I found both dark and light rye bread at the store but it was the factory-made kind. I definitely made mistakes with both batches including adding way too much bread to the light kvass.the bottles need a day to carbonate then we shall see how well they turned out. Not that I have any reference for the flavor.
here in Russia we making Квас (Kvas) mostly in summer, and you can buy in shops (but with many sugar and additives).
Try this one 1. (classic)
спойлер
:::Kvass (from the Slavic verb “kysati” - “to sour”) is a traditional Russian drink based on rye malt or ready-made bread and crackers [1]. The first mention of it dates back to the chronicle of the late 10th - early 11th centuries. It tells how Prince Vladimir, on the occasion of the Baptism of Rus', ordered the people of Kiev to be treated to honey and bread kvass
I mean I finished these. The two types of the resulted in surprisingly different flavors. The dark rye one wound up being sickly sweet so I think the sugar was too much.
Kvass is a Slavic drink highly popular in the Slavic countries. It is lighter than beer (considered non-alcoholic in most places, alcohol content is typically below 1,5%vol), very refreshing and just nice. You should give it a try!
So I only fermented for ~a week and I sort of combined a few recipes I found online including one from a YouTube channel called TheBruSho. Here is what I came up with after reading a few:
Rye Kvass:
~7 Pieces of Rye Bread(preferably dark or Russian rye)
~1/2 gal [1.9L] Water
~2/3 cup [150g| sugar(can be substituted with wort, honey, molasses, ect)
Handful of raisins or any other dried berry (cut in half if you like) ~10
Optional: Pinch of bread yeast or tea sppon of sour dough starter to accelerate the fermentation
Toast the bread so dark as to be almost burned
Boil enough water to cover the toast and pour over toasted bread pieces
Wait until room temp and add raisins and sugar
Ferment 3-5 days depending on your fermentation activity. Bottle with more raisins and a tea spoon of sugar and set on counter 2-3 days Refrigerate and drink
From what I understand you can then use the filtered out bread as a starter for the next batch. There is also beet kvass that is either combined with rye bread or used on its own. So far it seems like the easiest and most versatile probiotic drink style but I haven't experimented with all of them yet.
I didn't check ABV but they say it is usually 0.5-2.0%