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You’re gonna appreciate this; a simple, authentic bread kvas that doesn’t need a concentrate! My hubby’s cousin, Angelina, shared this recipe with us. We’ve made it with rye bread and with black bread and both were so refreshing! New favorite for sure – thanks Angelina!
This kvass lasts up to a week in the fridge (probably longer, but it might start tasting kinda strong). You’ll notice it loses sweetness daily as it stands. I think it’s best after a full day in the fridge.
Bread Kvas is uber popular in Russia and Ukraine. You might compare it to a sweet, non-alcoholic beer. From my research, kvass only has up to 1% alcohol content (still probably not recommended for pregos). The longer it sits in the fridge, the more slightly “alcoholic” it gets, but it’s still considered non-alcoholic.
So if you drink it in the first day or 2, there is probably no alcohol in there yet. From what my readers have said, it’s best to store kvas in plastic soda bottles since they are designed to hold pressurized drinks. I like to release the pressure from my bottles 1-2 times a day because an over-inflated bottle just makes me nervous.
Ingredients for Bread Kvas:
2.5 gallons or 10 qt of water
1 lb or 9 slices of classic black, dark or rye bread
1 handful of raisins
1.8 lb (4 cups) of sugar
1.5 Tbsp of active dry yeast
3 large plastic soda bottles
How to Make Russian Bread Kvas: (best if prepared in the evening)
DAY 1:
1. Fill giant stock pot with 2.5 gallons of water (or divide it into two large pots) and bring to a boil.
2. While waiting, toast the bread slices twice on the darkest toaster setting. Yes. Seriously. Darker bread makes darker kvass. Toast bread either outside or in your garage or your house will get smokey. We learned the hard way :). It should look like the photo below.
3. When water starts to boil, remove the pot from heat. Add a handful of raisins and toasted bread to the pot, cover with the lid and let it stay overnight or at least 8 hours.
DAY 2:
4. Carefully remove toasted bread and discard it.
5. In a medium bowl, mix together 4 cups of sugar and 1.5 Tbsp of yeast, add them to kvas mixture and stir.
6. Cover with plastic wrap or lid and leave the mixture on the counter for another 6 hours, stirring every couple hours.
7. Discard floating raisins by scooping them up with a large spoon. Using strainer or cheese cloth, pour kvass into bottles, loosely cover with lid and refrigerate overnight. The following day once the bottles are completely chilled, you can tighten the lid.
P.S. According to my readers, it’s best to store kvas in plastic soda bottles since they are designed to hold pressurized drinks.
DAY 3: enjoy
DAY 4: enjoy
DAY 5: …..did it really last that long?
How do you make your kvass?
Easy Bread Kvas Recipe
Ingredients
- 2.5 gallons or 10 qt of water
- 1 lb or 9 slices of classic black, dark or rye bread
- 1 handful of raisins
- 1.8 lb 4 cups of sugar
- 1.5 tablespoons of active dry yeast
- 3 large plastic soda bottles
Instructions
DAY 1: (best if prepared in the evening)
- Fill giant stock pot with 2.5 gallons of water (or divide it into two large pots) and bring to a boil.
- While waiting, toast the bread slices twice on the darkest toaster setting. Darker bread makes darker kvass. Toast bread either outside or in your garage or your house will get smokey.
- When water starts to boil, remove the pot from heat. Add a handful of raisins and toasted bread to the pot, cover with the lid and let it stay overnight or at least 8 hours.
DAY 2:
- Carefully remove toasted bread and discard it.
- In a medium bowl, mix together 4 cups of sugar and 1.5 Tbsp of yeast, add them to kvas mixture and stir.
- Cover with plastic wrap or lid and leave the mixture on the counter for another 6 hours, stirring every couple hours.
- Discard floating raisins by scooping them up with a large spoon. Using strainer or cheese cloth, pour kvass into bottles, loosely cover with lid and refrigerate overnight. The following day once the bottles are completely chilled, you can tighten the lid.
DAY 3: enjoy
Notes
So simple but So Wonderful, I was in the UK recently and some friends took me to a Lithuanian Restaurant where I had my first taste of Kvass. I thought I could make this at home and found this fantastic recipe. I’ve made a couple little variations but this recipe is really great and difficult to mess up. I’m not a cook so this was perfect for me. It tastes great I was really surprised because I’ve had difficulties in the past making home made brews but this turned out really well I highly recommend giving it a try.
Hi Greta! Thank you so much for the wonderful review 🙂 I really appreciate it! 🙂
Hi, I was wondering if I could use milk/water kefir (or grains) in place of the yeast?
Thanks. 🙂
Hi, without testing that, I’m not sure. I actually have never used that combination so I couldn’t really guess. Sorry I’m not much help.
Hi, I was wondering if I can split the recipe in half?
Yes that should work fine.
I loved this recipe! I used a left over whole wheat bread that I make because it was what I had on hand. It is going to be a staple in my house. I may experiment with citrus peel at some point.
Thank you for the nice review. After reading your comment, I really crave some kvass right now 😀 .
Natasha kvass good but less sugar, horosh
Evgeni, the kvass becomes more flavorful and less sweet the longer it stands. The yeast eats up the sugar, so give it another day or two and it will be less sweet :). Hope this helps.
Beware though: the chemical compound acrylamide (which has been linked to cancer) forms when foods are burned. The darker the toast, the more acrylamide has formed… and is going to end up in your Kvas.
Yikes! I’ll have to look into that. Thanks Reed!
I have made kvass using this recipe many times, and the result has always been great. I have played around with different parameters, and found that a starting sugar concentration of 12% gave me the best results. After 2 days I put it in brown plastic 2L bottles (3/4 full) with a balloon on top (sort of water-lock), to let it ferment another 1-2 days. This is a great way to help dissolve the generated carbon dioxide.
A small note on the alcohol produced: it can be more than 1%. First I used bread yeast, afterwards I tried two types of Belgian beer yeast (habituated to wheat) and a type of wine yeast (Saccharomyces bayanus ; “Killer” strain – used for champagne). The result of the last experiment was naturally quite a high alcohol content but also a markedly slower fermentation, which could be speeded up by substituting glucose (aka dextrose) for table sugar.
Now, I use a mixture of the three above, as I always take a good part of the bottom layer to mix with some fresh yeast every batch, as to habituate the yeast to it’s job of making kvass. Who knows by now a wild strain could also have settled itself into the mix, analoguous to what happens in homebrewing beer.
The results taste-wise are optimal for me, I use Borodinskij type Latvian bread BTW (black, 50% wheat, 50% rye with some coriander seeds on top). Sometimes I swap dried cranberries for raisins, with good results, both can be added too.
After 2 days I assume the kvass contains about 2% alcohol, but it is a little too sweet for me. Optimal is 3 days, followed by 1 or 2 days fermenting in a bottle.
Today I distilled a 100ml sample (I am a qualified biochemist) and collected everything under 95°C. 4-5ml were collected, so as it was not a fractional distillation, i’d say the kvass contains 3-4% alcohol. Note that neither the distillate, nor what was left in the flask, smelled of fusel oil (higher carbon alcohols which are mildly toxic and often the cause of nasty hangovers), and no oily drops were noted after collecting the alcohol fraction.
Wow! I’m impressed! Thank you so much for Sharing all of tips!!
We love kvass in our family but my dad could never quite pin it down.. The store bought to me always tasted like old non carbonated coca cola and when we bought the kvas molasses at the Russian store the results were disappointing.
This recipe turned out amazing however on my secound round I will be leaving out one of the cups of sugar because it was to sweet for me and everyone who tried it although day 5 the last cup was perfect..
We just can’t wait that long!
To bitter it down the first two days we poured it over ice and squeezed a tad of lemon in!
Thank you for the great review Oxana :), I would love some ice cold kvas right now.
Natasha, thanks a lot for this wonderful recipe!! I’ve just done it and we are all really surprised!! We would have never ever believed the result of sucking some burned rye toasts in water! 🙂 Wonderful!!
I share it in my blog and it will be visible in a couple of hour! http://www.bruixesalacuina.blogspot.ch/
Hava wonderful day!!
Dolors
I know, right?! 🙂 I’m so glad you liked it and thank you for sharing!
I remember having Kvas in Kyiv in 1992 during a visit there with my husband. Some of our local Ukrainian delis sell Kvas as well. This looks like an interesting recipe & one I will definitely try!
I hope it reminds you of the ones you tried in Kiev and I hope you love it! 🙂
Natasha, Is there any way of preparing it without yeast? I am trying to stay away from commercially manufactured yeast.
On the other note – I don’t see how the color effects the properties of kvas. Your picture looks like kvas my mom used to make. Doesn’t mean it’s not an authentic Russian recipe. I associate dark color with the commercially sold kvas.
Olga, I don’t haven’t tried making kvass without yeast. As far as the color goes, darker bread will make darker kvass.
You can find recipes that use sourdough starter in the kvass instead of commercial yeast
I followed your recipe exactly. It was ready at 3 PM this afternoon and it is way too sweet for us to drink. Could I add more water to what I already have and perhaps a bit more yeast and let it ferment some more? This drink is new to us and I would really like to get it right for our taste. Any suggestions would be appreciated.
Let it ferment more if you want it to get stronger and less sweet. 🙂
Hi natasha. after covering the pot & letting it stay over night do i have to put it in a warm spot or just leave it on the stove? well Natasha ur due date is coming up, may God bless u & give u strength & hope ur delievery goes good & fast. my delievery was almost 16hrs. cant wait till u post pics of ur cuttie pie.
Thank you so much for your sweet comment and blessings :). 16 hours!!! WOW! That is a major accomplishment. I bet you were exhausted after that kind of marathon but it’s all so worth it when you hold your new baby. :). At step 4, when you cover it with the lid, just leave it at room temperature overnight.
Recipe of BRAGA. Leave this kvass for 2 weeks and you will get an alcoholic bevarage. But you should be careful, because there is a change to become fall asleep on the place of tasting.
lol wow that is quite a recipe! It does get stronger with time and I always wondered how much alcohol is actually in it after 2 weeks.
Natashenka…I wonder if it is possible to make Kvass from a hearty multi grain Gluten Free bread, since it is not the gluten the yeast thrives on (I don’t think) but rather the starch or sugar in the carbs.
The recipe looks wonderful!
t
Guys, just buy it on eBay. It is cheep and from Russia
We have a similar recipe here in Québec that settlers used to make a long time ago. But there’s a twist. While the basic recipe remains the same, we add spruce tree extract (obtained by boiling branches and cones of a young spruce tree). You get the sweetness and a hop-like taste as a bonus. I’m gonna try your recipe pretty soon to compare both. Thanx for the sharing by the way!
That sounds really unique and interesting. I’ll pass that along to my husband. Thanks so much for sharing!
I’ve read the presentation of your apple Kvas and it reminded me of what I mentioned above. I believe birch tree “juice” would do the same as spruce tree but with a more acidic taste. Well, I guess we have some experimenting to do now!
We sure do! 🙂
Hi Natasha, im in the process of making ur recipe kvass, but with 4 cups of sugar, does that make kvass too sweet, can i cut the sugar recipe to 3 cups, bc i added 3 cups and it tastes pretty sweet to me!
With kvas, it does taste sweet at first, but as the kvas sits, day-by-day it gets stronger in flavor and less sweet as the yeast eats up the sugar. My family hasn’t complained of it being overly sweet, but I guess you could use a little less if you are planning to drink it all on the day it’s done brewing and is chilled 🙂
I absolutely loved this kvas recipe! To me it taste like home 🙂
For people who don’t want 2.5 gallons, but less. Instead of boiling 2.5 gallons, I did about 1.6 gallons, which is 6 liters. So all the ingredients I added I divided by 1.5, so 6 toasts, about 2.5 cups of sugar and 1 tbsp of yeast. For the bread, I used dark ray, my kvas is very very dark. Maybe it does differ in taste, but I still love it!
Natasha, thank you very much for sharing this with us!
Thanks for converting all that! I’m site someone else might be wondering how to scale it down. I’m so happy you enjoyed the recipe:-)
you messed up you have 2 step 8’s. but over all your recipe is so good!!
I sure do! Thanks so much for catching that! 🙂 Fixed!
I wouldn’t toast the bread twice in the darkest setting. I did and it caught on fire… My bread goes like the toast in the picture after one toasting and not even on the highest setting.
You must have a better toaster than ours! It caught fire? Wow!