Combining cheese making and kvass brewing

[hamstrs4evr]

My roommate and I make cheese together on weekends and ended up trying kvass as a side project because we always have sourdough starter around. We used stale multigrain bread for the base and mint from the garden, then bottled it with raisins for the fizz. The flavor was tangy and earthy, sort of like a mild beer without the alcohol. Since we already handle fermentation with milk, this felt like a natural extension of the same process. Do any of you reuse whey from cheese making as the ferment base for kvass to keep everything in the same cycle?

 

[imagoudaguy]

This is awesome! I make cheese with my sister too, and we tried kvass after some rye bread went stale. A splash of whey helped it ferment quicker, lots of good bugs in there.

Worked best with beet kvass, but bread ones turned out tasty too. Just don't add too much or it gets weird.

 

[hamstrs4evr]

This is awesome! I make cheese with my sister too, and we tried kvass after some rye bread went stale. A splash of whey helped it ferment quicker, lots of good bugs in there.

Worked best with beet kvass, but bread ones turned out tasty too. Just don't add too much or it gets weird.

We haven't tried that version yet but it's on our list once we get more garden beets in. Good to know whey helped speed things up. We added a splash to our last batch and it fermented faster than expected. When you say it gets weird with too much, are you referring to the flavor or texture? We're planning another round this weekend so we'll test a few ratios and see how it holds.

 

[b.fr0mag3]

My roommate and I make cheese together on weekends and ended up trying kvass as a side project because we always have sourdough starter around. We used stale multigrain bread for the base and mint from the garden, then bottled it with raisins for the fizz. The flavor was tangy and earthy, sort of like a mild beer without the alcohol. Since we already handle fermentation with milk, this felt like a natural extension of the same process. Do any of you reuse whey from cheese making as the ferment base for kvass to keep everything in the same cycle?

It's so true that once you're making cheese, other ferments like kvass feel like a natural next step! The tangy, earthy flavor you got sounds great. Using sweet whey as the kvass base is an old-school technique that creates a brilliant circular kitchen economy. The extra lactose and residual bacteria will give your brew a deeper, more pronounced tang and a fuller body! Have you thought about using your leftover bread crusts or even the yeast sediment from the kvass to kickstart a whey-based lacto-fermented veggie, like carrots or turnips?

 

[hamstrs4evr]

It's so true that once you're making cheese, other ferments like kvass feel like a natural next step! The tangy, earthy flavor you got sounds great. Using sweet whey as the kvass base is an old-school technique that creates a brilliant circular kitchen economy. The extra lactose and residual bacteria will give your brew a deeper, more pronounced tang and a fuller body! Have you thought about using your leftover bread crusts or even the yeast sediment from the kvass to kickstart a whey-based lacto-fermented veggie, like carrots or turnips?

I hadn’t thought about carrying over sediment from a previous batch but that could be the missing piece for getting a better fizz. Great tip!

The idea of a whey-based fermented veggie is interesting too. For those who've done it, have you found a reliable way to control the sourness or does it tend to vary a lot from batch to batch?

Given these suggestions, I’ll plan another round of tests within the week to try the sediment carryover.