Bread Kvass Safety Concerns

Question

My first brewing experience is gonna be bread Kwass (following this recipe). Now, I browsed a bit to get some info, and I only managed to get terrified. There are three concerns that I would like you to help me with, if possible.

1. What do I have to do in order to avoid a dangerous amount of methanol in the end-product.
2. About botulism: How do I avoid clostridium botulinum to germinate during the fermentation process (and kill everyone)? If the bread was not super fresh (a few days old, but no fungus on it), does it increase its chances of appearing?
3. I am planning to use a Fido bottle for the fermentation process. How often shall I "burp" it in order for it to not explode?

Thank you very much for your help.

Answer 1

1. Why do you think there will any problem with Methanol? According to the recipe, she says that you'll get to 1% ABV but I suspect it will be higher, but not by much. Methanol in fermentation is usually only a tiny fraction of Ethanol production, so almost no concern to you unless you plan on distilling it. That's usually where Methanol is a problem.

2. Since you are boiling everything (I would boil the raisins and sugar too), it will kill any chance that botulism would invade. Just throw in the yeast when it's cooled to room temperature and when that starts happening, the yeast out competes the botulinum from growing if there were any present.

3. Please do NOT use this glass jar. You could end up with something exploding. Use a large plastic bottle or a carboy with an airlock.

Answer 2

Don’t worry about methanol. Seriously, it’s only a concern if you distill. And honestly it’s only a concern if you distill Apple brandy. And honestly it’s only a concern if you distill 10 gallons of apple brandy and drink the foreshots. That would be a bad choice.

You can’t make enough methanol to hurt yourself at all without distilling.