Summer Drink! Kvass

So a guy I work with is Russian, and he has asked me to brew his favorite summer time drink, Kvass. For those of us in the US, kvass doesn't sounds appealing... It is basically a slightly carbonated drink made from a fermentation of rye bread, yeast, and sugar. Certain variations on the traditional recipe call for the addition of raisins, berries, or even mint leaves at the time of bottling.

My friend tells me that kvass is available in plastic bottles like any other soft drink. But, he says, these aren't worth the money. True kvass is sold from a barrel as seen below...

Well, I love a challenge, so I'll be using this recipe, but I'll be using better brewing techniques/equipment. One thing I am looking forward to.. getting back to brewing AND kvass is a quick turnaround, which is good because i am impatient.

Next post will include my experience in setting this brew up.

UPDATE:
Sunday afternoon, 7/11/2010 - Ok well I have moved through the first few steps and here are some thoughts.

First, the bread, i think, should be very dry... not just dry to the touch, but truly as dry as it would be if it were stale.

I say this because the recipe called for 3 quarts of initial water (the recipe is designed to yield a total of 2.5 quarts), but the bread soaked up and completely retained about 2 quarts of liquid. We strained the bread mush through a cheesecloth, but were unable to squeeze out any more than 1 quart of liquid without pulverizing the bread which would have at least made the kvass cloudy, and at worst would have made it undrinkable with all those bread solids in the final brew. My suspicion is that stale bread would not retain as much water and it would be possible to actually strain the majority of the liquid out of the bread without too much squeezing.

To bring the volume back up to the final volume of 2.5 quarts, I simply added tap water.

To recap where I am at, I have primed the yeast and added it and the sugar to the 2.5 quarts of water in a large pot. The recipe says to let this rest for 8-10 hours before bottling.

I will be approaching this more from a beer brewer's angle. I will actually be treating the 8-10 hours as a primary fermentation... so its going into a 1 gallon glass jug along with an airlock so I can monitor the yeast activity. In the end I plan to fill a couple of wine bottle to separate the kvass from the trub, or sediment.

More after a few days...

Update Sunday evening 7/11: Fermentation seems to be stuck going on 8 hours after leaving the wort to rest. Possibly due to old yeast. I have aerated the wort and added 1 teaspoon of yeast nutrient to attempt to jolt the yeast into action.

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Update Monday afternoon 7/12: Success! Not sure if it was due to the aeration or yeast nutrient I added at the last update, but just got in from work and the yeast have started working their magic. There is definitely positive pressure and a froth at the top of the brew.

More in a few days...

Update Thursday afternoon 7/15: So, the fermentation is really moving now (and still). So much so that the yeast sediment is being kicked up into the brew... I will check tomorrow and if it has settled down I will bottle it, but it if the pace is still high I will wait. I will be away this weekend and the last thing I need to come home to is an exploded bottle of brew in the fridge.




Update Sunday Afternoon 7/25: Well fermentation finished up well and then i got busy so the kvass sat for about a week. But I have bottled it up with a bit of priming sugar to help build up some carbonation in the fridge.