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Kvass
Viertel
Member
Hi guys. Have you ever tried kvass? It is a traditional slavic drink known at least since 989 year. It is made of fermented roasted dry black/rye bread. It used to be very popular in almost all slavic regions - from Poland, through Belarus and Ukraine to Russia. Now it is popular only in three last and also in Lithuania (probably because of its history, Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, when Lithuania was a large country on slavic regions). In Poland this drink is almost forgotten, but it is not so hard to get it. Not so much time ago, even in pre-war era, many people had been making it on their own in their houses, because it is easy to made it. (Well, I've heard so, but myself-made kvass seemed more like bread wine, and is was awful :D maybe someday I'll try again)
Anyway, kvass is a good alternative to all carbonated drinks and - due to its low alcohol contain, about 0-1%- also to beer. It quenches thirst, is cooling and very tasty. My favourite.
And snuffing Brasil Feinst while drinking cooled kvass is one of the most amazing things in the world.
Anyway, kvass is a good alternative to all carbonated drinks and - due to its low alcohol contain, about 0-1%- also to beer. It quenches thirst, is cooling and very tasty. My favourite.
And snuffing Brasil Feinst while drinking cooled kvass is one of the most amazing things in the world.
Comments
I'd like to try someone else's to see if I like it before put in the work to try and brew it myself. Only one micro brewery in the USA makes it commercially, I've read.
@Xander, in soviet times kvass were being sold on the streets in East Europe. After Cold War it was still so popular in Baltic Countries that even Coca-Cola had to brew its own kvass - it is called Krushka and Bochka. I believe you can find it in America. It's not available in Poland so I can not tell you if it's good or is it just another mass made product.
I was in the Navy on an amphibious ship that carried Marines. After a deployment with them my division was assigned the task of cleaning the Marine berthings. We found all kinds of crazy stuff but also found several caches of "bilge wine." They would take bread yeast and jam packets from the galley, mix them with water in ammo boxes or whatever they could find, and make some pretty effective stuff. Nasty as hell but certainly effective.
From the kvasses I've tried, I would certainly recommend two:
- http://www.vilniausalus.lt/EN/catalog/product/78/retro-gira/
- http://www.kvas.lv/en/products/ilguciema-kvass/
I've tried Retro Gira once. As I remember its taste was quite different, hm, I've felt fruits and it was not raisins. Maybe orange, or something like that. And this latvian one I didn't like very much. I've tried honey, Rycerski and Porter. Well, maybe it is the matter of these big, 1.5L PET bottles. Every drink is better if it's in glass. And due to 1,5l bottle capacity, it just lose fizzy quickly. My favourite is definitely lithuanian Tauras Gira, but it is hard to get it, so my daily kvasses are Gubernija and Bohatyrskij.
I think that the Retro Gira and Ilguciema have the same taste and those are my favorites, althrough they are really hard to get.
Gubernija was also very good, but I can't say the same about Obolon kvass... I feel some honey and maybe that makes it to sweet.
PS: Don't try Van Pur's kvasses...
What's wrong with Obolon's Bohatyrskyj? Sweetness? I find this not even so sweet as cola, but maybe it depends from person. For what I know it's not another mass produced soda, but it is real kvass with all its health benefits. I don't know why is this so sweet, but it is good to have few different kvasses on the market.
Well Van Pur's can't even compete with any real kvass, but it's not so bad, especially plum one. Good alternative to these strange cheap juices, because it's also cheap (2,79zł/1,5l) and not so bad as - for example Cymes, Caprio, etc. I do really hate cheap juices, but sometimes I have to buy something what is large and as cheap as possible.
@Filek, have you tried Tradycyjny?
I'll keep an eye out for it. For that matter, if I really wanted to find it, I could probably do so by standing outside the Eastern Orthodox church in my area and asking people who enter/exit it.
My favourite summer brew.
Right now I'm sipping best Latvian kvass (IMO) - Bauska Kvass:
Only 2 grams of sugar per 100 ml, not over-carbonated, really refreshing one.
Available in 1.5 l PET bottles, too.
Although most kvasses are made by breweries, taste-wise they differ from beer (even the non-alko one) greatly.
Proper kvass is made of water, sugar, dried rye bread or malt with a very small amount of food acid (milk, lactic or ascorbic). Superior product contains only natural CO2, but some artificially carbonated kvasses are quite nice, too. Good kvass tastes quite like rye bread soup (crumbled Baltic rye bread with cold water and some sugar; imagine it carbonated, filtered and bottled). Some kvasses may contain yeast.
I was treated with a home brewed kvass once. It contained a fair amount of alcohol (up to 5%), but I found it tasting somewhat nauseous (due to the yeast) and lacking in natural CO2. I don't drink alcohol anymore, so I prefer non-alkoholic kvass. But even when I still was a drinker, I found the non-alko kvass tasting much better.