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Recipe: Homemade Kvass 1913
Adapted from a book of Ukrainian folk recipes, here’s one for a traditional homemade kvass made from rye bread, sugar, some raisins, and a slice of lemon.
Photo: Matt Graves/mgravesphoto.com
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With thanks to Ukrainian beer writer Lana Svitankova for sharing the translated text, this recipe is based on one found in Zenovia Klinovetska’s 1913 book Food and Drinks in Ukraine, which features 1,000 folk recipes. Here are the original instructions for “Zaporozhky kvas,” translated from Ukrainian:
Pour 4 buckets of boiling water over 16 pounds of dried rye bread and let sit for 8 hours. Transfer to another tub, add 1.5 glasses of good yeast, 4 pounds of sugar, 1 sliced and deseeded lemon, and let sit for another 8 hours. Afterward, strain through a fine cloth and bottle. Add a raisin to each bottle, cork tight, and keep at room temperature for 8–10 hours, until kvass ferments.
Aiming to turn this into a batch fit for a five-gallon (19-liter) corny keg, we used the following conversion rates for the antiquated measurements: 1 bucket = 3.2 gallons (12.1 liters); 1 “pound” = 0.88 U.S. pounds (400 g); and 1 glass = 0.8 cups (200 ml).
For much more about this traditional farmhouse drink, see Kvass: The True Liquid Bread.
KVASS
Batch size: 5 gallons (19 liters)
OG: 1.017 (4.3°P)
FG: 1.000 (0°P)
ABV: 2.2%
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With thanks to Ukrainian beer writer Lana Svitankova for sharing the translated text, this recipe is based on one found in Zenovia Klinovetska’s 1913 book Food and Drinks in Ukraine, which features 1,000 folk recipes. Here are the original instructions for “Zaporozhky kvas,” translated from Ukrainian:
Pour 4 buckets of boiling water over 16 pounds of dried rye bread and let sit for 8 hours. Transfer to another tub, add 1.5 glasses of good yeast, 4 pounds of sugar, 1 sliced and deseeded lemon, and let sit for another 8 hours. Afterward, strain through a fine cloth and bottle. Add a raisin to each bottle, cork tight, and keep at room temperature for 8–10 hours, until kvass ferments.
Aiming to turn this into a batch fit for a five-gallon (19-liter) corny keg, we used the following conversion rates for the antiquated measurements: 1 bucket = 3.2 gallons (12.1 liters); 1 “pound” = 0.88 U.S. pounds (400 g); and 1 glass = 0.8 cups (200 ml).
For much more about this traditional farmhouse drink, see Kvass: The True Liquid Bread.
KVASS
Batch size: 5 gallons (19 liters)
OG: 1.017 (4.3°P)
FG: 1.000 (0°P)
ABV: 2.2%
[PAYWALL]
INGREDIENTS
7 lb (3.2 kg) dried rye bread, torn into pieces
1.8 lb (816 g) table sugar
1 lemon, slice and deseeded
A handful of raisins
YEAST
Homemade rye sourdough starter, or co-pitch baker’s yeast and Lactobacillus
DIRECTIONS
Boil about 6.5 gallons (25 liters) of water and pour over the bread in a heat-safe vessel. Cover loosely and allow to sit for 8 hours or until it’s cooled to room temperature. Transfer off the bread into another vessel, and add sugar, lemon, and yeast. Cover loosely and let sit another 8 hours. Strain liquid through a fine cloth, rack to a keg, add raisins in a mesh hop bag, and condition 8–10 hours at room temperature before chilling and tapping. (Alternatively, package in sanitized PET bottles, adding 1 raisin to each bottle, storing in the fridge after 8–10 hours. Drink within a few days, occasionally loosening the caps to off-gas.)
