# Kvass..russian Style Bread "beer"



## fcmcg (16/6/11)

So whilst I'm unable ( read not allowed lol ) to brew due to the arrival of our bub 7 weeks ago , I have been making other alcoholic delights in the kitchen in small amounts of time.Currently I have some of brewer Pete's JAO on the go and some of Thirsty's rice wine ( I'm on the iPhone so too hard to link ) All of these are fermenting away quietly and require minimal work or set up..compared to my 3v system.
SO in December's BYO magazine , there was an article for about Kvass , which is an old style slightly alcoholic ( 1 or 2 % ) drink made from rye bread . Now whilst the article gave some simple recipes , it also went into detail about some more detailed mashing recipes. Now all of these are too hard to do at the moment , so ive done a little research and found this little gem , which I hope to make today and take to Westgates meeting on Sunday ! 
Anyway...KVASS recipe i found online below....which is a traditional recipe and not like the BYO recipe in so far as there is no boiling or mashing as such....
Ingredients

1.3 gal. water (4.9 litres)
1.1 lbs. black rye bread (.500 g)
0.45 oz. yeast (13g)
3.5 oz. sugar (100g)
0.35 oz. mint (10g)
Preparation

1. Slice the bread and dry it in the oven. The rusks should be ruddy but not burnt.

2. Put the rusks in the sausepan, pour the boiling water, cover the contents and draw for 2-3 hours.

3. Strain the infusion through clothing without pressing, add the yeast, mint and sugar.

4. When kvass starts to foam, filter it again, pour out in bottles, put 3-5 raisins into each bottle and cork them.

5. Leave kvass for 2-3 days until it is ready.

Tips for Making and Serving Kvass

1. The water used for kvass must be soft.

2. Store kvass in the cool place after you have poured it into bottles.

3. Kvass is best served chilled in hot weather

Wish me luck !
Cheers
Ferg


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## Supra-Jim (16/6/11)

I remember reading the article and it did sound like an interesting drink. Your recipe seems pretty simple there, please keep us posted on how this goes( +photos!!).

Cheers SJ


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## Phoney (16/6/11)

My dad used to make this all the time when I was growing up....

Nice served cold on a hot summers day, but essentially it's a peasants drink. :lol:


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## fcmcg (16/6/11)

Yes Photo's or it never happened ! Not sure how I'll go finding rye bread but I'm on a mission..oh and I will be using the old tandaco dry bread yeast !


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## fcmcg (16/6/11)

phoneyhuh said:


> My dad used to make this all the time when I was growing up....
> 
> Nice served cold on a hot summers day, but essentially it's a peasants drink. :lol:


Well I am a peasant lol 
Did your Dads recipe look the same , do you know ?


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## peas_and_corn (16/6/11)

Some more info on kvass here, an Egyptian equivalent, and a related topic- kombucha tea.


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## sinkas (16/6/11)

you coudl but cznned kvass over here for a while, I quite liked it, pretty sweet and tasty


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## Braumoasta (16/6/11)

fergthebrewer said:


> Yes Photo's or it never happened ! Not sure how I'll go finding rye bread but I'm on a mission..oh and I will be using the old tandaco dry bread yeast !



Over here in Perth I often buy rye bread from the German butcher or from a European bakery. Maybe have a look around and see if there is a European style bakery near you?

Good luck with the recipe, it does sound interesting! :icon_cheers:


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## mje1980 (16/6/11)

My mother in law has a russian background. I've had this ( home made ) and it was interesting. They put sultanas in it too. It was pretty fizzy as well. NEver made it though


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## brettprevans (16/6/11)

mate radical brewing has a kvass recipe also. Ill shoot it through

kvass recipes alter quite a bit becasue its a style of drink, not a particular ingredient ie its not just a rye bread based drink. 

another really interesting oold recipe is Devon White Ale, brewed with eggs. also covered in radical brewing (p246). link 1, 

mosher's recipe
Yield: 1 Gallon
4.0 lbs. Pilsner Malt
3.0 oz. wheat flour
.5 egg white
.2 oz. kosher salt
.25 oz. coriander
.25 tsp powdered ginger
.12 tsp caraway
Use Bread Yeast
no boil. 

there's quite a few odd little beers to make in that book that might tickle your fancy


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## super_simian (16/6/11)

Coriander...salt...Gose? Sure looks that way!


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## AussieJosh (17/6/11)

Maybe Kvass is good to keep the cold winters away!?
But have you seen Russian girls!? You dont need no beer glasses for them!!!
I also want to know how it turns out!


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## stl (17/6/11)

My wife (being Russian and all) tried making something pretty similar to the OPs/BYOs recipe once... turned out pretty well. The mint is optional but I find it goes well. Plenty of other recipes she's found use malted rye in addtion to or in place of the rye bread.

Kvass is a good use for those old dried kit beer yeasts you might have lying around...

Another use for kvass itself is as the base of a cold soup, Okroshka.


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## BjornJ (17/6/11)

here is a recipe using Burgen Rye bread from Woolies:

http://liza.id.au/attempt-at-kvass-making/





Never tried it but it sounds fun. Hopefully someone can post some pics and a taste review.

Bjorn


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## Dave70 (17/6/11)

BjornJ said:


> here is a recipe using Burgen Rye bread from Woolies:
> 
> http://liza.id.au/attempt-at-kvass-making/
> 
> ...



Forget the fcuking soggy bread water.
That girl is _hot..
_


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## fcmcg (17/6/11)

Well yesterday started off well..I actually was able to get what i wanted and get this experiment on the go !


Got this bread at Coles...it was exactly what i was looking for...Black Rye !

I also picked up some fresh mint and some Tandaco yeast ! 



After Toasting the bread in the oven at 180 degrees for about 15 or 20 min ,I put it all into a big pot with the 4.9 litres of hot water .



At this point , fatherly duties took over , so i had to leave everything to soak over night.
This morning , i put the pot onto the stove to put a smidgen of heat back into it , to help the least.It was on for like 5 min , if that....
I then strained the bread through some muslin ( baby swaddle actually  lol)



At this point , I added the mint , the 100g of sugar and pitched 2 pkts of bread yeast.
I probably should have pounded the mint up a bit more , but just tore it up.I then gave it all a good stir.It was tasting sweet , rye like.


The recipe said to wait untill it began to foam...so that's what i did...but seeing it's so bastard cold today , i put in on the stove with a gas jet on near it !



Once it had been foaming for an hour and a half , i then strained the whole lot into a 3 litre bottle with 15 rasions in it.



It's looking quite funky now.The iphone pic doesn't do the fizziness justice.This thing is spritzy as !Plan is to take it to brew club on Sunday , as these things are apparently ready in 2 to 3 days...



I'm not sure what it's going to taste like , but it has been fun and SWMBO has been excited that apprently i can make "beer" in less than 6 hours...
I shall report back on Sunday night , what it was like and how it went !
Cheers
Ferg :icon_chickcheers:


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## fcmcg (17/6/11)

BjornJ said:


> here is a recipe using Burgen Rye bread from Woolies:
> 
> http://liza.id.au/attempt-at-kvass-making/
> 
> ...


Just had a quick look at this one...seems a might complicated...and i'm after easy at the moment !
Cheers
Ferg


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## Supra-Jim (17/6/11)

Nice work Ferg, and great work with the photos.

Cheers SJ


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## fcmcg (18/6/11)

So today , alot of the yeast have dropped out of suspension...it's still looking cloudy but i'm thinkning i might put it into the fridge to dry and clean it up a bit more !


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## Braumoasta (25/6/11)

Any news as to how this turned out??


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## Ash in Perth (25/6/11)

This kind of thing really interests me, I'd also love to hear how it turned out.

I wonder how close this was to what the first types of 'beer' were like?

With time not always being on my side, I like to do mini mashes on the stove and the like to play around with strange traditional style recipes.


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## fcmcg (25/6/11)

How did it turn out ? 
It had stopped bubbling by Saturday night..so I popped into the fridge to drop out a bit more of the yeast that was in suspension...
Well I took it along to Westgate Brewers meeting , last Sunday and was greeted with horror from the brewer hood . "hey ! We are a brew club " I said and they all took a step back and agreed to give it a try...
It looked pretty scary in the glass , small bubbles and the odd raisin floating in it..
Barry , the club whipping boy , declared it shit and tipped it...
I put my glass to my mouth and took a big sip...
Strong Rye taste IMHO , slightly salty ( no salt added ) . The 100g of sugar was not evident at all in any sweetness.The mouth feel was also medium with some perceived slickness . The raisins had also lost all of their flavor and were just like little bloated pillows of nothing lol . 
One club member loved it and asked for recipe..he wants to make 20 litres of it....
Would I make it again ? Probably not but it was a fun and easy experiment and a good insight into how you can make a "mash" using bread and end up with a very slightly alcoholic drink ...
Maybe if I did it again , I'd make the Russian style summer soup that this "beer" forms the base of..
Cheers 
Ferg


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