How to Make Russian Bread Kvass

WHAT IS RUSSIAN BREAD KVASS

Bread kvass is a traditional lacto fermented Russian drink that has been around for as long as Russia existed. First written mentioning of it goes back to year 989 AC when Prince Vladimir (the guy known for establishing Christianity amongst then pagan Slavs) said ‘Give food, honey and kvass to people‘ after baptism rituals (source: Primary Chronicle by Nestor).

RUSSIAN BREAD KVASS IS FULL OF LIVE PROBIOTICS

Kvass was made by pretty much everybody, but since monks had the advantage of literacy, a lot of what we know about it in those days was recorded by them. I really like their description of kvass as ‘zhivoi‘, which means ‘live‘, and you would understand why they used that term when you make kvass – once it’s doing its fermenting magic, there are all kinds of twirls and bubbles happening inside the liquid, and ‘live’ is really the first word that comes to mind.

RUSSIAN BREAD KVASS WAS CONSUMED MORE THAN WATER

Bread kvass, much like beer, came about as a way of improving quality of drinking water. There are a lot of references in Russian literature to the fact that kvass was consumed in quantities a lot larger than water, especially in areas where water sources were stagnant.

There are even some folkloric anecdotes that drinking out of some water holes might turn a person into a goat. When kvass is made, the water is always first boiled, which in itself eliminates most of the bad stuff, but then there is an issue of taste.

So… Add some stale rye bread, which as a Slav you have in abundance, since rye is one of the few grains that your land produces without fuss, throw some honey or birch sap (other widely available resources in the vast forests) and let it all sit around for a few days.

Now you have a drink that not only tastes great but quenches thirst a lot faster than water, and makes you feel energized and ready to take down some bears. Because you have to fight the bears to get that honey for your kvass.

HOW IS RUSSIAN BREAD KVASS FERMENTED?

As in any natural fermentation, lactic acid bacteria and yeast, that are naturally present on the surface of every living thing in the world, in anaerobic environment (under water) come in contact with sugars from starch in the grain/bread and honey or sap, and the magic begins.

Lacto fermentation turns any food/drink into a health elixir. Check out this post for details (it talks about kefir, but a lot of the health promoting properties of lactic fermentation are similar among all fermented foods).

If you are looking to make kvass as a healing food, using commercial yeast defeats the purpose. It’s bred to multiply like crazy, and out-muzzles the real yeast and bacteria because of its rapid growth. Although, if you have hard time getting the level of carbonation you like, you can add a couple of grains of dry yeast after you are done fermenting your kvass.

RUSSIAN KVASS CAN BE FERMENTED FROM DIFFERENT INGREDIENTS

When it comes to grain fermentation, there are two basic methods of making kvass – from bread and from flour. But the  variations are endless. Rye is the most common base but other grains, like barley and oats, are used as well. Take a look at my oat kvass, apple kvass or fermented cranberry kvass. 

Old time recipes call for honey or birch sap; I’m cool with using raw cane sugar or other similar unprocessed, and more accessible and reasonably priced, substitutes for those Slavic sweeteners.

HOW TO MAKE RUSSIAN BREAD KVASS

You can use any rye bread, just make sure it has as few ingredients as possible, preferably just flour and water. I use my homemade sourdough bread or this 100% rye sourdough that I chop into any shape I feel like at the moment, and either let it air dry (spread it on a cookie sheet in a cold oven for a couple of days, so it’s out of my sight), or oven dry at 250 degrees for a couple of hours. It is not necessary to dry the bread; the reason is to intensify the color and the flavor of the final product. Some folks toast bread until it’s burnt to get their kvass really dark but I like mine mild. You want to wait before adding water to the bread until it is no warmer than 130ºF. That’s the temperature threshold, at which lactic acid bacteria starts to lose its potency. If you don’t have a food thermometer, a good way to measure this is to stick your clean finger into the water, it should be very hot, but not unbearable, and you should be able to keep it in without a strong urge to take it out. The reason for hot water is to get more flavor out of the bread, and hot water apparently accomplishes it more efficiently than cold. Also, to make bread kvass for the first time you need more sugar than for the consecutive batches, so don’t let the 1 cup scare you away. Plus most of the sugar gets metabolized, and the final drink is more tart than sweet, and has only a fraction of sugar left in it.

INSTRUCTIONS

Boil a kettle of water. Combine two cups of boiling water and 1 cup of sugar:

Mix until sugar dissolves completely. Put two cups of dried rye bread pieces into a half-gallon jar:

Pour slightly cooled sugar water over the bread, then add enough hot water at temperature no higher than 130º F to fill the jar to the level of the curve. It should be about 6 or 7 cups, and vary based on the density of bread.

If the bread wasn’t completely dry, it would take less water, and vice versa. Close tightly. Lactic acid bacteria performs best at minimum air exposure. You would just need to burp it once or twice a day to release the built up pressure. Right after you combine everything, your jar would look like this:

After a couple of hours, the color becomes more uniform and the bread would expand. That’s why you don’t want to use more than 2 or 2.5 cups of bread:

Put the jar in the warmest place in your house that you can find. In two or three days, you will notice visible signs of the fermentation process – a lot of bubbling and some bread movement. The volume of bread will shrink by almost a half.

Allow to ferment at room temperature for a few (3 to 7) days  burping the jar once a day. You can start tasting it after day 3, and once it obtains a flavor that’s pleasant to you and not sweet, you can strain (and reserve) the bread.

The bread kvass is ready to be consumed. If it’s not fizzy enough, put in a few raisins and leave the strained drink to sit on the counter for another day or two. It will get bubbly like beer or soda. Serve it cold!

Now that you learned how to make Russian bread kvass, and have remaining bread, which is now a starter culture, you can continue to make it on regular basis.

Just take a gallon of filtered water, a cup of your wet starter bread, 3/4 cup sugar, and 2 cups of water and repeat the process. This round it will take less time, you can probably get a strong fizzy kvass in about 5 days. Fermentation time always depends on the temperature of your house.