Braga is an alcoholic product used for making strong homemade drinks and beer. The alcohol content and the quality of the final product depend on the recipe and manufacturing technology. Braga on wheat was prepared in ancient Russia, the technology has changed little since then.
Ancient malt technology
Making mash from wheat is a laborious and lengthy process. For this purpose, select, ripe wheat is suitable, which must be germinated to obtain malt. It is necessary to soak the grain in a small amount of water for a day, during this time change the water three times. Then spread the wet wheat in a container with a layer of 8-10 cm and put in a warm place for a week, covering it with gauze soaked in water. Do not forget to stir it 2-3 times a day. The sprouts should germinate 7-8 mm and the roots 10 mm. This is green malt, it is not stored, it must be used immediately.
For long-term storage, you can prepare white malt - put the sprouted grains in the oven to dry, setting the temperature to 40 ° C, until the grains turn white. Crush it into flour, mix with warm water, add sugar and yeast. In percentage terms, it looks like this: 70% - water, 30% - flour, 20% by weight of flour - sugar, 5% - yeast. Insist the mash for 14 days. The mash is considered ripe when the fermentation process has ended in it and it becomes transparent. You can determine its readiness using a match - bring the burning match to the liquid, if it has not gone out, then you can distill it for moonshine.
Simplified wheat sourdough recipe
It is possible to make wheat mash according to a simplified recipe. Rinse a full-weight varietal product, pour it into a flask (38 liters), fill it with water slightly above the level of the grain and leave it for a day to soak, then add 1.5 kg of sugar to the container and put it in a warm place for a week, you get a sourdough with " wild yeast. " After seven days, add sugar and water wort to the flask at the level of the hangers, no more. From a full flask during fermentation, the liquid "climbs" through the top. For every 3.5 liters of water, 1 kg of sugar is taken. Close the container tightly and leave warm to ferment. The fermentation period depends on the room temperature, 10-14 days is enough for the mash to be ready. In the fermented stillage, sweetness is not felt, it has a bitter taste and a specific smell.
The grain sourdough can be used several times. Braga is drained and distilled into moonshine, sugar wort is again poured into the remaining thick - 10 kg of sugar on a flask and set to ferment. A quality drink is obtained from the second batch. Alcohol obtained from mash on wheat sourdough contains practically no fusel oils.
