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Last year I visited my distant relatives in Belovezhskaya Pushcha. In the afternoon, they organized a short excursion for me, during which I was lucky to see bison, and in the evening they arranged a feast.
Belovezhskaya Pushcha is famous for its moonshine – “puschanka”, so I was not at all surprised when they put a three-liter jar with a liquid as transparent as a tear on the table.
Pushchanka not only looked like a tear. After the first glass I drank, tears involuntarily welled up in my eyes. I convulsively began to swallow air with a burning throat, caught my breath with difficulty and in a hoarse voice asked what I had just drunk. I was told that it was a pervak.
The story was sent by a subscriber Matvey from Belarus, who has been reading the blog for almost a year.
What is pervak
Before, I only heard about vodka, which is produced under the Pervak brand. In Belovezhskaya Pushcha, we drank, of course, not vodka, but real moonshine.
I was told that this is a product that is obtained at the very beginning of the distillation process. It is very strong: usually they put a 70-degree drink on the table.
Despite its strength, Pervak has an interesting and even pleasant taste for some. It retains a light bready aroma that bears little resemblance to the harsh vodka smell.
My Belarusian relatives prefer Pushchanka to all other alcoholic drinks, and Pervak is kept for special occasions, for example, for the arrival of long-awaited guests.
And this is not surprising, since it is not much inferior in taste even to branded alcoholic beverages.
Is it worth collecting pervak at all?
Returning home, I decided to try to drive out the pervak on my own. Having purchased an inexpensive alembic, I went to the wilds of the Internet in search of a recipe.
After browsing several relevant sites, I managed to find out that Pervak contains substances dangerous to humans: methyl alcohol and acetone.
Do not benefit the body and fusel oils contained in it. Due to the high proportion of the above, some moonshiners simply pour out Pervak.
Of course, Shakespeare’s question “To drive or not to drive?” did not appear before me, but I seriously thought about whether it was worth collecting pervak.
Having dug more on the Internet, I was no less surprised to find that methanol and acetone are found in small concentrations in ordinary vodka and other alcoholic beverages. And the high quality of elite alcohol is simply a matter of thorough cleaning.
Pervak from Belovezhskaya Pushcha
It also turned out that modern distillation technologies make it possible to minimize the content of these substances in moonshine. And if you are not too zealous in use, pervak may well take pride of place among the drinks at the festive table.
How to collect pervak correctly
For myself, I realized that the most undesirable are acetone and methyl alcohol. Therefore, when collecting pervak, it is their content that must be minimized.
The boiling point of acetone, methanol and aldehydes is lower than that of ethyl alcohol. They are the first to evaporate. Therefore, at the beginning of the distillation, I followed the process very carefully in order to prevent overheating of the mash.
Pervak collection process
The very first distillate that dripped into the collection container from the refrigerator smelled of acetone. I waited until the smell changed to fusel, poured out the resulting liquid and began to collect moonshine, controlling its strength.
When the fortress dropped to 55 degrees at the exit from the refrigerator, I stopped collecting pervak, having received one and a half liters of a 65-degree drink.
Is it worth it to clean extra
The resulting moonshine was slightly cloudy in appearance, so I decided to further clean it. And to be sure – in two ways.
At first, ordinary potassium permanganate, bought at the nearest pharmacy, was used. Having added half a liter of permanganate to the moonshine, I left it overnight and strained it through cheesecloth in the morning.
For re-cleaning, I used charcoal – the one that is bought for barbecues. Coal was placed in pervak and left for a day. After that, I again strained the moonshine through cheesecloth.
Clean as a tear pervak - as an addition to simple rural food
My first pervak hit the table as transparent as spring water. The tasting went very well. So I got acquainted with moonshine and learned a lot about the production of alcohol. Have you ever driven a pervak?