Kvass

I recently was watching Bizarre Foods (A cool show) And he was in St. Petersburg Russia and was trying a non-alcoholic drink by Russian Standards called Kvass and is about 1-2% ABV... So I decided tomorrow after looking and digging up recipes to go and try to make some. I was wondering if anyone on here has tried to make some and if it came out good. If anyone had any family recipes that would be even greater. It seemed like a cool project to do and any help or anything would be cool...

They had a special in BYO a few issues back with some recipes, its like a beer that's made with bread right? I'm at work right now so I dont have the issue in front of me but maybe someone can chime in. Let us know how it is.

Yep it's like beer with bread With rye or pumpernickel to be exact

I found the BYO version but its not really a True to style version the OG is around 1.040 and has pilsner malt in it... Thanks for mentioning it I might have to try it once I go to The LHBS

Cool man. If you do it let us know how it turns out. I found that article very interesting, especially how it is made and served, like a hotdog stand style but with alcohol!!

Ya it's pretty cool And I will it should e a nice light alcohol change for beer.

i heard it is best to make your own bread, store bread has too much salt.

I made this a few years ago when I was living with my non-drinking family. It was great, but I really don't think I paid much attention to sanitizing or being precise. I would love to make it again, but I think I need a better recipe than the one I had hunted up online, so if you find one, post about it

The second time I made it, it smelled like beer. And my family was appalled. I was thrilled, inside, but I was a little afraid to drink it, too, so I dumped most of it out

I used store bought rye that was very hearty (some kind of specialty bread, their "rustic" rye, or something) and I brewed it in a one-gallon container. But anyway! Love to hear what you find and how it turns out.

Well I got pumpernickel bread because they didn't have any darker ryes that I needed and I read pumpernickel makes a heartier brew anyways So I boiled water and added bread now I'm waiting 8 hrs till 1230 to add sugar and yeast. I hope it turns out good the liquid I have right now looks good right. I nice amber color. I can't wait

I did everything and now after letting it ferment it smells alcoholic. I'm letting it sit so I can siphon it off the yeast layer and put it in bottles... I hope it's good right now it doesn't look very promising

You should read Radical Brewing by Randy Mosher. Its a great book and there is a chapter on historic brews. He talks about Kvass and has a recipe in there. Lots of other great ideas and other recipe's too! Its reasonably priced and an easy read!

There is a local nano-brewery here near Pittsburgh that gave this a shot. I went out to chat with him and he sent me home with a growler of it so I could review it for him on beer advocate. Again, as seems to be the case with a lot of attempts at this, it wasn't perfectly true to form...about 2.5% alcohol and he used a little bit of brewer's yeast in addition to the bread just to kickstart the fermentation. It wasn't all that good. It tasted like a watered down citrus drink to me and as you can imagine, it was VERY yeasty in taste.

I just bottled it and now I have to wait 4-5 days to carbonate... It says to rebottle off the sediment but I'm just gonna treat it like a beer and pour it off from yeast layer... It looks and smells disgusting but nothing flat and yeasty looks appetizing. I wasn't brave enough to taste it. I put some raisins in there cause recipe said so.. Can't wait to try it... And I was looking at getting tht book. I do like radical things

How does it taste?

I born in Russia and lived there for 18 years, and from what I know kvass is non-alcoholic beverage. More like soda, just not so carbonated and sweet. It is hundreds of years old, made from bread but this days its made out of extract on large scale and authenticity suffers as well as taste. I remember home made kvass, when I was a kid and my mother always make some. I have not found one commercial example that would be even close to that.

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The Mad Fermentationist has done a bunch of kvass experiments. Just go to his site, http://www.themadfermentationist.com/ and put "kvass" in the search box. I've been thinking about trying a kvass myself.

paraordnance said:

I born in Russia and lived there for 18 years, and from what I know kvass is non-alcoholic beverage. More like soda, just not so carbonated and sweet. It is hundreds of years old, made from bread but this days its made out of extract on large scale and authenticity suffers as well as taste. I remember home made kvass, when I was a kid and my mother always make some. I have not found one commercial example that would be even close to that.

Sent from GT-I9100M

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let me be the first to implore you to call home and get the recipe. :rockin: