° C.

2. Then cool the liquid a little, and pour into a large glass bottle. Dilute the yeast in a warm liquid and mix.

Put a water seal on the neck and leave it in a warm place for two weeks. Open the container daily and stir.

3. When the raw material brightens and tastes a little bitter, strain it through a sieve and pour into a vessel for distilling moonshine. Put on the stove and distill the mash until its strength drops to 25 degrees. She will be white and tasteless. requires re-distillation.

4. Dilute the turbid liquid with water halfway and use a moonshine to get a clear, clear drink.

Collect approximately 200 ml of pervak \u200b\u200bin a separate bottle. It contains harmful impurities, and it is better not to use it. As soon as the strength of the half-grain drops to 40 degrees, turn off the fire and stop the distillation.

5. When the high-degree drink cools down, dilute it with distilled water to 45 degrees and start cleaning the liquid from harmful impurities.

In Russia, they gave softness and delicate taste to a half-grain with the help of bread, milk, charcoal or beaten egg white.

You can use all cleaning methods or try only one, for example, coal. Put some black pebbles in a deep sieve, strain bread wine through them or lower several tablets of activated carbon into the liquid for a day.

6. Measure the drink with an alcohol meter, and dilute to 38.5 degrees. Bottle half a bottle and store in the cellar.

You can drink it in a few days. Pour chilled liquid into a tall glass and sip it in small sips. This will make it possible to feel all the softness and aroma of a half-bar made according to an old recipe.

The annals of 1517 are the first source that mentions the use of half a bar, but perhaps it was prepared in Russia before.

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

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

Why bread wine is called half-wine

This wine is called bread because it is prepared on the basis of cereals: rye, barley, wheat and others. And they began to call it a half-ball in imperial times, and that's why.

The origin of the name of the half-bar

Then the optimal strength of bread wine was 38.5 ° - neither more nor less! In order for the drink to be of such a fortress, in 1842 Nicholas I published the “Decree on checking alcohol for a fortress using the original method.”

The wine was poured into a container of copper and set on fire: if it was of good quality, half of the liquid should have burned out. Hence the name of the wine - “half-burn”, which means “half-burned”.

Not a single royal feast was possible without a half-bowl with a pronounced rye aroma!

Over the course of four centuries (from 16 to 19), a half-bar had the status of a national Russian alcoholic drink. It was produced at any estate, and it could be bought at any drinking establishment, whether it was a tavern or a tavern.

What is the difference between bread wine and vodka

Semigar from vodka differs in the following nuances:

1. The production process

A half-grain is obtained through distillation, which allows you to preserve the taste of wheat, rye or other grain raw materials. Real bread wine smells and tastes of bread.

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

2. The process of drinking

Drink vodka cold and in one gulp, pouring into piles. The semi-cooker is cooled to 10 ° C, poured into 100-150 gram galleys and drunk in sips to enjoy the taste.

But the snack can be the same for vodka, and for half a gig! They are good to eat with pickles, sauerkraut, dishes with garlic and meat, traditional Russian snacks.

Many factors influence the taste of a half-bar: what malt consists of, what quality water and yeast are used, what material the devices for its production are made of, how correctly the temperature regime is observed during mashing, how the wine is cleaned ...

And, of course, the correctness of a half-bar recipe is important! We learn how to make bread wine at home according to an old recipe.

Polugar: an ancient hop drink recipe

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 with a thermometer to maintain the required temperature during mashing of 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 mill. It should not be ground into flour: it is desirable to obtain an average grinding.

Mashing

Pour water into the pan and bring to a boil. Now proceed to saccharification, or mashing, to break down malt starch into sugars that can ferment:

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

This temperature must be maintained throughout the saccharification process so that the mashing is successful and the wort fermentes.

Wort fermentation

Quickly cool the saccharified wort to 26-28 degrees, putting the pan in a container with very cold water. You can also buy a chiller and cool the wort with it. Move on:

1. Pour the wort into a bottle where it will roam.
2. Pour the yeast diluted according to the instructions.
3. We install a water lock on the bottle.
4. We remove the bottle with the must 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. Ready mash is bitter in taste and becomes lighter.

In this case, carbon dioxide bubbles 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 stream of alcohol has a strength of 15-20 °. As a result, we get an opaque and sharply smelling moonshine, or raw alcohol.

Raw alcohol purification

To clean it of excess fractions, proceed as follows:

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

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

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

Distillate purification

In order to refine the taste and smell of a half-heart, you need to clean the distillate from impurities. The pungent odor beating in the nose will disappear, a bread 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 clean it by passing it through a charcoal 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 half a bar.

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

Then you can start tasting a delicious homemade semigar, having a friendly feast.

Now you know how to make bread wine yourself, the recipe of which has been tested for more than one century! It remains to engage in the process of manufacturing a half-bar and enjoy the result.