Kvass Brew

phillc · Nov 21, 2018

Perhaps not really a beer, but not really a cider or mead either, so it goes in this forum.

Started a Kvass this evening. A what? Kvass. It's a typical fermented low alcohol drink from Eastern Europe.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kvass

We had some stale-ish rye bread left and rather than throw it away I decided to brew Kvass. I mostly used the recipe here for Traditional Kvass:

https://www.chelseagreen.com/2018/homemade-kvass/

However, I doubled the numbers and made around 8 litres. I used dextrose as the sugar and more raisins than the recipe stipulated. I pitched a full 11.5g packet of Safbrew T-58 yeast which was re-hydrated in 200ml of water first.

Starting gravity was 1028, and I'm aiming to finish around 1015 for something in the region of 2% ABV. Don't mind if it's less ABV (higher gravity) as the goal is to make something tasty, refreshing and carbonated.

The plan is to bottle it in some large PET mineral water bottles after just 24 hours of fermenting tomorrow evening.

I've never brewed something with quite so much "trub"......

MyQul · Nov 21, 2018

What a coincidence. I only heard of Kvass yesterday when I was reading articles on american homebrewers association site. interesting that its a beer brewed with bread. A bit like the Toast brewery's bread beer

https://www.homebrewersassociation.org/how-to-brew/how-to-brew-russian-kvass/

https://www.toastale.com/homebrew-recipe/

phillc · Nov 21, 2018

Just been down to the cellar to check on things 90 minutes later and we're already away..... bubbling nicely through the airlock.

Next time I might try soaking the rye bread for 24 hours in advance, as per the recipe @MyQul linked to and not end up with all the bread in my fermenter.

A loaf of rye bread, typically something about to go bad, is placed in a vat and boiling-hot water poured over it. The bread soaks in the water for 24 hours, after which sugar and a yeast starter of baker’s yeast and flour are added. As soon as fermentation begins, it is bottled to add a bit of carbonation and is consumed fresh 2-3 days after.

Or I wonder maybe putting all the bread in a grain bag and leaving it in the wort, but at least that way it's all contained in something rather than just floating about.

BeerCat · Nov 21, 2018

That looks great. I love your comment about the trub. Going to have to make some rye bread and try it. I know @Inkman has made this before.

Inkman · Nov 22, 2018

Actually I'm set to make a pseudo kvass tonight. I baked a wholemeal rye sourdough bread(it was 5 pounds when baked), sliced it, toasted it in the oven, poured boiling water over it yesterday afternoon, tonight I'll mash it with 5pounds of basemalt, let it sit for 90 mins, then proceed the usual way, except this time I'll use kveik, (thanks BeerCat). It'll ferment in my keezer (with a tubular heater set to 39 C.) Planning to add orange peels and Coriander seeds with yeast. I'll keg it asap, Cold crash, gelatine, then Co2, will report back, how it went.

phillc · Nov 22, 2018

Twenty-four hours later, 6 litres of Kvass.

Final Gravity was 1022. This converts to an ABV of 0.79%. I'm fine with this as I expect another 0.5% in the bottles over the next 2-3 days. The four-year-old was also adamant that this had to be "kinder Kvass" (children's kvass). Therefore, such low alcohol volume is fine with me.

Using the gravity sample to taste, it was quite good, albeit a bit thin.

Lessons learned for next time:

Soak the bread for 24hrs in advance then remove from the "wort".
Or place bread in a mash bag and leave in the wort. I am positive I put 8 litres of water in this one, but only got 6 litres out. The bread soaked up a lot. In a mash bag, I could squeeze to remove excess liquid.
Leave for two or three days to ferment. Not for higher alcohol volume, although this would occur too, but I think mostly for taste.

Having done this with rye bread, I'm quite keen to explore rye malts now.