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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
Would pumpernickel bread work instead of the dark rye? And when adding sugar and yeast, should the water be warm? Thank you
Hi Kyle, we recommend making it as listed in the recipe first before making any substitutions. A few of our readers mentioned pumpernickel worked well.
Thanks for the recipe. It doesn’t mention that the sugar should be dissolved before adding to the pot. Is that correct?
Hi Jp, that is correct.
question: dissolved in water before adding to pot? thank you!
Hi Deb, it isn’t necessary to dissolve separately. I just add it to the pot.
I look forward to making this for Thanksgiving this year. My only question is… The needed materials includes “3 large soda bottles.” But, what is the best size for soda bottles? I can easily get either 2 liters or maybe 3 liters. Which would be the ideal size?
Hi Stephen, The bottles in the picture are 2.84L each, so it makes about 8 1/2 Liters of Kvass. Hope that helps.
Will glass bottles work just as well as plastic?
Hi Stephen, most of my readers recommending plastic due to it being able to withstand pressure better than glass. I have tried both and following the instructions have never had anything burst, thankfully! 🙂
Great recipe!!!
Thank you!!!!
We waited 1.5 days instead of 6 hrs.
I’m glad you enjoyed this recipe!
Hi. Me and two of my friends used this recipe to make kvass at home. It turned out awesome. I’d drunk it in some foreign countries a few years ago. And I always wanted to make some at home, because markets don’t provide it here in Iran. Your recipe led us to a perfectly easy amazing kvass experience again. My friends loved it. So did I. And we have you to thank for that.
You’re so welcome, Armin. I’m so glad you and your friends enjoyed this recipe!
Delicious! I let it stand for about a day and a half at room temp instead of 6 hours. Really good! Instead of popping the lid every couple hours, I just rubber banded a balloon over the bottle necks and that worked fine to deal with the pressure
That’s awesome! Thanks for sharing that with us and I’m so happy to hear that you enjoyed this recipe.
Hi Natasha, can cranberries be used instead of raisins? thanks!
Hi Victoria, I bet that could work! If you happen to experiment, please let me know how you like that.
I tried both cranberries and rhubarb,both turned out amazing.Just added an extra cup of sugar or honey,etc.Tart fruit contains less sugar(to feed the yeast).As for explosions,use big plastic bottles with caps.Fill them about 3/4 full,squeeze till the liquid reaches the top,then cap quickly.That allows room for expansion,just like untying your sweatpants before a sushi buffet.I haven’t noticed any discernible difference between glass and plastic,but maybe that’s just me.
So wonderful to hear that. Thanks for sharing that with us, Kevin!
First I would like to say that this recipe is great, and I have made my second batch of this recipe today. Thank you for posting it. I have been using white wine yeast (Lalvin D-47) which I was able to buy in bulk from amazon for fairly cheap. The flavor has been fantastic with some fruitiness coming from the yeast, but they tend to over ferment the sugars and after some time the kvas is quite potent. Still pleasant, but not as enjoyable as fresh. I may end up making a variation of this for a homebrew beer (the tangy rye is a great flavor) I expect to be using this recipe for years to come, or some variation of it every time I have stale bread or excess fruit. Today I used stale sourdough bread, since everyone is making sourdough during the pandemic, myself included. Once again, thank you for posting this recipe.
Thanks for sharing that with us, Jake. This is really useful information and I’m also glad you enjoyed it!
Can you use a white bread Instead of the rye?
Hi Colin, for color and flavor, black bread is best if you can get it or rye bread.
After you put the drink in the refrigerator, the yeast will stop producing alcohol (or at least, Will produce much less), because the temperature is too low. If you want more alcohol in your kvass store it longer than 6 hours in a warm place. (Maybe 1-3 days) the yeast will produce alcohol out of sugar until all the sugar is gone or the alcohol concentration is too high for the yeast and it dies. Open the bottle every few hours just too let carbon dioxide out so your kvass doesn’t turn into bombs.
Thank you so much for sharing that with me.
As a home brewer I second Yeast Lover’s comment. Although cold will not stop fermentation, it will indeed slow it. If you want to ferment in the fridge, use a lager beer yeast it will come out smoother and might be a good experiment. You can also grab an airlock from your home brew store for less than $5. I’ve seen people using balloons as well which gives a cavity for the pressure to expand into and keep low.
If you wanna carb the thing with accuracy wait until this portion ferments out, then add a bit more sugar and tighten the cap. This is a good time to cleanup the sediment and transfer to another jug. We use 4-5 Oz of corn sugar (or 2/3 cup of white sugar) to prime a 5 Gal batch so just do the math on your volumes.
Anyways, looking forward to trying this thanks!
Use breathers and you won’t have that problem with exploding beverages. Brewing suppliers are the best to look into, but in a pinch you can use balloons. Simply place balloons on the bottle necks, and cinch those down with strong rubber bands, (new ones only as they wear out). Once the balloons aren’t filling quite so much they will be ready. It is sort of like making beer, but without the hops. If you want a little more carbonation add a wee bit sugar, or corn sugar. Or, you can place a few extra raisins in the bottles, before placing the breathers on the bottles. If you place the bottles in the fridge before you have allowed the yeast to totally consume the sugars you are basically enjoying a process called cold brewing. Some call it lagering. This process actually helps it to last a little longer in storage, albeit without hops you won’t have a product that lasts as long in storage. But, Kvas is made to be drank and used in cooking quickly. I have basically given you part of the process for turning wort into beer.
DO NOT TOAST BREAD 3 TIMES. It is hard to tell if your bread was toasted if you had bought black bread. I made That mistake and luckily the fire department did not burst through my door. Apparently the bread was literally on fire. And i live in an apartment, so you can imagine how smokey my place was.
Oh my goodness that is a wild story! Yikes!! We only toasted twice as in the instructions, but it’s great to keep in mind every toaster is a little different so definitely stop toasting when it looks like the bread in the photo and before it catches fire! That’s a great cautionary tale. Thanks for sharing! I hope you were able to air things out alright.
How does it Carbonate?
Hi, Kvas ferments from the yeast which creates the carbonation.
Another recipe called for brewer’s yeast instead of active dry yeast. What is your opinion on this?
Hi Skim, I am honestly not familiar with brewers yeast so I can’t speak to that.
Brewers yeast would be desirable. They tend to produce more alcohol and less CO2. They also have a better flavor profile in beverages than bread yeast.
One should keep in mind that Kvas is unique drink and really not a beer. The original recipe and taste profile is based on bread yeast as well as some wild lacto bacteria. As in any brewing one can change yeast type but with it the intended taste will change. Only addition to the Angelina’s recepy could be addition of some sour note to compensate for missing wild bacteria impact. Typically, slices of lemon are added and removed with the bread for that purpose.
Hello!
I was just wondering how sanitized the jars holding the fermenting kvas should be? (I’m afraid some bad bacteria would start growing after the first day if the bowls weren’t expertly cleaned extremely well.) Would just a normal, clean jar be fine– or should I do a “master-cleaning-job” on it? Thank you!
Hi Rebekah, a master cleaning job is always best. I steam sterilize, but the dishwasher would work also. It should like you are a pro at the master cleaning job which is great!
Thank you for posting such an easy to follow recipe. I especially appreciate the tip to toast the bread in the garage or outside because WOW that’s a lot of smell and heat and I don’t want the smoke detectors to go off. I’m waiting for my bread to double toast now— can’t wait to drink this !!
You’re so welcome! I hope you love it!
Hello! Can I use Maramite yeast extract in place of dry active yeast? Maramite was the only thing available in the store and the Russian Market is over an hour away. I’m surprising my Ukrainian hubby with this since his mom always made it!
I haven’t tested that but I think it could work. If you experiment, let me know how you liked the recipe
No, you will need live yeast to ferment the beverage. Marmite comes from yeast, but is very dead
You may just ignore the yeast part of the recipe if you use classic rye bread (or any other bread beaked from yeast dough), it will take longer to fermentize (1-2 days instead of 8+6 hours) since there are not that much yeast still “alive” in the beaked bread, but the result will still be the same. But you should not remove the bread from the pot in that case till the moment you’re ready to serve the drink into bottles.
We are currently hosting the son of missionaries from Ukraine for his senior year of high school (dad is American, mom is Ukrainian). I stumbled across your page while looking for a Kvass recipe after he and I got into a discussion about it.
His mother said this recipe sounds about like what she does, so we are hoping it tastes like what he knows from home.
The Kvass is currently sitting on my counter while it ferments. We are hoping it finishes in time to share a little bit of Ukraine with the rest of my family for Thanksgiving.
Awww that’s the best! Thank you so much for sharing that with me :). I hope its ready in time also! Happy Thanksgiving!
Hi Natasha,
The recipe is turning out great.
I’ve needed to let the Kvas culture a little longer but it comes out perfectly.
The bottles are highly carbonated and have a very sophisticated flavor.
I’m also using well water as I’ve been told it’s better for fermenting; since tap water contains chlorine and iodine, both of which are supposed to inhibit fermentation.
I’m so happy you enjoyed this recipe! Thank you for sharing your wonderful review 🙂
Hi. Is there any way to reduce the yeast sediment at the bottom of the bottles? Would re-filtering help?
Most people who try my kvass for the first time always wonder if it is safe to have it due to the sedimentation at the bottom. Once they try it they love it.
Filtering it should help!
The yeast sediment is a highly nutritious thing, can upset some peoples stomach, but it is loaded with various micro nutrients and vitamin B too. People pay a premium for living brews like that.
Follow my suggestion above of letting it ferment out fully with an airlock, and then adding the priming sugar to carbonate it. You can use this chance to cleanup the bottle and remove the sediment. You will still get sediment after it carbonates but it will be far less of a mess.
Can i use a slow cooker as it is the bigest pot like thing i have?
Hi Chris, that should work fine in a larger sized slowcooker.