# Bread Beer



## Davarm

Has anyone out there ever made Bread Beer? In times past water borne diseases were a big killer and our ancestors found that even lightly alcaholic beverages were safer to drink than water.

One of the drinks that were made was Bread Beer which was made by mixing scraps of bread in water and either allowing wild yeasts to colonize it or by jumpstarting it with added yeast and when the fermentation stopped, it was consumed with relative safety.

I tried making this a while back with stale leftover bread and was plesanly surprised with the results. Several batches came out so well that you could actually taste the brown bread crust, I fell in love with it. It can be made to have the alcahol content of home made soda pop for children, or strong enough to give an adult a respectable buzz.

In the future, in a SHTF scenario, this may once again become a necessity if available water supplies are in question. 

Any discussion on this topic?


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## ttruscott

Got a recipe??


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## purecaffeine

Yeah I actually made some for the first time yesterday using a New Zealand made dark ale. I screwed it up so it's rather flat and dense but I like the flavour. My partner doesn't though - if I told her it was beer bread she wouldn't have even tried it.

:beercheer:


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## Davarm

My recipe is simple and informal. I use a 5 gallon wide mouth(bout 6 inches wide) jar for the job.

Add to the jar all available bread - stale or fresh.

Pour in warm water to about 4-6 inches from the top.

Add about a tablespoon of yeast, I use regular bakers yeast.

Stir until yeast is completely dissolved.

Rubber band a paper towel over the top of the Jar and let sit until the fermentation stops. Time will vary depending on how much bread was used.

Strain the bread out and pour the liquid into bottles, I use Kombucha bottles my daughter gets from the local Health Food Store where she works. They are 1 pint glass bottles with screw on lids made strong enough to handle the pressure of the fermented brew that comes in them.

I then add about 1/2 teaspoon sugar, cap the bottles and set in a cool place to carbonate. If the bottles are left still for a few days, the remaining residue will settle to the bottom.

After a bout a day the brew can be drank. Be sure to refrigerate the bottles bottles before opening, and open them outside or over a sink. You WILL find out why I give this advice.

If you are making the drink for kids to drink, use less bread in the recipe, the more bread you use the higher the alcahol content will be.


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## rhrobert

purecaffeine said:


> Yeah I actually made some for the first time yesterday using a New Zealand made dark ale. I screwed it up so it's rather flat and dense but I like the flavour. My partner doesn't though - if I told her it was beer bread she wouldn't have even tried it.
> 
> :beercheer:


Not beer bread, bread beer...one is to eat, one is to drink.


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## purecaffeine

rhrobert said:


> Not beer bread, bread beer...one is to eat, one is to drink.


Oh my bad! :scratch


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## Davarm

purecaffeine said:


> Oh my bad! :scratch


I scratched my head on that one but wasn't going to say anything, we have made biscuits with beer, pretty good stuff. Beer batter for fish isn't too bad either. Maybe someone could throw a recipe in for those things just for good measure.


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## oconnor1981

I have been making my own beer for myself for the past four years. I haven't made a beer with bread but I did watch a film called "How beer saved the worldsIt is a documentary on how various times historically beer has played a pivotal role. Your correct about how water was a problem years ago and folks found that beer or other similar beverages were found to take care of that problem. They did boil their said beer prior to letting it ferment however. I don't think they realized the boiling was actually what was saving them from their parasytic water. I'm not an expert it is just how they presented it. I forget what it is called but in Russia a very low alcohol content beer is a staple beverage sold lattes and coffee here.


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## BasecampUSA

oconnor1981 said:


> I forget what it is called but in Russia a very low alcohol content beer is a staple beverage sold lattes and coffee here.


In Russia it is called "Kvass" and I *love* it ! Been there many times on business and pleasure...

You could almost call it thier "national drink"... you see vendors on many street corners in Russian cities and towns selling it, and you better hurry before it's sold out.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kvass


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## Davarm

BasecampUSA said:


> In Russia it is called "Kvass" and I *love* it ! Been there many times on business and pleasure...
> 
> You could almost call it thier "national drink"... you see vendors on many street corners in Russian cities and towns selling it, and you better hurry before it's sold out.
> 
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kvass


A couple of weeks ago I saw one of those travel channel shows with the food guys on it, they were in Russia and had a clip on Bread Beer vendors on the streets.

Most people would not give it a second thought but it is a really good drink to have around. You can brew it as strong or weak as you want and it can hit the spot when you are thirsty.

I would like to try some made over there by someone who really knew what they were doing, but thankfully, my traveling days are over.:crossfinger:


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## timmie

whatever beer you use ;don't use one for food if you won't drink it.


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## TechAdmin

Was it Andrew Zimmern? I think I saw that. 

I've always been interested in it as something to make but I don't drink so someone else would have to try it.


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## Davarm

Austin said:


> Was it Andrew Zimmern? I think I saw that.
> 
> I've always been interested in it as something to make but I don't drink so someone else would have to try it.


If he is the bald headed guy, that may have been him.

As far as not drinking, no problem, it can be made "weak" enough that it is not considered to be alcoholic. Just an extremely small amount of alcohol will sterilize the water.

I respect peoples decision not to consume alcohol, but, at least you know how to make it if it ever becomes a survival issue.


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## TechAdmin

I just don't like it but want to know more about it production.

It seems a valuable skill that people should know.


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## seagrape

Does it have a beer-like flavor?

And where does one find a 5 gallon jar? I have several one gallon jars but can't say I've ever even seen a five gallon.


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## Davarm

seagrape said:


> Does it have a beer-like flavor?
> 
> And where does one find a 5 gallon jar? I have several one gallon jars but can't say I've ever even seen a five gallon.


Definately not a beer like flavor, if its made right it tastes like you are drinking a slice of fresh home made bread with bubbles in it(kinda strange at first). If you make it wrong, it tastes like you put a slice of bread in a glass of water and left it there until it goes "sour".

I dont remember where I got my jug but one of the 5 gallon water jugs you can get at grocery stores will work ok.


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## seagrape

Found a 5 gallon jar at an auction this week and decided to give bread beer a try. 

I tore up the bread into chunks and put them into the jar, all the way up to the top. Then I filled it jar with warm water to about 3 inches below the top, added 1 tbsp. yeast and stirred until dissolved. Put a paper towel over the top and secured with a rubber band. So far, so good. Here's where it got interesting. Several hours later I had bread all over the counter top. It had expanded--or something--and spilled out all over. LOL What a mess. That bread will go into the cats dish. Will see what happens overnight.


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## Davarm

seagrape said:


> Found a 5 gallon jar at an auction this week and decided to give bread beer a try.
> 
> I tore up the bread into chunks and put them into the jar, all the way up to the top. Then I filled it jar with warm water to about 3 inches below the top, added 1 tbsp. yeast and stirred until dissolved. Put a paper towel over the top and secured with a rubber band. So far, so good. Here's where it got interesting. Several hours later I had bread all over the counter top. It had expanded--or something--and spilled out all over. LOL What a mess. That bread will go into the cats dish. Will see what happens overnight.


I guess I really should have said something about its tendency to "get bigger" when the yeast started feeding, sorry bout that. Might should have put the jar in a pan, bucket, or whatever you could find to fit it into, guess maybe I should have mentioned that too. Sorry seagrape!

You can "settle" the level back down by stirring the bubbly layer of bread to release the gas.

Talking about the bread beer, I think I'm going to go get me one and put it in the fridge.


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## seagrape

After that initial "overflow", it has settled back down now and seems to have "leveled off". How long does it need to ferment before putting it into bottles?


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## Woody

Davarm said:


> If you are making the drink for kids to drink, use less bread in the recipe, *the more bread you use the higher the alcahol content will be.*





seagrape said:


> I tore up the bread into chunks and put them into the jar, *all the way up to the top.*


We know what results you were after! You were going for full flavor bread beer.


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## Davarm

seagrape said:


> After that initial "overflow", it has settled back down now and seems to have "leveled off". How long does it need to ferment before putting it into bottles?


Let it go until the bubbling stops, will depend on how much bread you use, the temperature and how good the yeast was that you added. A few days should get it done.

I guess I can add, bottle it immediately after you see that the bubbles have stopped, it can get the sour bread taste if it sits long after it stops fermenting.


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## Davarm

Woody said:


> We know what results you were after! You were going for full flavor bread beer.


Yea, that will work!

If you want fulll flavor along WITH full strength, you could use a heavy whole wheat or whole grain bread. I was told that it will add a whole new dimension to the stuff, I am going to try it out when I get the time.


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## seagrape

Of course!! I'm not going to go to this much trouble for "near beer". I want the real deal!!


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## Davarm

seagrape said:


> Of course!! I'm not going to go to this much trouble for "near beer". I want the real deal!!


If it doesn't meet up to your standards, you could always spike it, that would work for me!

I may say that it did work for me, Had some Everclear that I was using for extracts. Not enough left for a new batch and of course I could not let it go to waste. Tried it on the bread beer and some ginger ale that I had done, Just Like Campbells Soup....MMM MMM Good.


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## seagrape

Decided to bottle it today and set aside to see what happens. 

Q: Is it supposed to be cloudy? Does it ever clear up?

I used to make wine 20 years ago and if I let it sit for 3 months or so, decanting it from one container to another every couple of weeks, by the time I bottled it, it was really clear.


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## Davarm

seagrape said:


> Decided to bottle it today and set aside to see what happens.
> 
> Q: Is it supposed to be cloudy? Does it ever clear up?
> 
> I used to make wine 20 years ago and if I let it sit for 3 months or so, decanting it from one container to another every couple of weeks, by the time I bottled it, it was really clear.


Yes, it will be cloudy. If you let it sit for a while the stuff will settle out and the brew will be crystal clear. I dont remember exactly how long it takes to settle but it is not an extremely long time. Of course, you need to let it remain undisturbed for that to happen.

Or you could just drink it cloudy, wont hurt you.


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## seagrape

Davarm said:


> Yes, it will be cloudy. If you let it sit for a while the stuff will settle out and the brew will be crystal clear. I dont remember exactly how long it takes to settle but it is not an extremely long time. Of course, you need to let it remain undisturbed for that to happen.
> 
> Or you could just drink it cloudy, wont hurt you.


I'll let it sit undisturbed for a couple of weeks. Right now it looks like......a urine sample from someone with a very bad UTI.


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## Davarm

seagrape said:


> I'll let it sit undisturbed for a couple of weeks. Right now it looks like......a urine sample from someone with a very bad UTI.


I'd say thats about par for this stage in the process. Did you remember to put the sugar in the bottles before you closed them up? I forgot to with one batch went back a couple days later and added it and it came out ok.

I'll say that you are probably right on track for now.


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## seagrape

Davarm said:


> I'd say thats about par for this stage in the process. Did you remember to put the sugar in the bottles before you closed them up? I forgot to with one batch went back a couple days later and added it and it came out ok.
> 
> I'll say that you are probably right on track for now.


Yes, I did put sugar in each bottle. :beercheer:


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## seagrape

Well, I opened the first bottle today. It had a sour/tangy taste, not unpleasant but no bread taste at all. It had some effervescence when I opened the bottle but not a whole lot. I added a bit a sugar and it isn't bad......a little strange since it's a brand new taste but still palatable. The closest taste would be that of soda water. It never did clear up--still a bit cloudy.


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## Davarm

The brew should not have been "tangy" at this point, it should have smelled and tasted like a loaf of fresh baked bread. It could be that you left it to ferment a bit to long before you bottled it. Also, when I make it, it never sits for 3 weeks before it gets drank.

It is still good to drink but not the same beverage as when it is fresher. I can suggest trying a smaller batch and bottling it sooner and try opening a bottle or two through the settling process(taste purposes) The tang is not at all unpleasant(to me anyway) but I like it "fresher".


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## seagrape

I just got my second batch bottled and put away. I let it ferment 24 hours this time. Hopefully, when I get back from vacation in mid-July and open up the first bottle, it will have the fresh bread taste the first batch was missing.

I found a really good use for the first batch--mix it with the psyllium husk I take every day. A few drops of lemon extract, stir and it bubbles up and tastes pretty good.


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## Davarm

seagrape said:


> I just got my second batch bottled and put away. I let it ferment 24 hours this time. Hopefully, when I get back from vacation in mid-July and open up the first bottle, it will have the fresh bread taste the first batch was missing.
> 
> I found a really good use for the first batch--mix it with the psyllium husk I take every day. A few drops of lemon extract, stir and it bubbles up and tastes pretty good.


Daing seagrape, I never thought about using it for psyllium mixer, I too, take daily doses. I used to mix it with juice but have gotten hardcore and just mix it with cold water and down it fast before it swells.

Let us know how the new batch comes out!


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## seagrape

Davarm said:


> Daing seagrape, I never thought about using it for psyllium mixer, I too, take daily doses. I used to mix it with juice but have gotten hardcore and just mix it with cold water and down it fast before it swells.
> 
> Let us know how the new batch comes out!


The effervescence holds the fiber in suspension and makes it far more palatable than plain water alone. I've been using sodium-free soda water for my daily dose of psyllium for years; the not-so-perfect bread beer works just as good and gives it a little more flavor.


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## seagrape

Well, dang. Opened a bottle today and it still doesn't taste like fresh bread. It still has a tangy taste--not unpleasant, just not worthwhile.


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## Immolatus

Have a guess on its alcohol content, or was it not good enough to drink enough?
I am going to try this, but I gots some questions:
This sounds a little impractical, but how about using sourdough? Maybe use the sourdough mix instead of the yeast, it may give it more flavor? The bread definitely would, right?
I dont think I want to make enough (sourdough bread, that is) to fill a 5 gallon jug, the biggest glass jar I have is 5 qts, but I assume its not enough and would only make a half gallon, tops? 
How much actual liquid do you end up with when using a 5 gallon jug?
Are yall saying you used white bread? I try to stay away from the titanium dioxide flavored stuff, except with rice.
What kind of sugar did you use?
What do you think about using brown sugar, or honey?

Interesting notes here. Adding raisins to judge if its finished seems like a good idea.
It suggests using herbal tea instead of just water. Sounds like it may add some flavor? Maybe cinnamon if nothing else?
More from random sites:
Both below refer to the yeast:
If you make water kefir, you can use that as is as it already has an available yeast culture active in it. 
If you make sourdough bread, the liquid that collects on top if you have not stirred it recently contains airborne yeast. If you have some batter that you are currently planning to use to make sourdough, just add some water, stir, wait a day and then pour off the amount of water that you had added. This will give you a lactic-acid fermentation, otherwise known as "lambic beer"
Uhh...
You probably don't need to the know this, but in the interest of intellectual honesty, you can also get wild yeast cultures from moldy hay, bird droppings, feathers, insects and soil.
Yeah, I probably didnt need to know I can get yeast from bird droppings...


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## Immolatus

Bump for help?


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## TechAdmin

I don't know, but I'm sure Davarm will be along shortly.


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## Immolatus

Just put the beer in the water, with some liquid from my sourdough. It was some funky bread from Whole Foods that my buddy insisted on using. Im drunk just thinking about it...


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## azborderwatcher

LOL every inmate knows how to make this. It is called hoooch bread is the starter, You can't get yeast in prison and they flavor it and increase its alcohol content with fruits
And it is bread beer I just made a loaf of beer bread the other day


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## Immolatus

Lol, never thought of it that way.

I added some water from my sourdough and a little kefir water for my yeast. No action yet...


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## Davarm

So everyone's having questions about making bread beer? 

I guess I was pretty lucky when I started experimenting with it. I just mix the bread with water and add yeast and let it ferment a little then strain and bottle it. I let it sit in the bottles until clears and drink it. 

It only has the "tangy" taste when I waited too long to bottle it. As for the alcohol content, I know it is considerably less than a 3.2 beer. I have had several bottles at a time without a buzz.


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## Immolatus

Its been in there for a day, am I supposed to be seeing something happening? Maybe I should just try prison hooch...
The object wasnt really to get alcohol, but it woulda been a nice bonus.


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## seagrape

Davarm said:


> So everyone's having questions about making bread beer?
> 
> I guess I was pretty lucky when I started experimenting with it. I just mix the bread with water and add yeast and let it ferment a little then strain and bottle it. I let it sit in the bottles until clears and drink it.
> 
> It only has the "tangy" taste when I waited too long to bottle it. As for the alcohol content, I know it is considerably less than a 3.2 beer. I have had several bottles at a time without a buzz.


I let my last batch brew for 24 hours before bottling it. It still had a tangy taste and didn't taste like bread. Don't know what I'm doing wrong.


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## Immolatus

2 days and I dont see anything. Maybe I shoudve used white bread and store bought yeast? It looks like I put a bunch of bread and water in a jar.
Maybe it was the fancy organic sprouted bread that we used?


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## seagrape

I used old bread from our local bread store. I tore up the bread into pieces, put it into a 5 gallon jar, added yeast, then water and stirred it up......never saw much happening in the way of bubbles. Strained it and bottled it after 24 hours, adding 1 tsp sugar to each bottle. Let it sit 4 weeks before opening. Still had that blah, tangy taste. Nothing special. Ended up opening and sampling each bottle and then pouring it out because it wasn't worthwhile. 

Maybe I should add some sugar to the water in the 5 gallon jar along with the bread and yeast?????


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## ContinualHarvest

KVass has a bready taste and it's interesting to drink. Remember that beer is just grains turned into sugars and yeast added. The yeast need sugars and nutrients to grow and create alcohol and c02. If your wort doesn't start to ferment after a few hours, check the temperature. Ideally fermentation begins at 70 deg F. You may need to move your fermenter to a more ideal environment (warmer or cooler).
You can get recipes by googling the term kvass or bread beer. Remember you need to keep the yeast happy and they will make you happy.


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## Immolatus

*Trying again*

This time Im using white bread.
I read through a bunch of recipes online, and of course they are all different, and a lot of em use beets.

I added a cup of sugar since most of em called for it, a packet of store bought yeast, and a coupla mint leaves with about 3 loaves of white bread in about 3 gallons of water. Most recipes also said to dry the bread out which I did partially and then thought, uh, why am I doing this if Im putting them all in water anyway?
Also brewed a new batch of buch and kefir, but I get more kefir every other day. Oddly my kefir wasnt doing so hot, and we went away for 10 days so I put a whole cup of sugar in with it before we left and put it in the fridge, and now its going full bore again.


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## Immolatus

Strained and bottled it after about 4 days.
Its pretty...yellow, but it smells like bread. I'll leave it out for a day or two then refrigerate it.


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## Immolatus

I hadnt refrigerated them yet, but I wanted to see if they were at least carbonated, so I popped one open (was in a Grolsch bottle) and it started fizzing away. I guess Im doing something right. Will drink it tomorrow.


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## Davarm

Hey guys, sorry I didn't get back to the thread, I have been pretty busy and have only been checking a few threads when I log on.

I am going to make a batch of the Bread Beer for the South Of Dallas Meet Up in October and am going to get those there to sample it and give a review when they get back to the Forum. 

I dont know if I am just luck or what, I have gotten a few bottles of the Tangy stuff but mostly my Bread Beer is fresh tasting and more resembles the taste of bread than anything else.

I may even make a batch there for a "How To". 

Any feedback on this?


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## Immolatus

What exactly do you mean by 'tangy' as opposed to 'fresh' and bread tasting? I can only taste the bread, and its faint assumedly because of the cheap bread I used.
I want to try to 'perfect' this method before trying other ingredients besides different bread and some kind of flavoring.
Yes, Davarm, do it! It all seems pretty straighforward and simple. Seems like it would be more effort than its worth to make sourdough bread to use because of the amount of bread I would have to make.

Mine is really thick (and by thick I mean almost but not quite gooey) and bready. Its not bad, but I wouldnt say it tastes good, I think it needs some more flavoring of some kind.
If I had to guess the first batch I made prolly worked, but since I didnt know what to look for I let it go.
This batch didnt seem to be doing anything, but I bottled it anyway, and its definitely carbonated (and therefore alcoholic?), so I seemed to have done something right.

I used 3 loaves of white bread cause I thought the wheat bread in the first batch caused an issue, but now I dont think so.
1 packet of store bought yeast
1 cup of sugar cause I also thought it needed it.
a coupla mint leaves cause some recipe said to add it and I figured it couldnt hurt.
Filled a 3 gallon glass jug with all of it and let it sit for about 4 days
Nothing 'happened' except the bread kept rising to the top because of the air trapped in it, so I kept mushing it down. It actually would form an almost watertight barrier at the top.
But no bubbles or anything to indicate anything was going on
Then I bottles them with a lil bit of sugar, not measured out because I used 2 1 qt jars, 1 2 quart jar with a rubber sealing gasket, and one Grolsch bottle. The bottled ones seem to have worked better because of a better seal.
I'll let you know when I get more into actually drinking it straight up.
It needs some flavoring (Im up for any ideas!) or maybe just go back to using some better bread.

Filled a 3 gallon jug with all of it


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## kyredneck

I've 'dabbled' with a couple of batches of 'bread kvass', and I confess I don't understand everything I know about it. From what I've read (much from Russian sources) there is wide variance in the final product, and much of that variance, IMO, has to do with whether the fermenting process was solely by yeast (alcohol), or by lactibacilli (lactic acid), or a combination of both. I believe the most common bread kvass is a combo but I'm not sure. I made strictly 'lacto' kvass which could definitely be described as 'tangy', but I didn't care for the bready taste of my product, and I failed to attain the effervescence that I was after, or if I did attain it I waited too late and missed it, which is entirely possible.


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## Immolatus

I didnt think about it when I first poured it, so I ran and got the camera to take a pic, but when I did, it foamed up nicely! Does this look right? Its a little tangy, but the main flavor is...wait for it...bread. I cant tell if its alcoholic or not, but I drank 2 glasses of it. 
I got another batch brewing now, I think I'll add something to it when I bottle it.


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## Immolatus

Now I need some ideas to flavor it? Any help?
Is like something kinda nutty or smoky?
Nuts?
Coffee/chicory?
wheat bran?


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## kyredneck

The pic looks good! Congrats! The effervescence won't last long, drink it fast while it lasts!


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