Danilo Pohmilny Kvas
Darl Grup

 

Brown color. Beige, bubbly, soda-like head. Caramel, rye bread, and malt in the aroma. Sweet and bready with light tart notes closer to the end. Not the best, but drinkable.

June 2020: Shared 2 liter bottle, from Lille Asia, Stavanger. Very dark ruby colour, nearly black. No lasting head. Fairly nice aroma of rye bread. Sweet flavour of prunes, lemonade, brown sugar and rye bread.

 

A: Pours a relatively clear medium to dark cola brown in color with moderate to heavy amounts of active visible carbonation with light amounts of active visible carbonation and hint of russet potato colored highlights. The beer has a finger tall fizzy foamy off-white head that quickly reduces to a small of of very thin film and a very thin ring at the edges of the glass. Minimal amounts of lacing are observed.

S: Moderate aromas of sweet malt extract with lighter aromas of raisin sweetness and hints of bready + spicy rye malts. No perceptible hoppiness and hints of bitterness in the finish which allow sweet spicy rye malts to linger

T: Upfront there are moderate flavors of sweet malt extracts, caramel malts, and slightly spicy rye malts with moderate amounts of caramel + malt extract sweetness. No perceptible hop flavor. Minimal amounts of bitterness and moderate amounts of sweetness linger in the finish.

M: Light bodied with moderate amounts of carbonation.

O: Enjoyable for the style and fairly easy to drink but reminds me more of a cola than a beer. Refreshing.

A: The beer is clear and very dark red in color and has a moderate amount of visible carbonation. It poured with a short off white head that completely faded away.
S: Sweet aromas of cola and malt extract are present in the nose.
T: The taste follows the smell and has lots of flavors of sweet malt extracts and colas with associated sweetness and a light to moderate amount of associated sweetness. There are also spicy notes of rye.
M: It feels a bit more than light-bodied on the palate and has a moderate amount of carbonation.
O: The taste of this beer seems like a sweet cola with spicy hints of rye.

Serving type: Plastic 2-liter bottle

 

2 liter bottle, served in a half liter mug. Kvass #16.

Wonder if "Pohmilny" is related to the traditional Russian dumpling pelmenis. "Okroshka" Kvass is meant to be used in a Kvass soup, so it wouldn't be the first culinary Kvass connection.

Hazy russet color, initial fizzle of tan foam on top that lasts for about three seconds and disappears completely, no lace or anything. Still glassy surface, eh.

Fruity raisin, sweet caramel and dark baked bread crust. Obligatory Tootsie Roll.

A tart citric acid pucker at first, more raisin, cocoa, and bread crusts. Fizzy carbonation at first, that fades towards the end of the mug. Can't help but make the Tootsie Roll association again. Overall a typical commercial Kvass, though it's a little more tart and slightly less sweet than usual. It's an acceptable beverage, not to be confused with modern beer of course...

Poured from 70oz plastic bottle into a dimpled mug.

Appearance: light brown hue with a haze-free body. There was a bit of fizz to the pour, but no head actually formed. Fizzy for a kvass, but overall very average looking.

Smell: slightly sweet, bready, rye aroma. Not much here reflects the fruitiness of a lot of kvasses, but it's not too bad overall.

Taste: a bit sweeter than the aroma, there is a little molasses flavor in there with the bread, and a little less rye character. Not too bad.

Mouthfeel: quite fizzy for a kvass, which I like. A little effervescence goes a long way in making a brew like this refreshing.

Overall: a decent, run-of-the-mill kvass; there's not much here worth going out of your way for, though.

Big ups to TMoney259 and his Kvass Kick. You gotta trademark these ideas, bro, or any jagov could subsume them for his own.

My uncle, Steve, is joining me for an afternoon of Kvass, having had some Russian instruction while an undergrad at Penn State.

Yay, Kvass with some actual fizz! This really reminded me of pop in the way it had an initial spritz of fizz and then disappeared, with tiny CO2 bubbles still making an appearance. Color was simply cola-brown. Nose was back to the tobacco warehouse and in a big way! Maybe that is the secret ingredient and the reason for its popularity. Mouthfeel was almost astringent thanks to all of the scrubbing bubbles. It tasted much more of rye and herbs than its predecessors. Finish had an interesting sweetness, like whole leaf tobacco, root beer, some rye bite all blended together. It was still pretty sweet for my taste, but certainly the best of the three.

Served in a Chicago Bears shaker pint glass.

This is the final stop for the Kvass Kick for the time being, and what better kvass to end with (hopefully temporarily) than one whose name (in Cyrillic) translates to "alcohol withdrawal"? It pours a clear garnet-amber topped by a transitory finger or so of dirty ecru fizz. The nose is lighter than usual, comprising meek rye bread, very light maple syrup, and a touch of fennel. The taste definitely tries harder, bringing forth in full color the aforementioned flavors that could not shine through before. A hint of cocoa lies in there as well. The body is a light medium, with a lightly moderate fizzy carbonation and a lightly syrupy feel. Overall, a decent kvass, but still nothing really to rave about here. And certainly no chance of suffering from alcohol withdrawal afterward. (Of course, I imagine it's a nice drink for when you are indeed suffering therefrom...)