Valve Jockey #2 Imperial Kvass
Bent Paddle Brewing Co.

Poured from one pint 9.4 fluid ounce bottle into glass. No dating information found.
Body is a pale amber color. Appearance went from clear with the first part of the pour to cloudy with the remainder of the bottle. Fizzy, white head, which settles to ring fed by bubbles. Has a few spots of lacing.
Aroma is rye bread, lemon, dark fruit (raisin), and just a touch of mint.
Taste is more assertive than the nose, but follows the same character. A little sweet, a very little tart/sour from the wheat/rye, earthiness from the raisin, refreshing mint, and a slight bitter back end with the lemon rind.
Medium mouth feel, with prickly carbonation on the tongue.
I have had no traditional Kvass style beer to compare to this, but this beer is easy to drink and has some interesting and balanced interplay of ingredients. I am glad to have found this at the back of my frig, and am now able to check off the Kvass beer style.

 

Imperial Kvass pours a translucent brown color, with a small, but long lasting and lacing head. Metallic aroma. Taste has a bit of a metallic flavoring, sweet, sugary, dry fruits flavors, and a nutty malty backbone. Good body and flavor. Overall, not bad, lots of flavors, pretty easy to drink.

 

Poured out a clear, copper color with a two-finger, bubbly head of foam. It smelled of spicy rye, some mint and maybe raisin. So this has crazy ingredients and they weren't over the top. Nice balance.

 

This beer pours a bright clear reddish brown with a small head. The aroma features medium sweet breads, cinnamon rolls, and resinous herbs (maybe that is the rosemary?). The flavor offers up rye bread, mild caramel, cinnamon, dark fruit, resin, and maple syrup. The mouthfeel is fairly light and highly carbonated. Overall this is a very tasty and unique beer - though I am not sure if it really can be an imperial kvass, it is good whatever it is called.

From a bomber into a tulip, pours a semi-hazy golden sienna with a 1 finger off-white head with minimal retention and lacing. Nose is caramel, bready rye, golden raisins, allspice, faint wet mint, maybe some other kind of fruit. The bottle says there should be some lemon, but I don't get it. Taste follows the nose...very bready and fairly sweet without being cloying, the spice works decently but is a bit grainy. The finish has some herbal bitterness, some candied lemon rind, and it is also kind of wet.

S: It smells like rye bread, lemon, spices, herbs and faint fruit.

L: It pours somewhere between ripe peach and the color of Wonderbread crust or iced tea. It is filled with rapidly rising bubbles and kicks up a 1" light cream collar with moderate retention.

T: On the tongue it is mildly sweet with a balancing tartness. The flavors have rye spice, rye bread, lemon, raisins, and fruit with a mild bitterness emerging on the finish. It leaves a lingering, herbal bitter aftertaste with traces of lemon rind. This is an interesting and different beer with elements of kvass but the lemon and mint change it up a bit and the raisin plays off the rye in interesting ways.

F: The body is medium and the carbonation is above average but very fine and creamy.

O: The beer is refreshing and flavorful and unique.

This beer arrives a mildly hazy bronze color. The head is small, but leaves decent lacing. The aroma is pretty mild, and uninteresting. There is some malt sweetness, and that is about it. The taste is much more interesting, and much fuller. It has some really goid herbal things going on. Spruce tips, juniper, mint, twigs. The mouthfeel is medium bodied with a velvety texture. Overall, I like this beer. I've never had a Kvass before, and this clearly isn't a traditional take on the style, so scoring it is hard. Still, I'd drink another happily.

 

Poured from a 750 ml bottle into a chalice.

Appearance: Pours a hazy amber. Solid finger of off white head that settles into a thin creamy layer.

Smell: A bready and somewhat spicy aroma with a scent of biscuit, rye, and fruit. Malt scent of grains, biscuit, rye, caramel, and cracker with yeast. Fruit hints of lemon zest, raisin, and apple. Spearmint is very light. A pretty solid aroma.

Taste: Like it smells, a crisp, bready, and spicy taste with notes of biscuit, rye, and fruit. Bready malt notes of biscuit, rye, grains, caramel, and cracker along with yeast. Fruit undertones of lemon zest, raisin, and apple. Light touch of spearmint. An interesting and solid taste.

Mouthfeel: Light to medium bodied with a moderate level of carbonation. Crisp and very smooth.

Overall: An odd brew that works pretty well for what it is. Light bready malt driven flavor with a nice touch of dried fruit.

Pours a cloudy dark amber with minimal head. A little bit of lacing is left down the glass. Aroma of lemon zest and bread. Not getting much. I wonder what the brewer used to boost the ABV because there is not much flavor or body. I taste faint lemon, mint, dark fruit, and some bready sweetness. Thin body with light carbonation. It tastes perfectly acceptable and better than artisan prison hooch, or a plastic cup full for a few coins on the streets of St. Petersburg, but not for a 6.5%, $10 bottle. After the mediocre Oatmeal IPA, and now this, Bent Paddle can cut short this Valve Jockey project after 2.