Kvass: Thoughts?

Hey! I ran into a recipe for a low-alcohol Russian rye beer caller Kvass.
(Here is the recipe: http://www.whats4eats.com/beverages/kvas-recipe)
I was wondering if anyone had heard of this before and if anyone had any tips for brewing. One friend suggested using an ale yeast instead of just normal active dry yeast and another suggested just using rye flour and not baking it but I wanted to see what everyone here thought about it

I would suggest using the bread, since i think a lot of the flavor in kvas is from the slight roasting that the rye bread has (also if you do go the flour route, I think most rye breads are about 50/50 rye wheat, so you might want to mix it with some wheat flour).

I think the suggestion to use ale yeast is a solid one. I would go with a hefe or similar yeast personally.

if you wanted to add a little alcohol to it you could add a small amount of DME to give it a little more fermentables, since the bread is mostly not fermentable.

BYO did an article on this beer in the December 2010 issue. I have it if you want any details they provide about this beer. There's also a few recipes.

Thanks for all the tips everyone! Wesley, if you could drop any tips from the article or share any information that you think is interesting or useful I would be very grateful. I am baking some rye bread tomorrow so that will, in a way, begin the brewing process. I will share my success/failure story as soon as I get a taste. Thanks again guys!

Sounds cool, hope to hear some advice from others and your eventual results!

Bhladhm said:

Thanks for all the tips everyone! Wesley, if you could drop any tips from the article or share any information that you think is interesting or useful I would be very grateful. I am baking some rye bread tomorrow so that will, in a way, begin the brewing process. I will share my success/failure story as soon as I get a taste. Thanks again guys!

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I'm glad you're experimenting with this. When I read the article I was definitely interested, but didn't plan to attempt it. The recipe provided in BYO to make a more traditional Kvass than what's commonly found today is as follows:
5 gallons, all grain
OG = 1.036
FG = 1.009
IBU= 1.5
SRM = 6.7
ABV= 3.5
5.5 lbs pilsner malt
1 lb rye malt
.5 lb brown malt
.47 AAU Styrian goldings hops (30 min)
(0.1 oz of 4.5% alpha acids)
.2 oz ground caraway (30 min)
Bread yeast (red star or fleischmann's)

Slice a loaf of stale rye bread and soak it in 1 gallon of 190 F water overnight. On brew day mash grains 60 minutes at 152 F.
Purée the loaf of bread and soaking water and add to boil kettle along with mash runnings. Do your best to break apart the bread with a whisk before adding it to the kettle. Due to the short 30 min boil and added bread water make sure not to collect too much wort pre boil.
Stir the beer as it comes to a boil to prevent scorching. Add the hops and caraway at the start of the boil. After 30 min boil chill to 75, aerate, and pitch 1/4 gram of dried bread yeast rehydrated in warm water (90-100 F). Despite the small amount of yeast visible fermentation should begin within 24 hrs.
When fermentation is complete, bottle with 4.5 oz of sugar for medium high carbonation.

Also you can expect with the combination of low alcohol, low IBUs, and bread yeast that this might sour. (Which could be desirable for the style) To avoid this you could add more hops and use ale yeast. Also it will be easy for the bread to scorch on the bottom of the brew kettle when boiling so stir really good when adding. They don't give an extract option, but I assume using an amount of extract to get you to the target OG would be fine. If there's anything else just ask and I'll look to see if it's covered in the article.

Bhladhm said:

Hey! I ran into a recipe for a low-alcohol Russian rye beer caller Kvass.
(Here is the recipe: http://www.whats4eats.com/beverages/kvas-recipe)
I was wondering if anyone had heard of this before and if anyone had any tips for brewing. One friend suggested using an ale yeast instead of just normal active dry yeast and another suggested just using rye flour and not baking it but I wanted to see what everyone here thought about it

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My experience with kvas is that most of y American friends don't care for it. But I love the stuff! My wife is Russian and the recipe you have is pretty much a standard. That said, there are as many variations on kvas as beer, I would suppose.

Hey yo a Polish buddy introduced me to kvass !
I soak a well done toaster toasted 1lb sliced loaf of good sour dough rye bread overnight in 4L previously boiled water that had 1 cup of raisins added anytime b4 the boil...I squeeze the bread lightly and remove it with the raisins and pour into pop bottles, burp for a few days to desired pressure, refrigerate and voila !! An addictive tastey drink !
It's fun being creative and as said b4 use stale and cheap seasonal ingredients !!! Enjoy

WesleyS said:

I'm glad you're experimenting with this. When I read the article I was definitely interested, but didn't plan to attempt it. The recipe provided in BYO to make a more traditional Kvass than what's commonly found today is as follows:
5 gallons, all grain
OG = 1.036
FG = 1.009
IBU= 1.5
SRM = 6.7
ABV= 3.5
5.5 lbs pilsner malt
1 lb rye malt
.5 lb brown malt
.47 AAU Styrian goldings hops (30 min)
(0.1 oz of 4.5% alpha acids)
.2 oz ground caraway (30 min)
Bread yeast (red star or fleischmann's)

Slice a loaf of stale rye bread and soak it in 1 gallon of 190 F water overnight. On brew day mash grains 60 minutes at 152 F.
Purée the loaf of bread and soaking water and add to boil kettle along with mash runnings. Do your best to break apart the bread with a whisk before adding it to the kettle. Due to the short 30 min boil and added bread water make sure not to collect too much wort pre boil.
Stir the beer as it comes to a boil to prevent scorching. Add the hops and caraway at the start of the boil. After 30 min boil chill to 75, aerate, and pitch 1/4 gram of dried bread yeast rehydrated in warm water (90-100 F). Despite the small amount of yeast visible fermentation should begin within 24 hrs.
When fermentation is complete, bottle with 4.5 oz of sugar for medium high carbonation.

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i have a question.... i made my Kvas and i have all that fermented bread ( zakvaska) left over. i would like to keep it for later use but i am not sure whats the proper storage for it . i am afraid if i put it in the fridge, i will kill the yeast.

I made a basic rye bread kvass and didn't particularly care for it... tasted like liquid toast...
But *beet* kvass? Me likey!

Also check out tepache... it's just lacto fermented pinapple scraps (skin and core) with added sugar and cinnamon... Also pretty good. And if left to ferment too long will make a tasty pineapple vinegar as well

Medic7244 said:

i am afraid if i put it in the fridge, i will kill the yeast.

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yeast is stored cold all the time.... Should just make it go dormant...

This about sums up my own experience with making homemade kvass a few years ago: