Making some Kvass.

Making kvass, based on a few recipes online and in this book

First recipe was about 3 litres, it was a loaf of rye bread and a small (half?) loaf of pumpernickle that a I dried/toasted, about a cup of sugar and some bread yeast and a touch of S04 dregs i had a round. I added some hops as dry-hopping but not enough as it didnt do anything for flavour or aroma and then I carbonated it in a mini keg.

Its…ok? Even though its cold it tastes like a warm beer, if that makes sense? Has a certain viscocity to it, but a nice tartness as well. I think hops would really help. Looks pretty good, though.

Kvass 2.0…. Bigger, about 9 litres, using a loaf of toasted light rye, a loaf of toasted sourbough, a small loaf of toasted pumpernickle and a loaf of toasted dark rye bread.

After straining the liquid off I only had about 4 litres and it wasnt very dark or flavourful. I then re-baked/dried/toasted the left over bread mush in batches for extra colour and flavour and re-soaked this to make up the difference in liquid. I also added 2 tbspn of coffee grounds and 1 tbspn of cocoa to add a bit more depth,

Also added a few grams of El Dorado and Cluster hops that i boiled for 15 minutes in 1litre of water that was added to the fermenter. 500g of raw sugar boiled down to a dark amber colour was also added along with a slug of molasses and a slug of maple syrup to add some depth,

Using Wyeast 3522 Belgian Ardennes yeast this time.

its murky as hell right now as I re-used the bread-mush, and didnt filter any of it. Hopefully a lot will drop out and the floculating yeast may help. Ill probably cold crash it and add some gelatine to clarify before final bottling,

Update – NOPE! – About a week or so later I had kegged some and bottled some. I chilled it down, The bottles had great carb and what came from the keg did to…It was….not good. It had a very strange charcater to it that made me concerned it was off (it wasnt as I didnt get sick from drinking some). I believe the Belgian yeast had set off some bizarre notes during fermentation and it was very off-putting.

Im not the biggest fan of the breaddy character of kvass, so trying a different yeast and adding hops to offset this some how sounded like a good idea, but maybe simplicity is the key here.

I think i’ll try again another time but mayeb add some fruit juice or some such, and use a very neutral yeast.