Kiss My Kvass by Ah! Brewery is by far one of the strangest behaving beers that I have tried. If you don't know, kvass is a naturally fermented substance, which is normally made of rye bread. It can be consumed as a drink (common in Russia) or used to make bread. I believe this type of bread is called sourdough.
In-camera triple exposure.
Imperial Kvass Ale ~ 330 ml ~ 4.2% alc ~ $2.5
Those of you that have been following me know that I have a weak spot for communist stuff: The moment I saw the label on the bottle, this beer was an instant buy for me! It's beautiful, and it reminds me of a communist poster from the 70's, aimed to inspire workers to go the extra mile and be more productive. I was not able to find the name of the artist, but the illustration is fantastic.
Color & Aroma
Before I get into that, I have to say that Kiss My Kvass erupted (literally) when I tried to pour it into my beer jar. At first. I thought that I was doing wrong, but as the foam kept coming out of the bottle, it hit me that this has something to do with the yeast and the kvass that were used.
Watch the video below, and you'll understand better.
So, color-wise, this beer is terrible! It looks like drain water, and I wish I took photos during the day so that I can show it to you. The smell is a combination of oatmeal malt and sourdough bread. Just like the one that I ate in the morning.
Flavor
Kiss my kvass tastes just like the sourdough bread that I had in the morning! But that's no surprise given that they used rye and wholegrain bread to prepare the kvass. Carbonation is good, and the finish is slightly bitter.
What's left of the sourdough bread.
Liquid bread would be the best two words to describe Kiss my Kvass. It's nothing fancy or spectacular, and I will most certainly not buy it again. That said, it inspired me to create a post about the Bulgarian beer market during the communism. If I don't get lazy, this should probably happen next weekend :)
Cheers!
All shots are taken with Lumix G80 & Olympus 12-40mm f/2.8 Pro.