There are so many different types of alcohol that can easily be fermented at home. Sourdough kvass is the EASIEST homemade alcoholic beverage. It doesn’t require any special ingredients or equipment to create a sweet and sparkling drink.
What is sourdough kvass?
There are a lot of different types of vegetable kvass recipes, however, traditional sourdough kvass is made from sourdough bread. It has long history of being brewed at home in Eastern Europe.
It is likely the original form of beer as it is very easy to brew at home and doesn’t require any special ingredients.
How to make bread kvass
All you need to do to make bread kvass is toast loaf of bread, then soak it in water to extract the malted sugars.
Then strain the liquid and ferment it with sugar, yeast and additional flavours. In the photo below, I have used hops for a beer-like flavour. However, there are plenty of different flavour options. See the bottom of the post for more ideas.
Traditonal Sourdough Kvass
Sourdough kvass is made from sourdough rye bread. It is toasted to malt the sugars, the it is brewed with bread yeast. This Eastern European drink has a long history of being brewed at home. It is a sweet, sparkling and refreshing drink.
- Prep Time: 40 minutes
- Total Time: 40 minutes
- Yield: 3 litres 1x
- Category: Beverage
- Method: Fermentation
- Cuisine: Eastern European
Ingredients
- 1 lbs of dark rye bread (see notes)
- 3 Liters of water
- 1 cup of sugar (or honey)
- 1 tbsp sourdough starter or 1 tsp bread yeast (see notes)
- Flavours (see section below)
Instructions
- Cut the bread into cubes and toast it in the oven at 350 F for 20 min. tossing halfway through. The goal is to caramelize the sugars, so toast as long as necessary.
- Combine 3 liters of boiling water with the dried bread in a bowl and let it soak for at least 4 hours (up to 24 hours). The goal is to extract the malted sugars into the boiling water.
- Strain liquid into a fermentation container and add in the sugar and yeast, along with any additional flavours that you want to use.
- Leave the fermentation container in a warm location to ferment for around 1 week. It will start to foam significantly after 6-12 hours.
- After one week, strain the kvass into beer bottles and store in the fridge. The kvass will continue to ferment and will build up pressure, so use appropriate containers, and release the pressure every few day until is stops building up carbonation.
- It will be ready to drink after 3 days in the fridge. However, it will continue to ferment for another 1-2 weeks until all the sugars have been consumed by the yeast. At that point it will no longer be sweet and it will have reached it’s full alcohol content.
Notes
- Traditional sourdough kvass is made with dark rye bread, however, even French bread will brew a delicious kvass. The only difference will be in the colour of the beverage.
- Using sourdough starter will only result in 0.5%-2% alcohol. If you use bread yeast it could ferment up to 8% alcohol.
- If you plan on drinking your kvass within 2 weeks of making it, you probably don’t need to worry about sanitizing. However, if you are keeping it any longer than that, I recommend sanitizing EVERYTHING
- The kvass with bubble as it ferments, so either use carboys with airlocks or fido jars
(affiliate links) for the initial ferment. It’s the best way to prevent your kvass from spoiling.
- Use plastic bottles
or swing-top beer bottles for bottling. Both will be able to handle the build up of carbonation. However, if you are using bread yeast, you should release the pressure in the bottles every day for the first few days in the fridge, as it can build up a significant amount of carbonation.
(affiliate links) for the initial ferment. It’s the best way to prevent your kvass from spoiling.Keywords: beer, alcohol, pop, sourdough, bread, rye, vegan, vegetarian, fall, winter
Flavours
There are a number of different ways to change the flavour of sourdough kvass. Here are a few things you can experiment with:
- Sourdough Starter: I have made kvass with bread yeast and sourdough starter. When using sourdough starter, your kvass may have an unpleasant, yeasty smell during the initial stages of fermentation. This is part of using a free-range yeast and bacteria culture. However, this smell and flavour will improve after a week in the fridge.
- Type of Bread: Though rye is the traditional bread for sourdough kvass, any kind of bread will work. Personally I like the caramelly flavour that comes from a nice loaf of dark rye. A loaf of white bread will result in a lighter beverage that is refreshing on a hot day.
- Added Flavours: Mint is the traditional flavour. Use a few sprigs of mint for a batch. Adding a handful of raisin, berries or a few slices of apples will give the kvass a fruity flavour. Lemon peel is refreshing. Add flavours to the first ferment, then they’ll be filtered out for bottling.
- Hops: Adding 1 tbsp of hops will give your kvass a beer-like flavour. It also acts as a preservative, improving the longevity of your kvass.
Just tried my sourdough kvass last night after waiting patiently for two weeks! It was really good. I could taste the mint and orange peel coming through quite nicely, but otherwise the flavour was almost like cider – light and slightly sweet. So cool to have made my own drink with nothing but some sourdough bread, sugar, yeast! Thanks for the recipe.
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I’m glad it worked out for you! It is fun to make a quick and easy alcoholic beverage.
Thanks for the recipe, I hope you manage to see this comment since the article is from some time back but I wanted to know if normal white slice bread can be used if it is toasted to slightly burnt and can fruits be added as well? Say banana or apple just to give it a sweeter flavour (for someone who dislikes the sour taste) . Thank you
Hi! We make kvass with both white and rye bread. Just toast the white bread like you would with rye. I don’t recommend adding fresh fruit. However, adding raisins is traditional, and you can add other dried fruit for flavour. Regardless, kvass is quite a sweet drink (compared to beer). The only trick is to let the flavour develop to the right point (when it’s still sweet and sparkling and has a nice rounded flavour).
I made with my rye starter but didnt see bubling going on so the next day added half the yeast and still no bubbles
I know both are good with yeast
What do you think is wrong?
My bread was an all natural sour rye and water is from my well
How long did you wait? My husband makes sourdough rye all the time… but it takes a really long time to catch the culture. Like 5 days? Buckwheat starts really quick (2 days). I think it’s just the way the culture works. Also, if it was your first time fermenting sourdough, there might not be a very strong culture in your house. But if you start to do it regularly, it should get quicker to catch. I’m glad it worked with yeast!
Hi! The recipe looks good. I have also added 1tbsp of hops and 1tbsp of rye malt powder. One question. Can I use a fermentation plug, or should I close the lid tight? Thanks.
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I would use a fermentation plug. It really carbonates, so you need to let the CO2 escape.
Thanks for the advice. I’ll post the result later 🙂
Great!
Hi, I’m going to try this recipe using a sourdough starter. My question is, you use a tbsp. of sourdough starter for 3 litres of water what will result in 0,5 to 2% alcohol. Does it means that if I use 2 tbsp. of sourdough starter for 3 litres will result in 4% alcohol? I’m not sure if this works like that… Thanks!
The alcohol levels aren’t related to the amount of yeast, just the type of yeast. Wild yeasts will die off at low alcohol levels. Bread yeast can handle a bit higher levels. Beer yeast strains can handle more, etc. Cheers!
Are you adding back water after letting your rye soak over night to bring back up to 3L? Wouldn’t there be a loss due to absorption from the bread? Should it be started at say 3.5L to compensate for loss?
We don’t add water back, however, we do wring out the rye bread, otherwise it does hold most of the water, much more than white bread does. However, if you wanted to add a bit of extra water you could. It would just dilute the overall flavour of your kvass. Enjoy!
Thanks for the answer 🙂
I’m thinking of co-pitching this with a farmhouse brewers yeast along with my sourdough yeast. I know those brewers yeast tend to take a bit longer to ferment, would you recommend longer than a week for the initial fermentation if I were to add brewers yeast as well?
I’m not sure about brewers’ yeast. Where I live brewers yeast is a nutritional supplement that doesn’t contain live yeast. However, brewing strains of yeast (for making beer) are perfect in this recipe. I would follow the recipe even if you use commercial yeast. This tastes best 2-3 weeks after brewing, then isn’t as nice as time goes on. Adding the sourdough starter will produce a funky smell early on, but don’t worry, it mellows out after 2 weeks! Enjoy!
Hello! Lovely recipe and I can’t wait to try it. I am a little bit confused about what exactly is “bread yeast” . I have my sourdough leaven, home cultivated, if you say that the Bread yeast resulted in more alcohol, would not mind trying that. Would dehydrated yeast work?
Thank you!
In Canada, bread yeast is instant dried yeast. Really, you can use any quick yeast for this recipe to add a bit of a boost. I also like the flavour better when it’s made with just bread yeast. The added bacteria from sourdough starter makes more of a sour flavoured kvass.
Thank you, Emillie!
What do you do with the leftover bread after straining? Is it all gluten at that point? It seems an awful lot to just toss.
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We really wring out all the liquid, then we compost it. To be honest, we only make kvass with ends of bread that we’ve collected in the freezer. Hum… I wonder if it would taste good dried out in the oven, then added to homemade granola?
With the wet bread I have made some pretty darn good crackers. I added back a little bit of flour (but possibly even that is unnecessary depending on how well it has been wrung), tiny bit of sugar, salt and because I really like carway and black jeera, I added those and some melted butter/oil. Spread evenly in a thin layer on a baking sheet (I put a drop of oil on that too, because the first batch got stuck to the sheet) and bake on low temperature (around 150°C) till it is done. Make sure the edges are not too thin because then they will burn. The result is rather delicious and reminds of Scandinavian crispbread. (I would add a picture but I don’t think it is possible through a comment.) Enjoy!
That sounds amazing! I will definitely try that then next time we make kvass. Love black jeera, yum! I would love a picture, but I have antispam software on my comments, so you’re right, it won’t work. 🙂 Thanks for sharing.
I made your sourdough kvass and I only yielded about a 1/3 of the liquid, is it possible I didn’t bake the bread enough?
Wow, it sounds like your bread really soaked up a lot of liquid. Feel free to press the bread with the back of a spoon to get more liquid out of it.
Thank you so much for putting the energy into a well written post, and all the comment(er)s and answers. I am just awakening to the necessity of cultures, and the incredibly satisfying vernacular that arises out of the axis where the word “culture” is simultaneously referring to populations of human beings and populations of microorganisms. I’m investigating the idea that kvass, kombucha, and other fermented beverages and foods might be the simplest, most easily accessible sources of natural vitamin B12, just for a start. Do you have any thoughts on this?
Cheers,
Karl
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Hi Karl, Nutritional yeast and other yeast products are a good vegan source of B12. Thus any fermented yeast-beverage (sourdough kvass, kombucha, kefir, beer and will) will contain B12. It will depend on the amount of dead yeast in the beverage. So definitely a good idea to drink the cloudy dead yeast that settles at the bottom of the bottle if that’s what you’re looking for! Generally, drinks are bottled to remove the dead yeast, because it really doesn’t taste good. However, you can definitely drink it as a health shot. Or add it to savoury soups, etc. like nutritional yeast (though without the same flavour).
Two things to note: many store-bought fermented beverages wouldn’t contain the necessary yeast levels to provide a benefit. Live yeast makes fermented products unstable… as they continue to ferment, carbonate and potentially become alcoholic. So if B12 is your goal, then I recommend making your own. Good luck!
Do you use well feed sourdough starter or the discard?
It depends on how old the discard is. If there’s still some good life in it, you can use it. It should perk up with the added sugars.
Hi Emillie
I am a little confused about whether one may add fruit or not? You state in your recipe that slices of apple and berries may be added but later in the comments you say you don’t advocate adding fresh fruit.
I have just made coffee kvass with sourdough starter and bread, producing an evil looking brew that was surprisingly tasty. I wanted to try making something that didn’t look quite so scary.
Thanks
Thanks for point that out. I am in the process of editing all my posts. Hope to finish by June, and I’ll keep an eye out for this. I recommend dried fruit because it takes a lot more fresh fruit to flavour something (dried fruit has more flavour). Also, fresh fruit is more likely to be contaminated with wild yeasts or mold. However, experimenting is what fermenting is all about! I haven’t tried coffee kvass… sounds interesting. Mint or raisins are our favourite flavours. Enjoy!
Hi! I’ve been googling around for kvass recipes and yours seem good and very straightforward and I like the facit that you describe how to do it wirh sourdough. Moat otger recipes seem to use either baker’s or brewer’s yeast while I’m much more interested in wild fermentations such as sourdough. Your photo of the finished product looks amazing as well!
However, since I’ve never brewed anything before, let alone kvass, I’m a bit confused/curious about certain things in the kvass making-process. I hope that you have time to answer my questions briefly.
1. You don’t ferment the kvass ‘in-bottle’ in room temperature at all. Why is that? In a lot of youtube-videos where they brew probiotic sodas and the like, they often ferment their brew in bottles in room temperature foe some time before putting the bottles in the fridge. Will I get a higher carbonation if I let it stand in room temperature for some time after bottling?
2. There’s quite a lot of sugar in your recipe. What’s the reason for that? Is it for the sweet taste or to achieve a higher alcohol content when the fermentation is complete? And aren’t the sugars in the rye bread enough to ferment the kvass on its’ own? What would happen if I cut down on the sugar?
3. The fermentation time prior to bottling iin your recipe is quite long. Hy is that? Do you know roughly how high the alcoholic content is right when you bottle the kvass? I don’t want a very alcoholic drink and I want some sweetness left. Will I get rhat with this long fermentation time? Or would I ave to bottle it earlier than you did?
4. If I were ro flavor ot with mint, which sounds delicious by the way, when would I put in the mint? Right from the start and let it ferment together with the liquid or just before bottling? Also do you use fresh mint leaves or dried? What variety of mint have you used? Peppermint, spearmint or some other kind? Chocolate mint perhaps?
Hi Max,
Glad to help you with your first brew! Using a sourdough starter will result in a very funky flavoured kvass. It mellows out after bottling, but will always be a bit unusual. (Just want you to know what to expect!) As for your questions:
1. I find kvass to carbonate very quickly. Some ferments, like ginger beer, need to sit out for a few days to carbonate. But kvass will become explosive if left to ferment like that! However, sourdough starter (instead of beer yeast or bread yeast) may require a day or two at room temperature. It’s easiest to test if you use plastic bottles. If you’re using glass bottles, then pop them open once a day to test carbonation. I recommend popping them open over a sink and be prepared to cap them quickly if they start to erupt!
2. The sugar feeds the yeast to carbonate the beverage. If you cut down on the sugar it might not get as bubbly as you want. It’s amazing how much sugar yeast will consume. The sweetness will depend on how long you ferment. So if you find it too sweet, leave it for another day or two and taste it again.
3. Using sourdough starter you won’t be able to achieve an alcohol content above 4% (and even that high is unlikely). The first ferment allows the yeast to do most of the work prior to bottling. Then the dead yeasts are filtered out with bottling (leaving just a few left alive to carbonate the beverage). Dead yeasts don’t taste good… so the longer first ferment improves the flavour.
4. Put the mint into the first ferment. Use fresh mint, whatever flavour you wish. (I’ll update that now for clarity! Thanks!)
Cheers, Emillie