I found both dark and light rye bread at the store but it was the factory-made kind. I definitely made mistakes with both batches including adding way too much bread to the light kvass.the bottles need a day to carbonate then we shall see how well they turned out. Not that I have any reference for the flavor.
Kvass flavor is generally light and fresh, bread-like, a bit sour, can be lightly sweet, floral - a lot depends on ingredients and technology.
It has a softer aftertaste and is generally low on that smell after you drank it compared to beer.
Source: Russian, drank a lot of kvass
I've made fruit kvass before, but never with bread. Will be watching with interest.
I mean I finished these. The two types of the resulted in surprisingly different flavors. The dark rye one wound up being sickly sweet so I think the sugar was too much.
I brewed beer for years but I don’t recall hearing of this kvass.
NEAT!!
what’s your abv? What’s your recipe?
So I only fermented for ~a week and I sort of combined a few recipes I found online including one from a YouTube channel called TheBruSho. Here is what I came up with after reading a few:
Rye Kvass:
~7 Pieces of Rye Bread(preferably dark or Russian rye)
~1/2 gal [1.9L] Water
~2/3 cup [150g| sugar(can be substituted with wort, honey, molasses, ect)
Handful of raisins or any other dried berry (cut in half if you like) ~10
Optional: Pinch of bread yeast or tea sppon of sour dough starter to accelerate the fermentation
Toast the bread so dark as to be almost burned
Boil enough water to cover the toast and pour over toasted bread pieces
Wait until room temp and add raisins and sugar
Ferment 3-5 days depending on your fermentation activity. Bottle with more raisins and a tea spoon of sugar and set on counter 2-3 days Refrigerate and drink
From what I understand you can then use the filtered out bread as a starter for the next batch. There is also beet kvass that is either combined with rye bread or used on its own. So far it seems like the easiest and most versatile probiotic drink style but I haven't experimented with all of them yet. I didn't check ABV but they say it is usually 0.5-2.0%
Other than the raisins…. 🤣
That sounds amazing actually.
Thank you for sharing
The raisins are there as a source of yeast and really doesn't impact the flavor that much as this amount. They can be removed if you use another source of yeast.
Sourdough starter would probably be a superior option - lactic acid fermentation is essential for a good kvass
I used sour dough starter on my second attempt and it carbonated way faster than just raisins.
Totally believable
Kvass is a Slavic drink highly popular in the Slavic countries. It is lighter than beer (considered non-alcoholic in most places, alcohol content is typically below 1,5%vol), very refreshing and just nice. You should give it a try!