Ivan The Fermentable
Big Rock Brewery

Oy vey! For the lack of alcohol and such this He brew has some suprisingly great body and persistence. Quite honestly a brew that's deliciously Dunkel light done right! Good job and a great mash up! L'Chaim!!! NOTE: Looks like I got this one late in the game, very late!!! Last reviewer was over 3 years ago and seems to have been one off production. Maybe I am onto something here. Funny not a one gave it reviews terribly near mine. Hmmmmm. Low alcohol beer that ages likea Barley wine?? https://www.beeradvocate.com/community/members/biboergosum.168458/ I normally am in line with your taste buds for e.g.

Tons of rye, some dark and light fruit flavours. Light mouthfeel but huge flavor for its strength. Well done, Big Rock!

 

 

I was thrilled to find this on the shelf in Canmore because this is a style I have been curious about for a long time. The nose is heavy on yeast and reminiscent of a hospital. It looks nice - clear and topped with a bubbly white head. The flavour is light, somewhat like a loaf of McGavin's raisin bread. This is an interesting effort from Big Rock - enough to make me want to try another Kvass.

650 ml bottle, one of Big Rock's Alchemist Series. My first Kvass.
Pretty interesting story of how this one was made, base of hearty Russian rye bread.
Slightly cloudy, butterscotch brown color with a short topping of white foam.
Smell has some raison and date fruits, hint of cinnamon.
Taste has that russian rye bread, cinnamon and raisin. Nice flavor, not too strong in any one element.
Medium bodied with a pretty high level of carbonation. Quite prickly mouth feel, almost like a ginger ale.
An interesting beer, with a cool background story. I guess this becomes my personal base line for the Kvass style. Now, must find more.

I've been on the lookout for this one ever since seeing a Kvass on a Big Rock release schedule ages ago. Its wonderful that local craft brewers are doing esoteric styles like this one and sahti. I like the label minus the "kiss my kvass" puerility. The brew itself is a orange-yellow honey color with an initially huge amount of creamy white head. This quickly settles into a more manageable single finger.

The aroma is rather subdued but strange. I get the sweet bread and brown spice one expects, although these are less robust than expected, along with a slight vinous fruit character. This grape-like element emerges on the palate as well. Something else is a little funky, almost reminding one of the barnyard better associated with wild yeast. This latter quality becomes stronger as one proceeds through a pint. Not sure if the traditional baker's yeast is used here.

The flavor is also somewhat hard to describe. The whole package is amped down, at least initially. One is expecting a huge breadiness and although I do get rye sourdough and pretzels, the melange of brown spices and dark fruit seems to be more prominent if still well short of winter warmer intensity. A peculiar tamarind-like tartness along with something else more herbal and yet still sweet, like neutered licorice root. Rather recalls a less sweet yet more bready root beer, at least if one disregards the dry finish. More funky yeast ... Dry bakery shop and burlap sack. Leaves a lemon zest and corn bread aftertaste. WTF? Its unique to be sure. I'd describe this as rather thin-bodied, light and drinkable. Quite fizzy, which again brings forth soda pop connotations.

In case you haven't followed, a weird brew. I've had kvass made by a Russian family here in Calgary, fermented in plastic pop bottles and slightly more boozy than this. This home-brewed article was much sweeter and less fizzy than the present offering and the family members in question were loathe to describe the beverage as beer. Kvass does fit widely adopted definitions of our favorite beverage but its safe to say that this take on the style may not do the real deal complete justice. The flavors do develop as the beer warms and as one's palate acclimatizes. YMMV.

650ml bomber poured into tulip 12/12/14

A slight haze in a golden orange body, tiny slow bubbles here and there but they feed a well sustained two finger foam that leaves a couple pencil thin partial rings

S sour bread dough, strange spice I can't place, honey, green apple and purple grape candy, strange for sure

T I get a little cinnamon I see on the label, a little sour apple, faint caramel, again its strange

M not as light as I'd guess for 2.5% but still pretty light, bubbles fluff up and flatten out, bready finish with a little spice

O I want to like it but there's always something in the way, drinkable but I'm not wanting a second

I didn't know what to expect but this wasn't it, something different and I can respect that but I never really fell in love with it

 

650ml bottle, with almost too much going on here culturally, et al, that my head might very well explode working my way through it all. Ok, firsties, nice to see local Alberta brewers tackling these very esoteric styles. Secondly, the Big Rock marketing machine is inept as ever (do we all possess artists' 'palettes'?) - 'Kiss my Kvass' is the best they could come up with? And the others are best left to my inner dialogue for now.

This beer pours a mildly hazy, medium bronzed amber colour, with two skinny-assed fingers of loosely foamy, bubbly and wan dirty white head, which leaves some pleasant jungle canopy lace around the glass as things lazily subside. Looks too much like a normal beer, without a trace of the supposed heritage behind it.

It smells of very faint grainy rye malt, ethereal earthy Big Rock yeast, mild muddled seasonal spices, equally timid dark fruit notes, and a sort of watery flintiness. The taste is bready rye malt, one more or less bereft of the overt spiciness one might be used to/expecting, a touch of bland caramel malt, whispers of deceitful raisins, hard to discern metallic spice, and a notable lack of alcohol warming (yay, something done well!)

The carbonation is quite light and fluffy, the frothy eminences enjoyable enough, the body a so-so medium weight, and kind of overly clammy in its otherwise approachable smoothness. It finishes off-dry, the not altogether rye-specific malt filling the enlarging void.

Yeah, my very low expectations for this offering are duly fulfilled, as it were - the work I put into attaining my first Kvass veritable in the somewhat gritty Russian suburbs of greater Toronto years back are totally justified now. Weird that my memory of that experience, so foreign and kind of off-putting, would trump this dialed down, if generically earnest provision, now, from my own backyard. Sigh - who would have surmised of such a pretender as a gateway version of this style?

Big Rock's latest in their Alchemist edition brews.

Appearance - Pours a slightly cloudy caramel colour with a finger of bubbly white head.

Smell - russian rye bread, hint of cinnamon and raisin, bready malts.

Taste - Starts off with the russian rye bread and bready malts then goes into the hint of cinnamon and raisin. This is dominated mainly by the russian rye bread.

Mouthfeel - Medium bodied with moderate carbonation. Finishes with a hint of cinnamon and raisin along with a sourdough type flavour.

Overall - For my first go at the Kvass style, this brew delivers on the Russian rye bread quality. The cinnamon and raisin flavours could of been more pronounced to balance out the rye bread taste. Otherwise, an interesting brew.