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 beverages 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
- Cuisine: Probiotic
Ingredients
- 1 cup beets washed and diced into cubes (about 2–4 beets)
- 2 tbsp raw honey (unpasteurized)
- 2 1/2 cups 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 and dark for 2-3 days. (A closet is perfect.)
- 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 a mason jar
with an airlock
or pickle-nipple
lid (affiliate links.) 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.
- This is a lightly sparkling beverage. To increase the bubbles, strain the kvass into a plastic pop bottle or a swing-top bottles, and add 1 tsp of sugar. The leave the bottle out on the counter for 1-3 more days to carbonate. I recommend testing the carbonation by popping the lid once a day.
- 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 to the ferment. I like: cinnamon, mint or orange zest.
with an 
or 
lid (affiliate links.) You can also use a jar without a lid, just put a towel over top to keep bugs out.Keywords: healthy, probiotic, summer, spring, fall, soda pop, homemade, simple
Is 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.
This 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!
if you strained the kvass would it last longer? why do fermented drinks have shelf life?
I 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. 🙂
Linda,
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.
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I will give this a go as I have made salty beetroot kvass but did not really like the taste
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Salty kvass is an acquired taste… let me know what you think of this!
HI! 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
Thanks 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.
Hi there! New to fermenting and super excited to try my first batch of sweet beet kvass. Is there any danger of pathogens since this recipe is salt free?
Contamination from mold or yeast is always a risk, especially if you’re new to fermenting. That’s because the air in your house might not be brimming full of the bacteria and yeasts that we usually want to culture. Over time you’ll find it easier to ferment.
Personally, I’ve never had a failure with a sweet ferment (though I’ve failed on salty ferments!) Raw honey will provide the required culture, and the short ferment time prevents contamination. If you’re feeling uncertain about the culture in your honey (I’m lucky to have a good local source of raw honey) try salty kvass or ginger bug. Both are linked to in the post above. Ginger bug isn’t necessarily spicy. Once you’ve caught the culture, you can finish it with your favourite flavours: https://www.fermentingforfoodies.com/ginger-bug-soda-flavours/
Thank you for the response! What are the signs of contamination? I just finished fermenting a batch of sweet beet kvass. The top is a frothy white/yellow…it’s hard to know if it tastes “off” without having tasted one that is “on” before. 🙂
Frothy is good (ferments usually get bubbly). Not sure about the colour though, it probably depends on the beets. Here’s a post on mold and kham yeast. https://www.fermentingforfoodies.com/kahm-yeast-mold/ If it doesn’t look like either of those, then taste it. It should taste good. A bit sparkly and sweet, with some earthy beet flavours.
Hello Emillie,
I have been making salty kvass for years but never heard of the sweet beet kvass. Thank you for the recipe!
Have you heard or know about fruit kvass? I was told kvass can be made also from fruits and berries.
thanks!
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My husband’s family makes all sorts of kvass… I think it just means “fermented beverage”. Enjoy!
Thank you, Emillie!
Can you share a fruit kvass recipe?
Thanks!
Hi Yuri, There are lots of ways to make a fermented fruit beverage. I don’t have a specific fruit kvass recipe, however, following this recipe and replacing the beets with berries or other soft fruit will work. I’m also writing a cookbook at the moment, which has a recipe for a wild fermented berry beverage. Would you like to test the recipe? Let me know and I’ll send you an email with the details.
Cheers, Emillie
Hi Emillie,
yes, I would love to try a new recipe.
Looking forward to receiving new recipe.
Appreciate it!
Great! I’ll send you a message right now.