When distilling technology reached Russia, a number of words were used to describe the spirit that came off of the pot still. One of these was polugar which translates as half-burnt, referring to the practice of lighting a spirit on fire to test its strength. Polugar is a pot distilled grain spirit and is often described as the forefather of vodka. Vodka, often defined by its purity, adopted the column still upon its arrival in Russia sometime in the second half of the 19th century, but polugar stuck with the pot still. In 1895, Russia created a state monopoly for alcohol, favoring large producers of vodka and causing smaller producers of polugar to close. In 2010, however, Rodionov & Sons resurrected this historic spirit and reintroduced the world to polugar.
While polugar is traditionally Russian, Rodionov & Sons built their distillery in Poland so they could recreate polugar using small pot stills and traditional recipes. Polugar does not have an official legal definition, so it can technically be made anywhere.
Polugar stands out as a unique style of pot distilled unaged grain spirit. The grain is fermented and then distilled two or three times. After distillation the spirit is filtered and lowered in strength with the addition of water to 38.5% ABV. Because of these production practices, polugar has a nice grain flavor that is softer on the palate than other unaged grain spirits.
A pot still consists of three primary parts: the pot, where a fermented liquid is placed, a head, which sits on top of the pot directing the vapors created during distillation into the condenser, and the condenser, where the vapors recondense into liquid due to reduction in temperature. The basic design of the alembic pot still has been largely unchanged since the it was invented in the 1300s.
The column still was invented in the 1800s and perfected by Aeneas Coffey who was a distillery excise tax collector. Coffey’s design uses gravity to pull a fermented mash or wash at the top column down to the bottom while rising steam strips the alcohol and travels through a series of plates until it reaches the condenser. This design is more efficient and allows for the creation of neutral alcohols such as vodka.
A generic name for any spirit distilled from grain. In the US, grain spirits are defined as a neutral spirit (vodka) that has been aged in oak barrels. Because of this, polugar must be classified as a specialty spirit since it does not meet the US legal definitions for vodka or grain spirits.