Greatings

Hello from Serbia.
I want to introduce myself here. My name is Miodrag and I got in this hobby by chance. I dont like beer very much, I mean I do drink it but it is not my preferential drink. But I do like kvas and as our state brewing company which made kvas went to bankruptcy, I started to gain interest in brewing it.

About kvas in Serbia.
Our brewing company who made best known variety built it under Russian license.
BIP (Beogradska Industrija Piva - Belgrade Industry of Beer)

[cant post images yet]

Sorry for bad resolution - it basically says "Ruski KVAS" (Russian KVAS).

Making such drink in Serbia (Yugoslavia) started in 1950s. First drink of what we call kvas was named "Tut-Gut". This one has stopped to be produced in 1980s, but Germans still produce it under name "Karamaltz". This one has mix taste of malt with caramelized sugar - it is very sweet and not really kvas, but it is more related to BIP kvas than Russian original kvas is. Now BIP kvas also has started to be made in 1950s in Central Serbia (one small town where BIP had its main malt industry). From what we know from workers of that factory, main substance was imported from Russia and it was honey like substance - extract which they used in production. This extract was rather an half-product as for example, that old kvas had bottom sediment - most probably because of some sort of yeast. Drink itself had kinda metallic taste - not sweet. Russians who tasted it described it as drink made out of dark rye bread in its essence. Sadly industry technologists all have passed away and knowledge of where did they get this extract from is forgotten... I have tried several recipes that I found on internet and baked my own rye dark bread and tried to use melasa but result was always not even near our beloved drink... Recently I found an Russian guy here and he promised me to bring me some extract from Russia (it cant be sent by post service because it is liquid (Russian post service rules our liquids)). So in next year I will continue my search for ultimate kvas...

While I was in search for kvas recipe I have started to read about beer and got my first brewing equipment which was made out of old 50l beer kegs. I made few unsuccessful batches - mainly because of some stupid mistakes (chlorine in water gave medical taste, some crap Italian (AEB Fermoale) yeast gave bad aroma, bad temperatures due to lack of equipment / failure of STC-1000 etc... One mistake led to another and to avoid mistakes I started to invest in my equipment. Got precise scales and whole bunch of water treatment chemicals, first an crap pH meter and than good one, STC-1000 I switched with much more precise DST-1020, first an old fridge with bad cooling system and than 320l freezer. And then I stumbled upon used Braumeister 50l. Person who was selling it needed money badly and I made an offer which was on margins of how much I can afford. To my surprise my offer was accepted and I got it for less money than you here sell clones (still I live in poor Serbia which is by no means global superpower as Russia is - our standard is much lower than yours is).

So I have made several batches with high success. Got few ales and lagers and even found an style on my own out of my kvas recipes components in mix with regular beer components (it is still in calibration - but it has promising future).

So there problems started to appear. You see Braumeister has this limitation that you need to make huge batches because of its overflow design. An short pipe is available, but shipping to Serbia is too much above its already high price. Even with that shorten malt tube my batch would still be very high for experimentation I want to do. So prior to selling of my Braumeister, I wanted to secure some smaller or similar machine that can suit my needs.

I got interested in GrainFather and RoboBrew (this one is Chinese and has a lot of names but mostly is known as RoboBrew). I also got interested in HERMS as an ultimate solution, but all these systems are quite expensive and I wanted to make sure that I am getting the best option there is to fill my needs. So I have started to search Russian websites for their solutions as I knew that Russians like to build and repair stuff on their own - much like us. At first I found Bavaria clone and than I found an unique brewing system made by some guy in Ukraine [Cant post links yet - i will update after I get sufficient rights]
So in an further effort to find some cheap alternative components for my DIY brewing system I stumbled upon this place.

What I expected to find I have not, and what I did not expected I have found. I found an very affordable and very advanced brewing controller [ESP8266 based one]. I have ordered all parts from Aliexpress and I wait now to get them and start assemble. But what I have expected is that there are some cheap Soviet / Russian water pumps and heating elements that are similar to original Braumeister parts. Heating elements are cheaper than original but still expensive, while you sadly use German pumps ...

Well if you have some ideas to aid me, please write me about it. If you have someone that comes to Serbia by truck or car - that can be good for both of us. We have very cheap Corny kegs (pin lock 5 gal) over here and among some Russian kvas components and Braumeister replacement parts I do need outstanding Russian Pegas system.

Regards, Miodrag.

 

У нас форум стал иностранным?

 

Darn it. If you consider mine presence as intrusion, I will delete my account and leave for good.

 

Форум на русском языке. На английском читать никто не будет.

 

Well there are two choices for me. I can write in Serbian or English. I believe that English is better since Google translate service is exceptionally well developed for English, so translation to Russian would give better results for those who don't understand English.

I will now write all this in Serbian so you can see the difference.

За мене овде постоје две опције. Ја могу писати или на српском или на енглеском језику. Милим да је боље да користим енглески јер Гугл сервис за превод доста боље ради са енглеским него са српским када се преводи на руски, за оне који не разумеју енглески.

Would it be better to use copy paste of Google translate. I believe that translation service is good but not great, so for those who do understand English it would be better to have English text, and those who do not can translate this in 2 mouse clicks - is that a problem?

 

Лучше на английском, можно перевести