Kvass with yeast / Russian bread drink
A glass of cold kvass – pure refreshment on hot summer days. The Russian bread drink tastes sweet and sour, incredibly delicious and is carbonated. It is a thirst quencher that you just can't get enough of. According to this recipe you can make kvas at home. You only need a few ingredients.
Servings 2 l
Equipment
- sealable glass bottles
Ingredients
- 300 g rye bread (preferably Russian Borodino bread)
- 3 l boiling water
- 80 - 130 g sugar
- 40 g raisins
- 8 g fresh yeast
Instructions
- Cut rye bread into small cubes, spread them on a baking sheet and toast them in a preheated oven at 180 °C for about 20 - 30 minutes.
- Now put the bread in a large glass bowl or a large screw-top jar, pour boiling water over it, cover it with a towel and let it cool down to lukewarm at room temperature. This will take about 5 - 8 hours.
- Fold a cheesecloth about four times, line a strainer with it, and hang the strainer over a large glass bowl. Strain the lukewarm water-bread mixture, squeeze the bread residue in the cheesecloth a little and discard it.
- Add fresh yeast and sugar to the bread water and stir until the sugar and yeast dissolve.
- Add raisins, cover the bowl with the bread water with a towel and let it ferment in a warm place for about 12 hours. (Note the tips and tricks for this at the top of the post).
- Then transfer the bread drink into glass bottles (leaving about 5 cm of space to the rim in each bottle) and refrigerate for at least 24 hours.
Notes
- Use rye bread of very good quality. The best kvass is made from the Russian Borodino bread.
- When toasting the bread in the oven, make sure that it does not burn. Otherwise the kvass will taste bitter in the end.
- Dry yeast can be used instead of fresh yeast. For the recipe you need 3 g of it.
- It is important that the bread water is lukewarm when you add yeast, so that they can develop their effect well.
- To get the water-bread mixture to ferment, it should be warm enough in the room. If it is about 24 °C in the room where the mass is resting, it needs about 8 - 12 hours for fermentation. The colder it is in the room, the more time the mass needs to ferment.
- Note the detailed tips and tricks for making kvass at home at the top of the post.