Gubernija Duonos Gira Kvass

Aroma: 6 | Appearance: 7 | Mouthfeel: 7 | Flavor: 7 | Overall: 8

Well, my very first commercial kvass, and only my second one ever. How the heck to approach this, I ask?

Well, first things first. Picked up a 1500mL plastic bottle of this at one of the very few Russian delis in the San Diego area (La Mesa having a large Russo-East European populace), along with a few more traditional offerings from that part of the world.

Poured a sample into my Southern California Homebrewers Festival 2004 glass -- this was absolutely 100% flat. No carbonation at all. That itself makes it very different from, say, Malta Goya.

Huge brown sugar aroma, along with a toasted rye hint or two. Ditto for the flavor profile. Sweet, yes, but not repulsively so. Not at all. Rather thin in the mouthfeel, of course, seeing as how it's both flat and rather low in alcohol.

It's hard to characterize what this is really meant to be. Kid's drink? Summer quencher? Breakfast quaffer? Or what?

But seeing as how the sweetness never gets cloying, and it's not very filling, and the overall vibe says to me "easy-peasy refresher".

Since this is the only the second kvass I've ever had (the first being a homebrewed experiment), I'm in no position to offer an educated opinion as to whether this is a good example of not. But for something quite different from the norm, that packs very little alcohol..., but is quite thirst quenching and refreshing, I didn't mind this at all....

Paradise Lost's "Small Town Boy" (Bronski Beat Cover)
//TB