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Snezhana Goldfild wrote in with this recipe for apple kvas (яблочный квас). I knew I had to try it so I purchased ingredients the next day and went to work. It really was as she described it “very refreshing.” It’s easier than the classic bread kvas that I posted earlier and just as good. Looking forward to having kvas more often now that I have such an easy recipe.
I mentioned this recipe to my mom and it brought back memories of her childhood; her brothers would go into the forest and collect birch tree juice. Her Mom added yeast and dried pears for color and they would drink Birch kvass all summer long.
Now, where do I find Birch tree juice – wouldn’t that be awesome?!
Back to the apple kvas – Snezhana mentioned that it can be made with fresh apple juice – I’ll have to visit mom’s juice maker for that. Snezhana – thank you so much for this wonderful kvas recipe. It’s sure to become a family favorite!
Ingredients for apple kvas:
8 cups apple juice (any kind, fresh or concentrate)
1/2 cup white sugar
1/2 Tbsp active dry yeast
1/2 tsp dark molasses (or 1 tsp instant coffee), used for color only
6 cups filtered water
How to Make Apple Kvas:
1. Fill a 16 cup glass jar with 8 cups apple juice.
2. Add 1/2 cup sugar, 1/2 Tbsp yeast and 1/2 tsp molasses, than stir until sugar dissolves. Finally add water.
3. Cover with multiple layers of cheesecloth or a cotton cloth and put a rubber band over the rim of the jar. Let stand on the counter for 18 hours, then refrigerate. Once it’s completely chilled, you can remove the cheese cloth and screw the lid on. If you put the lid on while it’s warm, too much pressure will build up inside the jar. This is especially dangerous with a plastic bottle (KA-BOOM!)
Serve Kvas once it’s completely chilled.
Notes: Snezhana suggested: 4-8 heaping Tbsp of sugar, (7 Tbsp = 1/2 cup which turned out quite nice!) Instead of using a cloth over the top, you can also poke holes in the lid while it sits on the counter.
Russian Apple Kvas Recipе - Квас
Ingredients
- 8 cups apple juice
- 1/2 cup granulated sugar
- 1/2 Tbsp active dry yeast
- 1/2 tsp dark molasses, or 1 tsp instant coffee
- 6 cups filtered water
Instructions
- Fill a 16 cup glass jar with 8 cups apple juice.
- Add sugar, yeast and molasses. Stir until sugar dissolves than add water.
- Cover with multiple layers of cheesecloth or a cotton cloth and put a rubber band over the rim of the jar. Let stand on the counter for 18 hours, then refrigerate. Once it's completely chilled, you can remove the cheese cloth and screw the lid on. If you put the lid on while it's warm, too much pressure will build up inside the jar.
Serve Kvas once it's completely chilled.
Notes
there is a russian grocery stoer nearby my house and they sell birch tree juice all year round! i absolutely love it!
I should check our Russian store for birch juice. I never had it but my husband had some back in Ukraine.
Hi Natasha!! Well this receipe of kvas is awesome., i love how easy it is to make with no bread and all that hard stuff. And it sure tastes like KVAS that i remember from Ukraine!!, I used to never buy apple juice before since i dont like apple juices. But now when i go grocery shopping first thing is i buy apple juice, I am looking forward making this Kvas for my upcoming sons birthday party! Only think i did is i put slices of lemon just an hour before serving the kvas., (more for a good look 🙂 But the lemon did it job it gave even A better taste to it. All i wanna say is THANK YOU For sharing all your receipes of good stuff :)) God bless your family!! 🙂
Thank you so much for your nice comment. I’m all smiles reading it. God bless you and your family as well. Happy birthday to your son and thank you for sharing the lemon idea. I love that. I bet it would look and taste great!
Natasha !
This is an awesome recipe ! The Kvas turned out Super !! Love your website.Thank You.
Thank you Ksusha. I love getting comments like this. 😀
Josh, as far as I know, kvas comes from the word zakvaska or leven, and the verb that comes from the levening process zakvashivat can also refer to fermenting, but kvas does not refer to beer or wine or other fermented drinks that have any large concentration of alcohol at least as far as I know.
Hello, I just came across your recipe while looking up DIY kvass. And I will just mention that this recipe is also called Cyser. Does kvas mean ferment or something similar so if I use apples instead of mint or bread is it still called kvas or does the name change. Like in English grapes would be wine honey mead apples cyser etc…
Just curious.
I plan on trying your traditional kvas recipe tomorrow with my kids. Thanks for posting it.
Hi Josh, I’ve never heard of cyser so I’m not sure how to compare it but I do have a recipe for apple kvas posted also without any bread. It must have something to do with being a yeast drink.
Privet Natasha. ya zdelala kvas but i accidently put 1 tbs of yeast instead of .5 tbs is it ok? wont be too much?
It might have a stronger yeasty flavor. I don’t think it’s a complete loss. Let me know how it turns out. You may want to add a little more of everything else if you can.
Hello,
I’m making apple kvas now with fresh apples instead of apple juice. Have you ever made apple kvas this way?
I did that with lemon kvas. I boiled the water, put in sliced lemons, sugar and honey, then let it cool to room temp and mixed in the yeast and let it sit 24 hours, then sealed it and left in a cool place 3 days. Do you mean apple slices or fresh apple juice?
I meant fresh apples, peeled and cored. I put in thinly sliced apples, honey, sugar, and cinnamon stick. This is a recipe that I’ve seen floating around the internet. I’m now waiting for it to finish its fermentation process.
Let me know how it turns out. My lemon one just finished fermenting after three days and I poured it down the sink. It was a recipe I got from a Russian cookbook, but it would have made a nice juice/compote without the yeast. I hope your recipe turns out better.
Well, definitely not the best kvass I’ve ever made (but it was my first attempt with apples). The kvass had a strange-tasting film on the surface. Other than that, it tasted enough like apple but it was not a very rich taste.
Thanks for reporting back. I probably won’t quit trying new kvas recipes either. If you find a good one, let me know and I will do the same for you! 🙂
Yea, it was good, but the first time I used apple juice that just went bad, and this time I used fresh, and it didnt taste like kvas, or maybe I put an extra cup of water, and I let it sit in a bowl, instead of a bottle. maybe thats why? gona try again.
I’ve tried different brands of apple juice and they always work so I’m not sure what happened. Just make sure it’s fully chilled before you drink it. I’m not sure what advice to give you 🙁
Tried this kvas last night turned out great! Now want to try bread one. Thanks!
Thanks Lena. Glad you liked it 🙂 Isn’t it ridiculously easy?
can you use a pot instead of a glass bottle? one glass bottle is too little for my family
I used big plastic jugs and made a double batch and I just put the tops on without screwing them on at all so they wouldn’t explode :). I imagine a pot would work, you’d just need a pretty big cheese cloth or cotton cloth to cover it. We make our other kvas in a large silver bowl so I think this should work too.
Hi Natasha, and your readers.
I am writing my Nanna’s story. She came from Ukraine when sh was 15, but I can’t find her town of birth. I wondered if you or any of your readers might be able to help me. She called it Chmeliwka. She said it was 200 miles round trip from Kiev. They had a little house there but were forced to move to Ivankiw when she was 6 years old.
Thank you for your efforts in publishing the homely and warming recipes of our past. My Nanna is very elderly now and can’t always recall correct recipes.
Yes, I think we drank this stuff when we were kids. I remember Nanna squeezing the apples through a wringer that was attached on her washing machine!
Thanks again for your help, Peta.
Hi Peta, thanks for sharing your story. Unfortunately I’m not very familiar with the geography. Hopefully one of my readers may be able to help 🙂
Natasha, I made the kvas!! It came out amazing!!! My kids love it! I’m planning to make this kvas at least once a week from now on. Thank you for posting this recipe. Looking forward to lots more!!
God Bless!!
Olga
Thank you Olga! I’m so glad you and your kids enjoyed it! God bless you too!
my husband LOVES birch kvass ! i buy it at the russian store all the time. if you do get the recipe PLEASE post! =)
That sounds yummy, I wanna try!
oh and i’m not sure where u live but we have birch juice here in our russian stores.. my husband loves it! says its the best thing he remembers from ukraine!
Natasha! Hello! and Kyrstos Voskres!!! I am making a full Ukrainian meal for Easter as is my tradition, and excited that my Ukrainian family that live near Kamanetz-Podolsk will be celebrating on the same day this year!!! I was wondering about trying this kvas recipe with Cherry Juice? What do you think, would it work? thanks for all the yummy recipes, and for helping me keep Ukraine alive in the hearts of my family members and four children ( 2 of whom were born in Ukraine!!!!) May our Father bless you and your sweet family
Voistiny Voskres! I haven’t tried that, but I’m really curious now, so let me know how it turns out. My grandmother used sap from Birch trees and mixed in dried pears, so I don’t see why other juices wouldn’t work. Thank you and may the Lord richly bless you and your family as well! A full Ukrainian meal is hard work, but so worth it!
Will the kvass work w/honey instead of sugar, do you know? I don’t use sugar but really miss kvass, would want to make a healthier version…also coffee filters are a very easy cheap way to cover the jar during the fermenting process.
I’m not sure about honey and if the fermenting process might increase the risk of botulism with honey- that’s probably an extreme thought but try google it. I haven’t tried it so I can’t recommend it one way or the other. The coffee filter idea is genius!
Velentina,
Don’t worry about the sugar. The fermentation process takes care of that. The yeast “feeds” off the sugar and it’s almost gone when the kvas is done. There is very little to none in the drink when it’s ready. Same with Kombucha, but the fermentation process is longer. Honey does not “feed” the yeast, therefore it will not work the same. And the taste will be different.
Olga
I haven’t made this myself yet, but will be doing so after trying your kvas on Thanksgiving. It had a nice light flavor with a zing, like kvas should, not bready or yeasty like a lot of homemade kvases are. That photo with the cheesecloth over the jar opening looks so Ukrainian and homey :).
Hi Joe! Thanks for the tips. I’ll have to keep an eye out for that birch sap. That would be a fun surprise for my mom. She has birch trees in her yard…..hmm…. ok, I wouldn’t!! Good to know about the molasses. This was the first time I’ve used it and you can’t really taste it in the kvas. In coffee huh? I love my lattes – I’ll have to try that.
You really haven’t used molasses before? Wow! It is one of my staples. How can you make good baked beans or indian pudding without it? And shoo fly pie! One of my Thanksgiving day staples. Here is one that is very close to the one I learned from my mom:
http://digital.lib.msu.edu/projects/cookbooks/coldfusion/display.cfm?ID=matf&PageNum=421
The only difference is that my mom put some of the crumb mixture in the pans, poured the molasses mix on, and then sprinkled more of the crumb on top. It would go really well with your latte.
Tapping your moms birch trees shouldn’t hurt them at all. Birch and maple trees get tapped for decades with no ill effects. Here is a video of how to do it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CB648j6l4xk
There are a few sources of birch sap online, but it is expensive. And supposedly the pasturisation process changes the taste some. You may be able to find it in a health food store. They may even be able to get it frozen rather than liquid. Supposedly a more stable form.
Molasses is a great ingredient. Shoo fly pie, ginger cookies, molasses crinkle cookies, gingerbread all use it. It is also good in coffee or drizzled over ice cream. Grandmas brand doesn’t have quite the bitter edge that Brer Rabbit has.
There are three grades of molasses, First, which is also called mild or barbados is from the first boiling of the sugar. Second, aka bold or robust is from the second. It isn’t as sweet as the first and has a more pronounced flavor. Blackstrap is the third grade of molasses. Not very sweet and even stronger flavored.
Oh…and it is also very good in coffee, on french toast or pancakes. Mix it in about equal parts with tomato catsup and add a touch of pepper sauce or some chili powder for a killer BBQ sauce.
Can you tell I kind of like the stuff?
You can also buy birch juice online for a reasonable price. Making birch kvas from the juice probably isn’t as good as getting the birch juice fresh from a tree, but it might be worth a try
natasha,
where did u buy the molasses? i’ve never seen that before.
I got it at Winco, I think in the baking aisle. It was only like $2 with some change. I got the mild flavor one – I honestly don’t know what the difference was between that and the bold one because I’ve never used it before either.