KVASS

[BeerGut]

I've read about it and I've heard the rumors of KVASS ("Russian Cola") being brewed in Pittsburg and Brooklyn but I am unable to find any.

Does anyone have an opiion about this brew, or better yet, a place to procure such beverage?

[cdh]

I've never tried it myself, strangely enough given all the brewing I've done and all the time I've spent living in Russia and immediate environs... but I've never had the opportunity and the desire at the same time.

If you want to find it, look in Eastern European markets like the one in this thread. Scroll down for pictures of bottles of it on shelves.

[feedmec00kies]

I've read about it and I've heard the rumors of KVASS ("Russian Cola") being brewed in Pittsburg and Brooklyn but I am unable to find any.

Does anyone have an opiion about this brew, or better yet, a place to procure such beverage?

←

You can find kvass if you go to Brooklyn and look in the right (read: Russian) stores. I'm not a huge fan, so I can't give you specifics at the moment. I might be able to get suggestions from someone for you.

As for Pittsburgh, it was true. East End Brewing did a special brewing with Tom Baker from (what was) Heavyweight Brewing two times, in fall of 2006 and 2007. It's not available anymore, though, since it was draft only and they haven't brewed it since. You can read about it if you like, though: clicky.

Hope that helps.

[BeerGut]

Thank you both! I'll keep an eye out for Kvass and report back if I find it.

In the meantime I'll just open another Founder's Rye

[mattohara]

Bell's Market definitely has it. It's really interesting, comes in a 2-liter plastic bottle and is not alcoholic.

[feedmec00kies]

Hey, I heard recently that East End is going to re-release their kvass. You should try and contact them and see when.

[tlbrower]

Hey, does anyone have or know where I might find a good Kvass recipe? I've tried making it several times and it never seems to turn out quite right. Any suggestions??

[liuzhou]

The largest beverage company in China and therefore one of the largest in the world is the ridiculously named 娃哈哈 (wá hā hā, literally 'baby haha'), founded in 1987 by Zong Qinghou (宗庆后) with three employees and a $20,000 USD loan (140,000元).

 

They sell everything drinkable except hard liquor and now have around 30,000 employees. Their top seller is their purified water which I often buy.

 

 

I was surprised to see today that they have launched their own kvass, which they call 格瓦斯 (gé wǎ sī) in an attempt to replicate the Russian квас phonetically.

 

 

Unfortunately, the literal meaning of 格瓦斯 is 'standard gas', wǎ sī being an earlier attempt to replicate 'gas'. A linguistic mess.

 

Apart from the wort*, which they don't give details of, it contains apple juice and 'grape syrup', sugar and a bunch of chemicals with long names, none of them necessary.

 

 

What does it taste like? How the heck would I know? I lived in Russia in the latter years of the Soviet Union, where I drank it once and found it disgusting. Never again.

 

* "A sweet liquid produced by steeping ground malt or other grain in hot water, which is then fermented to produce beer."
 

Edited March 12 by liuzhou (log)

[liuzhou]

I did try the kvass in the end. It tastes like ludicrously sweet fizzy apple juice. Not totally terrible but far too sweet.