Sweet beet kvass is a lightly sparkling and refreshing beverage. Like mead, it relies on the natural fermentation properties of raw honey for a delicious and probiotic drink.
Fermented Beverages
Fermented beverage provide a healthy alternative to soda pop. They are probiotic and refreshing on a hot sunny day. Both kombucha and water kefir are popular, however, they require you to continuously brew, as they need to be fed (like a pet.)
The ginger bug is a spicy and sweet fermented drink, that requires that you catch a free-range starter.
Salty beet kvass is a traditional tonic-style beverage reminiscent of cold soup.
Sweet beet kvass is my favourite soda pop alternative.
- It is sugar free, since it is made from honey.
- Full of the vitamin and mineral goodness of beets
- It’s made from scratch, so you only need to brew what you want to drink.
- And it’s a beautiful shade of pink!
Sweet Beet Kvass
Sweet beet kvass is a slightly sparkly and refreshing beverage. Like mead, it relies on the natural fermentation of raw honey for a delicious alternative to pop.
- Prep Time: 10 minutes
- Total Time: 10 minutes
- Yield: 2 cups 1x
- Category: Beverages
- Method: Fermented
Ingredients
- 2–4 beets washed, and diced into cubes (about 1 cup)
- 2 tbsp raw honey (unpasteurized)
- Filtered water to cover (chlorine free)
Instructions
- Sterilize a quart-sized jar, and fill it with the beet cubes.
- Dissolve the honey in 1 cup of water, pour over the beets, and add more water to cover. Use an appropriate container for fermentation because it will carbonate as it ferments. (See notes).
- Allow to ferment somewhere cool for 2-3 days.
- Store in the fridge and consume within 1 month.
Notes
- This won’t work with pasteurized commercial honey. Raw honey contains naturally occurring yeasts which are needed for fermentation.
- Make sure your fermentation container can handle the carbonation. Use a fido jars or mason jar
with an airlock
or pickle-nipple
lid. You can also use a jar without a lid, just put a towel over top to keep bugs out.
- After the 3 days of fermenting, you can either store the jar with beets in the fridge and strain it each time you want a glass of sweet beet kvass. Or strain the kvass into a plastic pop bottle or a swing-top bottles for easy serving.
- You can replace up to half the beets with apple, but using some beets is necessary because they provide sugar for the ferment (think of sugar beets).
- You can also flavour the kvass by adding other flavours like cinnamon, mint or orange zest.
with an 
or 
lid. You can also use a jar without a lid, just put a towel over top to keep bugs out.Keywords: healthy, probiotic, summer, spring
ace
September 14, 2017 at 2:42 pmIs this safe? I’m a lacto-fermentation devotee and I make traditional (salty) beet kvass all the time. But I’m worried that when creating an alcoholic ferment, I won’t know what types of alcohol will result. How do I ensure that only ethanol will be formed, and not methanol? Thanks.
Emillie
September 14, 2017 at 3:49 pmThis kvass is not meant to turn into an alcoholic beverage. I just put that as a disclaimer that it could get up to 1% at the most (and likely not that as it has very little sugar.) However, I am currently home brewing wine and beer, so your question dose make me think…
According to the wisdom of the internet methanol can made in very small, not harmful quantities when making beer and wine. However, home distilling can result in toxic levels of methanol. I think I will do more research and post a blog on it sometime in the fall. Thanks for getting me thinking!
Linda
October 13, 2017 at 6:18 amif you strained the kvass would it last longer? why do fermented drinks have shelf life?
Emillie
October 13, 2017 at 6:54 amI don’t know if straining would make it last longer… However, I do know that fermented foods general have a longer shelf life because the good culture keeps the bad culture (things that make food go off) from colonizing. A good blog topic idea! I will add it to my list. 🙂
Mark
April 14, 2019 at 9:41 pmLinda,
In my personal experience, for food and drinks have a shelf life more based on flavor than safety, I’ve “lost yogurts, Kim hi, and ginger soda in an over crowded fridge before and was surprised to find them months later still good. Though the taste was a little less than ideal, all of the sugar gets fermented out leaving a very acidic product. Which is fine if you like that flavor. But, most don’t appreciate it. I assume that you can also run the risk of pathogens getting into a batch and fouling it up. However, I’ve been lucky enough to avoid such a disaster.
★★★★★
Stephen
June 12, 2018 at 4:18 amI will give this a go as I have made salty beetroot kvass but did not really like the taste
★★★★★
Emillie
June 12, 2018 at 6:18 amSalty kvass is an acquired taste… let me know what you think of this!
Juanita
November 13, 2018 at 8:35 amHI! Love your recipes! I have a question. If beet kvass is made in a quart jar and the jar is mostly filled, there isn’t enough liquid for more than one drink. I noticed the same with other recipes. Are we meant to take the concentrated ferment liquid and add it to water? Thanks
Emillie
November 13, 2018 at 9:01 amThanks Juanita! You can add water to the concentrated ferments. I personally find them to be a bit strong, and usually dilute by half. Alternatively, you could remove the finished liquid and add in some fresh, chlorine free water and do a second round of fermentation.