Ochakovskiy Kvass
Ochakovo

Ochakovskiy KvassOchakovskiy Kvass
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From:
Ochakovo
 
Russia
Style:
Kvass
Ranked #17
ABV:
1.2%
Score:
68
Ranked #28,121
Avg:
2.87 | pDev: 24.04%
Reviews:
93
Ratings:
135
Status:
Active
Rated:
Oct 02, 2023
Added:
Jun 08, 2008
Wants:
  32
Gots:
  2
No description / notes.
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Ratings by Damian:
Photo of Damian
Reviewed by Damian from Massachusetts

3.27/5  rDev +13.9%
look: 3.5 | smell: 4 | taste: 3 | feel: 2 | overall: 3.5
Drank from a 17.63 fl. oz./500 ml. can purchased at Bazaar International Gourmet, Brookline, MA
Served in a pint glass

The malt beverage poured a clear, dark, reddish-mahogany color with a very bubbly and fast fading, one-finger head.

The aroma was unusual. It reminded me more of prune juice than anything else. A barley flavored soda also came to mind. (Possibly a barley flavored cola?) Sweet, but not overly so. Notes of molasses were quite strong. Somewhat woody and a bit tea-like.

The taste was similar to the aroma but a bit more cutting. Imagine what a cola flavored soda would taste like if it had the ability to ferment after being left in the hot sun for a few hours, and you will have a good idea of the flavor profile. Sweet molasses notes came through up front. Malty and a bit woody in the center. Quite herbal and spicy. Fermented apple juice was noticeable in the sweet, lingering finish. At 2% ABV, the alcohol was more prominent than I anticipated.

The mouthfeel was thin and watery with a mild yet prickly carbonation that quickly faded.

When I asked the woman working at the Russian market about this beer, she proclaimed that it indeed was not beer but rather soda. (A healthier version of a soda, to be specific.) After tasting this beverage, I would have to agree with her.

This was not something I would choose to drink often (even if I could choose it over soda) but I am definitely glad I tried it.
Jan 24, 2009
More User Ratings:
 
Rated: 2.91 by AndyGG from California

Oct 02, 2023
 
Rated: 3.25 by jvgoor3786 from Arkansas

Dec 02, 2022
Photo of snaotheus
Reviewed by snaotheus from Washington

2.38/5  rDev -17.1%
look: 3.25 | smell: 2.75 | taste: 2 | feel: 2.75 | overall: 2.25
2022-07-09
2L plastic bottle served in a tulip. There are three lines etched into the bottle: 02.09.21, 02.09.22P10, and 17:57:45. I would *guess* this means it was bottled February 2021 and was best by February 2022. My wife picked it up at a local European deli. Also interesting, the label doesn't seem to mention abv at all -- from the labeling, I would assume it's a soda.

Pours dark brown, very little head or carbonation. Smell is grainy and musty (like...wet sweepings?), a little bit of ashiness, maybe some dark bread crust aroma. There is something super familiar about this smell that I just can't place.

Taste is sweet, like really sweet. Running toward sweetened grape juice and prunes maybe. Graininess is there, kind of.

Mouthfeel is medium, slick, smooth. Overall...I'm really, really not enjoying this. I'm dumping most of this glass and the rest of this bottle.
Jul 09, 2022
 
Rated: 3.75 by cryptichead from Illinois

Dec 19, 2021
Photo of elNopalero
Reviewed by elNopalero from Michigan

3.69/5  rDev +28.6%
look: 4 | smell: 3.75 | taste: 3.75 | feel: 3.5 | overall: 3.5
From a can. Everything on the can is in Cyrillic, but I recognize the kbac for kvass.
Pours a dark malty cola-burgundy. The depth of color is intense. Sweet and bready, with a long finish.
Dec 15, 2020
 
Rated: 3 by StoutAtTheDevil from Alabama

Mar 16, 2020
Photo of jkblr
Reviewed by jkblr from Indiana

3.37/5  rDev +17.4%
look: 3.25 | smell: 3.75 | taste: 3.25 | feel: 3.25 | overall: 3.25
500mL can (I think) stamped 19/07/19 19/07/20 (6 months old) poured into a tulip pint glass at fridge temp, no ABV listed on can (can't read anything as it's 100% Russian). The beer pours mostly bright dull brown with light khaki head that's gone in 60 seconds. The aroma is literally liquid rye bread. The taste is cherry coke, molasses and rye with a tangy twist and some next level sweetness. This will become my new frame of reference for cloying. The mouthfeel is medium to thin bodied with very low carbonation and the least dry finish ever. Overall, it's a Kvass. What the heck would I know about it.
Jan 26, 2020
 
Rated: 2.5 by harpus from Alabama

Jan 25, 2020
 
Rated: 3.5 by igl from Russian Federation

Feb 21, 2019
Photo of DoctorZombies
Reviewed by DoctorZombies from Florida

3.24/5  rDev +12.9%
look: 3.75 | smell: 3.5 | taste: 3 | feel: 3.25 | overall: 3.25
Ruby brown pour from one liter plastic bottle; no head; very good clarity; micro dots of lace only on vigorous swirl. Sweet rye bread nose. Very sweet baked brown bread pudding; rye bread; slight metallic fruity medicinal taste in the finish. Almost no carbonation, lite and watery body. Overall kinda like drinking a watered down flat Pepsi, with more sugar added; too cloying.
Oct 03, 2018
Photo of Harrison8
Reviewed by Harrison8 from Missouri

3.02/5  rDev +5.2%
look: 3 | smell: 3.5 | taste: 2.75 | feel: 3 | overall: 3
Pours a very dark brown that nets a black glass once full. No head formation. Aroma is sweet, hitting caramel and toffee right of the bat. Caramel and toffee lead into a sugary cola aroma. Rye and whole wheat bread are present throughout. Flavor profile is whole and rye wheat bread stirred and mashed into a glass of cola. Caramel, toffee, and some light spices give it a little extra depth, but overall it's very sugary. No discernible alcohol. Mouth feel is smooth, no fizziness or texture. It has a medium-thin consistency. Overall, sugary notes are abundant, and yet the rye and wheat beers make it seem somewhat healthy. Very unique.

Served in a 12oz snifter from a 1.5L bottle.
Sep 30, 2018
Photo of Snowcrash000
Reviewed by Snowcrash000 from Germany

2.5/5  rDev -12.9%
look: 2.5 | smell: 2.5 | taste: 2.5 | feel: 2.5 | overall: 2.5
Pours a deep, dark mahogany coloration with a reddish tint when held up to the light and a small, foamy head that quickly disintegrates to nothing. Smells of caramel malt, brown sugar and perhaps a hint of dark fruits. Taste is quite sweet and artificial, with notes of caramel malt, molasses and dark/red fruit: fig, redcurrant. There's a slightly tart lactic acid note to this as well, quite faint though. Finishes sickly sweet, with no discernible aftertaste. Thin mouthfeel with a watery body and medium carbonation.

This is not a beer, it's a soda. Kinda tastes like a cross between German Malzbier and Coca Cola, actually.
Sep 19, 2018
Photo of Ice_Cream_And_IPAs
Reviewed by Ice_Cream_And_IPAs from New York

3.48/5  rDev +21.3%
look: 3.5 | smell: 3.5 | taste: 3.5 | feel: 3.25 | overall: 3.5
Drinking from a pint glass, poured from a can. Rating it for the style (somewhat).

Look: Pours dark brown, with relatively thin head, even on the aggressive pour. Head is made up of non-uniform large bubbles, and dissipates very quickly.

Smells: Sweet - notes of molasses and yeast, or better said — bread.

Taste: Follows the nose. It's sweet, with notes of molasses, raisins, some dark fruit and yeast.

Feel: Body is quite watery, and highly carbonated.

Overall: This particular kvass is kind of like Budweiser is to beer. It carries most essential elements, but in a dull and cheap way. Growing up in Ukraine, I've had more kinds of kvass than I can remember, and comparatively, this is just weak. I honestly like kvass on tap, but did not want to another can right away. In any case, kvass is the Eastern European soda, and that's the expectation you should have when having one.
Apr 08, 2018
Photo of hoptheology
Reviewed by hoptheology from California

3.41/5  rDev +18.8%
look: 3.75 | smell: 3.25 | taste: 3.5 | feel: 3 | overall: 3.5
My first Kvass. Pours the color of Root Beer. Head is grey and 1 finger tall. Lace left on glass.

Huge aromas of horehound. Ipecac. Almost didn't want to try it due to possible projectile vomiting. Definitely some medicinal-sweet stuff going on. Molasses.

Taste is like if Mountain Dew came out with an anise flavor. Some sweet licorice/molasses, root beer, brown sugar, sugary sweet glazed raisin, rye bread. Much sweeter than I thought it would be. Extremely sweet.

Feel is watery and thin, with a light carbonation keeping it mildly interesting.

Overall, may be too sweet to finish, but it's better than being too bitter to finish. Not bad, not great.
Mar 14, 2018
Photo of Scott17Taylor
Reviewed by Scott17Taylor from Iowa

1.79/5  rDev -37.6%
look: 2 | smell: 1.75 | taste: 1.75 | feel: 2 | overall: 1.75
Pours ruby brown, almost like cola.
The aroma is a sour rye bread with a faint raisoniness.
The flavor is cloyingly sweet malts, rye bread and raison with a mild sourness.
The mouthfeel is watery.
Overall this is pretty bad, but I needed to tick the style.
Jan 29, 2018
Photo of biboergosum
Reviewed by biboergosum from Canada (AB)

2.48/5  rDev -13.6%
look: 3.75 | smell: 2.5 | taste: 2.25 | feel: 2.5 | overall: 2.5
2L plastic pop bottle, from the Russian grocery store that is all new to me in my own city, of late, and cost a whole 3 bucks, at that (foreshadowing, folks).

This beer pours a clear, very dark amber-highlighted brown colour, with a very thin cap of mainly just wispy and bubbly dirty white head, which leaves some basic ocean plume lace around the glass as it quickly blows off.

It smells of musky and sugary unfermented malt, gritty molasses, cheap root beer, some rather strong and meaty yeasty esters, and very little else. The taste is bready (just bready, in an under-baked rye and wheat sense), muddled dark domestic fruity notes, more edgy and estery molasses, yeasty plain red wine lees, and more brown sugar sweetness.

The carbonation is barely there in its bored as shit frothiness, the body a so-so medium weight, and not particularly smooth, as all that musty sugary 'character' takes a large toll here. It finishes on the sweet side, in the same weird malt 'shoppe' way as previously mentioned.

Overall - I can't get over how this is considered palatable as an essentially 'no alcohol' beverage, by such a large swath of the world's population. It is saccharine, yet touched, in a really fucked-up manner. My handy-dandy tongue scraper is readily available, but it won't be necessary, as I am done, and the rest of this is (hopefully) going to help unclog my basement bathroom toilet, while I go procure a whisky, or something, gah.
Oct 27, 2017
 
Rated: 3.59 by Ristaccia from Nebraska

Jul 19, 2017
Photo of MikeWard
Reviewed by MikeWard from Pennsylvania

2.47/5  rDev -13.9%
look: 3 | smell: 2.75 | taste: 2.25 | feel: 2.25 | overall: 2.5
16oz can poured into a pint glass, courtesy of those fine folk at amazon. amazed to find canned date of 11/15/16, AND best by date of 11/15/17. so basically 3 months old.

dark brown body with small fizzy tan head which dissipates to just a ring. no lacing. despite the fizziness, no carbonation.

very strong aroma of beefy, bready, yeastiness. reminds me a bit of bovril, from England.

tastes like flat cola with a bottle of bovril mixed into it. not finding any rye.

thin on the mouth, meaty and yeasty on the finish.

overall, and its hard to judge this to style, it doesn't taste like any beer I've ever tried, and i did not care for it one bit. had to drain pour the last 8 ounces. still, it's style tick #101 on the road to 104. would not recommend or try this again. i did try to make my own kvass a couple years back, and while i didn't care for that either, it was still better than this.
Feb 10, 2017
Photo of REVZEB
Reviewed by REVZEB from Illinois

2.68/5  rDev -6.6%
look: 3 | smell: 2.5 | taste: 2.75 | feel: 2.5 | overall: 2.75
At last! A kvass! The last of the styles to try, was surprisingly hard to find stateside. The wait did not help this beer out though, but admittedly it is my first. Where I read descriptions of rye bread and malt flavors, here I get sweet molasses, white bread, and dark fruit, tastes better than it smells. Body is watery, thin, cloyingly sweet, and a touch bready. Will have to find a better kvass to compare
Jan 21, 2017
Ochakovskiy Kvass from Ochakovo
Beer rating: 68 out of 100 with 135 ratings