The easiest way to make kvass?

Question by chamcham: What’s the easiest way to make kvass?
I don’t want to spend any more than 50 bucks on this project, I have 3 wine bottles w/corks (1.5 litre bottles), I need some good directions/advice concerning fermenting, is a specific gravity hydrometer necessary, fermenting locks- necessary? Can I store it in a basement while it ferments? Thanks

Answers and Views:

Answer by willa
Kvass

Ingredients:
1 pound (1/2 k), Dry Black Bread
24 cups, Boiling Water
1 1/2 lbs (3/4 k) Sugar
2 ounces (56g), Fresh Compressed Yeast
1/2 cup, Sultanas (yellow seedless raisins)

Procedure:
Put the bread into a large container and then add the boiling water. When the mixture is lukewarm squeeze the liquid from the bread very thoroughly, making sure that the bread itself does not come through because this clouds the drink.
Add the sugar and yeast, mix, cover and leave for ten hours. Pour the drink into clean bottles, and three sultanas to each, put the corks and tie them down—then refrigerate immediately. ) for 8 hours. Sieve the solution (tea-cloth). Bottle it.Put some raisins, a bit of lemon-peel, and a fresh leaf of peppermint in every bottle, close the bottles, and keep them in a cool place.
Ready when the raisins start floating.
Sieve the stuff one more time in a tea-cloth.
Put the Kvas in the fridge 4 hours before drinking. e: Chop ginger (leave that skin on!) in discs and blend with hot water. Use plenty of water, then filter homogenized ginger through several layers of cheesecloth. Squeeze dry, then add more water and squeeze again. Add water to make about 2 gallons, heat, and dissolve in sugars. Bring to boil, add citroid juices, and boil stirring frequently (to avoid excessive sugar carmelization) for about 30 minutes. Pour into fermenter containing 2 + gallons cold water carefully (to avoid hot stuff on cold glass) and add more water to make about 5 gallons. Pitch. Ferment. Bottle. Drink. and serendipity: I’d hate to try and reproduce it exactly. But I think there’s good info in the recipe, which can be applied to other attempts.

Kvass is very refreshing on a hot summer’s day and is quickly made from black bread and yeast. It is quite like weak beer and is fermented and slightly alcoholic, but must be stored in the refrigerator using corks, not screw-in stoppers or else it will go on fermenting and blow.
This, to me, looks very similar to the Sumerian recipe which Anchor Brewery of San Francisco recreated a couple of years ago.

Read all the answers in the comments.

Add your own answer!