Nowadays, not everyone knows the meaning of the word "half-burn", although a century and a half ago it was not only constantly used in speech, but also simply used ...

Classic Russian bread wine is a legendary alcoholic beverage, the preparation of which is based on traditional recipes from the 18th – 19th centuries. The concentrate is a double distillation product from various types of malt. The composition can be used barley, wheat or rye. The output fortress reaches 38.5%.

An interesting method of testing the strength of wine, or "kindness", as they called it in the old days. For this, the method of annealing bread wine is used. The recipe is as follows: the distillate is brought to a boil and ignited. The amount of liquid left after burning out determines the quality of the drink and the percentage of alcohol in it. For testing, special tools have even been invented - an incinerator and a bottle. In the pot, the liquid is ignited and poured into the second pot, which shows whether the "kindness" of the wine is the standard.

The recipe for making a half-bar has a number of differences from other spirits. For example, in the production of vodka, any foodstuff containing starch is used - not only cereal grains, but also potatoes, sugar beets, etc. the industrial method of producing alcohol loses its taste. In addition to completely natural substances used to create a semi-tan, only natural cleaning methods are involved in the manufacturing process that improve the aging and concentration of the drink: charcoal, bread products, milk and others.

The best temperature for drinking a semi-loam is 8–10 ° С. Usually the drink is drunk from small glasses, called lafitniks, with a volume of 100-150 ml.

In old Soviet films, they often show how heroes throw back a glass and drink the contents in one gulp. However, to enjoy the real aftertaste of a semi-tan, you should sip it in small sips.

Bread wine is best combined with traditional Russian cuisine: various meats, pickles, pepper and garlic dishes, etc.

Classic wine pleasure

The traditional recipe for making bread wine, which is based on the old methods described in the cookbooks of pre-revolutionary Russia, includes the following ingredients:

• Malt brewed from wheat, barley or rye. You will need to grind about 5 kg.
• Water is about 20 liters.
• Dry yeast - 50 grams, or pressed - up to 300 grams.

What cereals to take as a basis is not important. However, most of the classic recipes are based on rye. The water must be clean. Well or spring is perfect. If this is not available, then you can use ordinary tap water, after letting it settle for a day and passing it through a special purification filter.

Stages of wine preparation

Malt production

First you need to grind the cereals to coarse grains. It is important to note that it is not worth turning grains into flour, so that complications do not arise at the next stages of production. And most importantly, the malt must be thoroughly dried.

You can also run to the store and buy ready-made ground malt. Fortunately, the shops offer a lot of options. The purchase of a finished product is ideal for those who are just beginning to comprehend the science of winemaking - the grains have already been ground and dried.

Mashing

It looks like a terrible word, but there is nothing terrible and complicated in it. This is a trivial way of breaking down starchy substances into sugars when exposed to water and high temperature.

The recipe is simple: fill the pot with water, put it on fire and bring it to a boil. Turn off the hotplate and wait for the temperature to drop to 55 ° C - this is where a thermometer comes in handy. Then pour in the malt solution and mix it carefully until a homogeneous mass is formed (so that there are no lumps sticking to the bottom of the vessel). The liquid is heated to a temperature of no more than 65 ° C, and the container is tightly closed with a lid. The most difficult thing is to maintain a fixed temperature of 60–65 ° C for an hour and a half. Deviation from the regime can lead to a reduced formation of sugar from starch in the wort, which in turn will significantly affect the fermentation stage.

Fermentation

Yeast enters the battle. They are needed to transform sugar into alcohol.

First, the solution is cooled to 28 ° C and poured into a vessel specially prepared for fermentation. Separately, you need to prepare the yeast - dilute it in accordance with the instructions on the pack. Then we pour the diluted yeast into a fermentation vessel, mix gently and fix a strong water seal on top. The container is stored in a dark place at a temperature of 20-25 ° С.

Several factors affect the duration of the fermentation period: the amount of sugar produced from the malt, the quality of the yeast, and the constancy of the temperature regime. The wort preparation process can take up to 16 days. Stir the solution with clean hands once a day.

The readiness of the product is determined by the color and taste - the mash acquires lighter tones and a bitter aftertaste appears. If the drink changes its color and tastes bitter, you can start distilling.

First sublimation

At this stage, it is important to drain as much alcohol as possible from the fermented substance. To do this, you need a moonshine still, into which the present bread mash is poured. Drainage should be carried out through a fine strainer, which filters large undecomposed malt grains. If large particles get into the vessel, they can burn and spoil the quality of the moonshine at the exit.

Distillation takes place over low heat and continues until the fortress falls below 25 ° C. The result is a "source" of a muddy color with a pungent odor.

Recycling

The new distillation is designed to cleanse the moonshine from unhealthy impurities. This is done as follows: the solution must be diluted with water by half and distilled again. Only this time, the substance will need to be crushed into pieces.

The first 200 ml is "pervach", that is, a harmful component that contains dangerous components for the body like acetone. This portion of alcohol should be collected in a separate container and disposed of.

Then the main fragment - the "body" will "run" - and it will be necessary to carefully collect it into another container - this is the same half-rub, still unrefined, raw.

At the end, "tails" will come out - a distillate with a low alcohol content. This raw material can be useful only for the next preparation of mash. It can no longer be used for making bread wine.

Cleaning

Remove excess impurities from the drink before use. In traditional recipes, four methods are recommended for removing toxic substances from a semi-coal: charcoal, bread, milk and egg white. As a rule, in all cases either a special filter or direct contact of the liquid with the components is used. You can also practice several cleaning techniques at the same time.

Water again becomes an important element in the cleaning procedure. It is added to reduce the degree and improve the absorption of harmful substances into excretory agents.

Last operation

The final step in the structure of the classic recipe is the final adjustment of the strength to the standard - 38.5%. After the resulting drink is poured into bottles, which are tightly closed with corks, and kept for 3 days in a cool place protected from light.

The output is usually about 2-3 liters of pure semi-lager. Here, the defining circumstances are the sugar content of the malt, the quality of the grout and the quality of distillation.

Conclusion

Many people compare bread wine with vodka or cognac. But a half-burn is something else. And it's not just about the technology of production of products. A distinctive feature is a pleasant soft taste of bread and an unsurpassed natural aroma that you will not find in any strong alcoholic beverage, even in the highest quality original samples.

A lost symbol of the Russian feast, restored thanks to lovers of traditional distilling, distillate from bread wine has become a new trend in domestic culinary recipes and national pride.

Historical reference.

Bread wine or semugar is an old Russian drink (distillate) made on the territory of Russia and the Russian Empire. Most often, mentions of this drink are found in the period from the 15th century to the present day, but no one knows the exact data on the beginning of production.

Inception

Distilling in Russia was mainly carried out by large landowners. They prepared alcoholic beverages according to recipes passed down from generation to generation. Initially, they made drinks for their own needs, and then for sale. The state immediately reacted to everything that happened. Bread distillates were banned. Only a mixture of rectified alcohol and water could be sold. And the monopoly that came into force significantly reduced the entire industry. And only recently, on the part of the government, it has been possible to notice steps towards resuming the production of distillates in Russia, in particular GOST 55799-2013 for grain distillate.

Production technology

Bread wine was obtained by double distillation of grain mash and dilution of the resulting product to a strength of 38.8 to 48% vol. alcohol. Some formulations provided for different cleaning: milk, coal, etc.

Cereals were used as raw materials for the preparation of the semi-bar: barley, oats, wheat, rye. The choice of this or that raw material depended on the geographical location of the distillery, but most often it was rye or barley.

Dough was used as a yeast - a mixture of flour, water and yeast. At that time, housewives used it to make bread. The concept of "yeast" and its action was discovered later.

Mash preparation scheme was pretty basic. The grain was soaked and germinated, after which it was crushed, mixed with water and the resulting mixture was heated to 60-70 degrees. The resulting mash was cooled to 30 degrees and then the dough was added. Fermentation began.

After the mash was completely fermented, it was poured into stills and double distilled. First, raw alcohol was obtained, and then alcohol was made from it with a strength of 60-75% vol. The alcohol obtained after the second distillation was diluted with water to the required strength, purified, and Bread Wine was allowed to rest.

Of course, the drink obtained in those days was significantly different from what is being done now. This is due to a host of factors: from the quality of raw materials to the technologies used. Progress in the study of fermentation and distillation processes does not stand still.

We offer you our own recipe for the preparation of grain distillate, which can be called "Bread wine".

Recipe

First you need to make a grain mash.

Mashing

Let's take light barley malt as a basis.

The ratio of malt to water (hydromodule) is 1: 3 - this means that you need to take 3 liters of water for 1 kilogram of malt.

The entire volume of water used is poured into a container and heated up to 38 degrees.

While the water is heating, grind the malt. The grinding should be medium so that the resulting mash can be filtered out later.

As soon as the water warms up to 38 degrees, add chopped malt and mix everything well.

Raise the temperature to62 degrees... We pause60 minutes... During this pause, starch is broken down into simple sugars, which are actively consumed by yeast during fermentation and form alcohol.

Mash filtering

At the stage of filtration, the spent grain (insoluble sediment from the shells of the malt) must be rinsed with hot water so that no sugars remain in it. The water temperature should be 80 degrees, less will lower the temperature in the mash and lead to a deterioration in the filtration process.

The solution obtained after filtration is called wort.

In order to create an optimal environment for the functioning of the yeast, the density of the resulting wort must be measured. If your density value is higher than 15%, then it is necessary to dilute to 12-15%.

Boiling the wort

We carry out boiling for 45-60 minutes. This is necessary for:

1. Wort sterilization
2. Removing some of the sulfur-containing compounds that adversely affect the taste of the final product, in particular DMS (dimethyl sulfide).

Wort cooling and fermentation

Quickly cool the hot wort to a temperature of 25 degrees. In order to avoid secondary formation of substances undesirable for organoleptic properties, it is necessary to cool for no more than 30-40 minutes. In the future, we pour the wort into a fermentation tank, where we add prepared yeast in advance.

Great for making Bread Wine ... Their dosage is 10 grams per 30 liters of mash.

Fermentation

We put the obtained mash with yeast under a water seal and wait until the yeast processes all the sugars contained in our mash.

This process usually takes about 4-5 days.

Distillation into crude alcohol

After fermentation, we load the mash into the evaporation cube and begin distillation. This process must be carried out as quickly as possible without cutting off heads and tails.

Fractional distillation of raw alcohol

The resulting crude alcohol must be diluted to a strength of 30-40% vol. alcohol. It is with such a strength that it is most easy during distillation to divide the product into fractions ("head", "body", "tail").

Cut off the head fraction in the amount of 10% of the estimated volume of alcohol.

We finish taking the "body" at 95 degrees Celsius in the tank.

The strength of the resulting distillate can be adjusted using a mini-reflux condenser and heating power. The more liquid we supply to the mini-reflux condenser, the higher the strength of the final product will be. With regard to the heating power - the higher it is, the higher the sampling rate and, accordingly, the lower the alcohol content in the resulting product. The decision on the strength remains only with the distiller. It usually ranges from 75 to 95% by volume. alcohol. The higher the alcoholic output, the less pronounced the aroma and softer the product.

If you want to get a pronounced aromatics, then strive for a distillate strength of 75-85% vol. alcohol. Remember that the taste of the final product largely depends on the correct formulation of the mash and the experience of the technologist, and very little on the equipment.

Final dilution

We dilute the distillate to the required strength and let it rest for at least 2 weeks.

An example of calculating the volume of water required for dilution :

For example, Received 1000 ml of distillate with a strength of 93% vol. alcohol. Desired strength of the final product 38.8% vol. alcohol. How much water to add for dilution?

1. Determine the dilution factor

To do this, you need to divide the actual fortress by the desired one.

93% vol. alcohol / 38.8% vol. alcohol = 2.39

And subtract 1:

2.39-1 = 1.39

2. The resulting volume of distillate must be multiplied by the dilution factor

1000*1.39 = 1390 ml- this amount of water will be required to dilute the alcohol

When diluted, alcohol is not of great importance to pour into water, or vice versa, water into alcohol. The main thing is that both liquids are cold (about 10 degrees) and you need to pour in quickly, then when diluted, the effect of the thermal reaction will decrease and fewer by-products are formed.

The resulting product can be carbonized or any other purification, it all depends on the preference of the consumer.

Now that all the secrets of cooking have been revealed, I really want you to make your own delicious and aromatic Bread Wine!

How to get a polugar at home.

The word "half-grain" is unfamiliar to the modern person. And 150 years ago, its meaning was clear to any person in the Russian Empire.
Polugar is a bread wine obtained using a moonshine still from barley, wheat or rye malt. Its fortress is -38.5 degrees.

When a state monopoly was established in the Russian Empire on the production and sale of vodka, the production of half-bar was prohibited. Therefore, many recipes have been lost. But recently, interest in semi-tan has renewed. Now, anyone who has a moonshine still can get bread wine.

Ingredients for making bread wine (half-grain) using a moonshine still.

• 5 kg of barley, wheat or rye malt.
• 20 liters of clean water.
• 0.05 kg (0.3 kg pressed).

Bread wine was made on the basis of rye malt. But it's okay if you use wheat or barley. It is better to take spring or well water.

The process of obtaining a half-car.

• Preparation of malt for making bread wine.

First of all, the malt must be well dried. You can buy coarse malt at the store, or grind it yourself to coarse grains.

• Mashing is the process of breaking down starch into sugar.

Take a saucepan, put on fire, pour water, boil. Allow to cool to 55 degrees. Add malt, stirring occasionally, avoiding lump formation. Bring the temperature to 61-64 degrees. Stir thoroughly again to get a homogeneous mass. Close the pan with a lid and leave on the fire for an hour and a half, with a constant temperature of 60-65 degrees.

• - the process of decomposition of sugar into alcohol using yeast.

In order to start the fermentation process, it is necessary to cool the prepared mixture to 28 degrees. Pour into a bottle. Prepare yeast and add to container. Place a water seal and place the container in a dark, warm place for 4 to 16 days. It is necessary to stir the wort every day, and then install the water seal again.
After the fermentation process is over, as indicated by the absence of bubbles and clarification of the liquid, you should start distilling the mash into a semi-steam.

• First distillation.

Strain the mash. Pour into a moonshine still. Start the distillation process without separating the alcohol into fractions. After the strength of the drink drops to 25 percent, stop taking the raw alcohol.

• Moving on to the second distillation.

The resulting alcohol should be cleaned of harmful impurities. Therefore, we dilute it with water 1 to 1 and put it back in the moonshine still.
Now we take only the “body” of the product, cutting off the “head” and “tails”. After the fortress drops to 40 degrees, we stop the process.

• Cleaning a semi-carbon.

Bread wine made with can be cleaned in several ways. This is done with milk, eggs, bread, or charcoal. To make the process more efficient, the half-burn should be diluted to 40 - 50 degrees.

• The final stage.

In a classic semi-bar, the strength should be 38.5 degrees, therefore, before the product is bottled and stored, it must be diluted with water to the required state. Store semi-garments in a dark place, in tightly sealed bottles.
Polugar belongs to the family of natural spirits, such as cognac, whiskey, plum, and is not inferior to them in taste.

Shop windows display a wide variety of alcoholic beverages, all of which differ from each other in different properties. All recipes came to us from the distant past. The cooking technology, recipes were changed, various ingredients were added and removed - all this helped to find the best result. One of the ancient recipes that has survived in our century is bread wine. This wine can be safely called an old Russian strong alcoholic beverage. The quality of the produced bread wine was high and did not need another name for this drink "semi-tar". It was named bread wine because of its main component: cereals.

The old recipe was simple and straightforward. Mild taste with a delicate rye aroma, despite the fact that it is 38.5%. For many centuries, polugar was a traditional drink in Russia. It could be bought in shops and taverns, and in almost every estate it was produced. Bread wine recipes are based on old practices and adapted in a modern way.

Bread wine recipe

Ingredients:

Bread wine Polugar

• Rye malt - 6 kg
• Water - 24 liters.
• - 50 - 60 gr.

Preparation:

You can substitute any malt you want in preparation. However, rye is a classic raw material for this wine. It is best to use spring or filtered water. It is imperative that when cooking, there must be a thermometer to control the temperature regime.

Preparation. We use only well-dried malt, which must be ground into a medium-grinding cereal. No need to grind malt into flour.

Saccharification ... Pour some water into a large container and boil. Next, cool to t 55 degrees and add chopped malt, stir everything so that no lumps form. Raise the wort t to 64 degrees, stir continuously. We cover the container with a lid, warm it up to t 62 - 64 degrees and let it stand for about an hour and a half.

Fermentation ... After saccharification, quickly cool the wort in order to introduce the yeast. Home process cooling can be carried out as follows: collect a lot of water and lower the container with the wort. Pour the cooled wort into a fermentation tank. We add yeast, which we prepared in advance according to the instructions, install a gyro lock and put it in a warm place. Normal fermentation can take 4 to 14 days. has a bitter taste and lightens.

Getting raw alcohol ... We filter the mash and pour it into the alembic. We do the first distillation at maximum power in order to get the maximum. It turns out to be cloudy and with a sharp unpleasant aroma.

This process helps us to purify the raw alcohol from unwanted fractions. Pour alcohol into a cube and dilute with water to 20 - 30 degrees. At low power, we select the head fraction of 150 - 200 ml. Then we raise the power and do the selection of the main fraction. In a separate bowl, select the body and the "tails".

Cleaning ... An important stage in the preparation of bread wine, it is on it that unpleasant odors and harmful substances are removed. Semigar takes on a mild rye aroma. up to 40 - 45 degrees and proceed to cleansing in any way convenient for you.

Finishing the product. dilute to - 38.5 degrees. From a given amount of ingredients in this recipe, the output is 2 or 3 liters of a half-sugar. We bottle and seal tightly. at home for a week.

Bread wine polugar

Drink it chilled in special faceted glasses. They drink it in small sips, savoring the extraordinary taste of homemade wine and catching a pleasant aftertaste. Bread wine at home is in perfect harmony with various meat and fish dishes, salty or sour snacks.

For a long time, bread wine was the most prestigious alcoholic drink in Russia, it was called a symbol of quality. At this period, there are many varieties of semi-bar, but the classic look will always be popular and in demand.

Such a drink turns out to be quite strong and is often compared to vodka, but despite the similarity of preparation technologies, these two drinks differ significantly from each other, so they never need to be compared.

Vodka is considered a traditional alcoholic drink in Russia. But long before its appearance, the Russian people drank half a drink. In the tsarist empire, this popular drink interfered with 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 half-bar is.

What is a half-bar

Bread wine semigar 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 recipe for a half-bar for drinks from different types of malt is the same. Wheat or rye are most suitable for producing malt. These crops have a thin skin, so they germinate quickly and are easily crushed. Therefore, wheat semis and rye semis are more popular. But no less tasty wine is obtained from buckwheat or barley malt. You can use a mixture of malts.

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

Half-bar 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 of pressed), if you use special yeast for example for malt, see the dosage on the package, for example, there may be 4 grams per 10 liters of wort

Spring or well water is ideal for preparing half-baked pans. You can also use raw bottled water or thoroughly filtered from the tap.

Malt preparation

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

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

Grind the malt until it is coarse. 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 a homogeneous mass is obtained, the mash temperature should be 62 degrees, if not, then bring to this temperature
3. Cover the pot with a lid and warm it with a blanket, for example.
4. Maintain this temperature for 1 hour, after 30 minutes open, stir and check the temperature, if it drops, then 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. Chill the wort to 25 - 30 degrees

Fermentation

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

A water seal is a device in the form of a valve that removes carbon dioxide from a container with a wash and prevents air from entering, without a water seal, the wash 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 stir the mash once a day for the first 3 days, because a cap of grains will rise, which can sour, and then close tightly again
4. The mash, ready for distillation, does not gurgle, since the release of carbon dioxide ends. It becomes lighter, tastes bitter, no sweetness

First distillation

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

Second distillation

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

Cleaning

Optionally, you can additionally perform cleaning:, 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 of traditional bread wine.

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

Types of popular modern half-bars

You can often hear “half-bar 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.

Wheat semi-tar is produced by double or triple distillation, it has a mild aroma, with a strong taste of rustic white bread.

The matured rye semi-coal undergoes additional cleaning with birch charcoal. This drink is aged for three to four years in oak barrels. Rye semigar has an intense taste of freshly baked rye bread with butter.

Buckwheat semi-tar is made from buckwheat. This drink is 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 semi-alcohol in small sips. It is served chilled to 10 degrees. The drink is poured into small glasses or faceted glasses. Bread wine perfectly reveals its taste characteristics in combination with meat or fish dishes.