Interactive lesson

Vegetable kvass, step by step

Interactive lesson: a jar of vegetables, salt water and a week of waiting — beetroot, carrot and cabbage, the second batch, bottles under pressure, kvass in the kitchen and who should drink it with care.

Free sample Chapters 1 and 2 (8 steps) are free. The full lesson comes with the Kvass and fermented drinks module. Already bought? Unlock

This lesson is general guidance, not professional training. Local regulations and expert advice always take precedence. Read our disclaimer.

The whole lesson as text

1. What vegetable kvass is

Chunks of vegetables in salt water for a week give a salty, tangy drink.

A salty vegetable drink — Beet kvass is dark red, salty and earthy. One jar of beetroot gives you two batches of drink, and the leftover beetroot makes a salad.
Not bread kvass — Bread kvass and boza ferment with yeast, contain sugar and some alcohol (H47-04). Vegetable kvass has no yeast and no added sugar, and almost no alcohol.
The homestead's winter drink — It is made from autumn to spring, from what is in the store: beetroot, carrots, cabbage. In summer the kitchen is too warm.
How much to make — Two adults drink roughly 1.5 L a week. That is one 2 L jar every week, in rotation with a second jar.

Why: It is made by the same kind of bacteria that sour the cabbage in a crock: lactic acid bacteria. There is less vegetable, more water and less salt than in a crock, so kvass is milder and quicker to finish.

Kvass is drunk in small amounts, so don't make it in large quantities.
Start a new jar fermenting when you strain the previous one into bottles. That way kvass never stands for more than three weeks.

2. Beet kvass

For a 2 L jar: 500 g of beetroot to 1.5 L of water.

Scrub and peel — Scrub the beetroot under running water and peel it. Soil on the skin is a source of unwanted bacteria.
2 cm cubes — Grated vegetables release all their sugar at once and the kvass turns slimy. Cubes release sugar slowly. Use gloves and a plastic chopping board.
Brine — Dissolve 26 g of non-iodised salt in 1.5 L of boiled and cooled water: that is 17.5 g per 1 L, range 15–20 g.
Jar to 3/4 — Beetroot at the bottom, cover with brine to 3/4 of the jar. A small saucer or glass weight so no beetroot pokes out. An airlock, loose lid or muslin and a rubber band.

Why: All the recipes follow the same order. Once you've mastered it with beetroot, the rest is just a change of vegetables and spices.

Weigh the salt on a scale accurate to 1 g. A spoon isn't accurate enough.
Wash vessels in hot water and washing-up liquid and rinse them well; the water should be drinking quality.