BellaOnline Forums Money Frugal Living Stale Bread? Make Kvass

Thanks, debbie.

I'm noticing that drinking my kvass in the evening is already saving me money. The kvass costs almost nothing to make (yeast, sugar and old bread can be bought with food stamps, and otherwise are found cheaply at stores).

Usually I like to have a glass of wine or beer in the evenings when i hang around and do my research or watch a show. Since having the kvass, i haven't needed to buy any alcohol. There is no alcohol in my house!

I don't like soda or juice, don't really dig tea (it goes cold on me too quickly) and feel no need for coffee at night, so i like having a certain mouth-feel of beer or wine to sip. The kvass provides that. It looks like an unfiltered wheat beer and tastes like a very light beer (but bread-flavored!).

I'm so pleased to be less enslaved to my evening beer and wine habit. And from what i've read, kvass is a very healthy drink that's loaded with vitamins. I could actually completely eliminate a budget item (alcohol) from my monthly list. I usually set aside some cash each month to purchase cheap wine or beer. This is far nicer, for pennies.

That is great, Jilly!

Starting a new batch tonite! Going to use my garden mint in it for this one. Mmmmm.

That sounds neat to use the mint. I am sure it will be good.

Okay, so i made some kvass with my garden mint and some with garden marjoram. I must say they are both pretty good, but i might like the marjoram better. It smells like pizza (real NY pizza) but has a more subtle flavor than the bright notes of the mint kvass.

This is fun. I totally will try garden fennel next. I made a double batch of the mint kvass, so that should last me a little bit. Maybe I will back off a bit and try a 1/2 batch on the fennel.

I'm having a lot of fun. My mint kvass, after a week of setting in the bottle, has calmed down into a lovely almost-wine tasting herbal brew. Is that the action of the raisins? I need to research this much more.

My family visited this week and I couldn't get them to try it, which i found frustrating. My brother said it smelled like vomit. Nice.

My mother thoughtfully lied to me and said it smelled good. Yay for moms!

They didn't like the smell of the marjoram one any better, even though it smells awesomely like NY pizza.

I have a small fennel batch going, just to see. The fennel in my garden is doing well, and i love fennel in general. I haven't seen any fennel recipes but it seems like something worth trying to get a little kick out of the beverage.

Hmph. People seem interested when I tell them this was what everyone used to drink, but i think, as a society, we've gotten too used to sugary soda to appreciate something old/new.

Anyway, I am renewing my efforts to research this beverage! And will at least write up my recipes thus far in the article area.

Great update, Jilly. With home brewing becoming more popular I am surprised that not more people would be willing to try it, either tasting it or making it.

I don't have a place to put this right now, so i will add the link here. How to Make Finnish Sahti - an ale from baking yeast.

It's good to have more beverages made from bread yeasts!

At the risk of getting silly, I made a one bottle batch of kvass today and added a banana and cinnamon. I had the banana and it was getting black...i had to do something with it. So into a kvass it went and i closed it up.

It could be good. It could suck.