Properly prepared homemade kvass is not only a tasty and healthy soft drink, but also has a healing effect on the human body. It can be ordinary, apple, rosehip. The main thing is the basis - leaven for kvass.
This Russian drink is not difficult to prepare at home, according to an old recipe. This is how kvass was prepared in Russia many centuries ago, when rye was the main grain crop.
And in our time, before you prepare the leaven for kvass, take real rye (black) bread. Cut it into small pieces and dry. To get rye crackers faster, this can be done in the oven, a beautiful kvass is obtained if the crackers are slightly fried. Ready rusks pour boiling water at the rate of: 100 grams of crackers 2 liters of water. Leave this mixture for five to seven hours warm. Then add sugar and yeast. For one liter - 50 grams of sugar and 2 grams of yeast. The wort is infused at room temperature. It should be noted that it is not necessary to put yeast in this mass. Just without them, the fermentation process will be longer. In two days, the leaven for kvass is ready. We drain the liquid part - this is the drink itself.
If we want to cook okroshka from it, then leave it as it is, sour. For taste, sugar can be added to it. We store kvass in a cool place, the remaining thick (wort) - in the refrigerator. We can use the resulting mass several times by adding water to it.
Sourdough kvass on rye breadcrumbs is far from the only option for this drink. It is very tasty from apples. To get 10 liters of such kvass, we need apples (one kilogram), 700 grams of sugar, dry yeast (25 grams), raisins (150 grams).
Sliced fruits (without a core), raisins and sugar, pour hot boiled water, add yeast when the mixture cools down. We leave the fermentation must for 10-12 hours. After that we filter it, pour the kvass into the bottles and cork it, store it in a cool place. After five to seven days, the resulting sparkling drink - apple kvass - can be drunk.
In autumn, you can cook it from fresh rose hips. Sourdough for kvass from these useful berries is done as follows: one kilogram of rosehip berries are cleaned of seeds, crushed with sugar (100 grams) and filled with one liter of warm boiled water. Then add 20 grams of yeast and 50 grams of rye bread. We put this must in a warm place for several days. When the fermentation process begins, add 5 liters of warm water and insist for another two to three days. Then we filter the liquid, pour it into the bottles and put it in the cold.
Rhubarb kvass has a peculiar taste . Ferment it from the petioles of rhubarb (about half a kilogram), a glass of sugar, fifteen grams of yeast. Chopped rhubarb stalks are boiled in three liters of water until soft. Then this compote is filtered. Yeast and sugar are added to the cooled broth. Leave the mixture in the heat for a day, then remove it in the cold. In a few days the product is ready.
Without yeast, you can cook kvass from vegetables and cereals. The process of preparing the starter culture for this refreshing drink is more complicated than in previous versions. But the result is worth it.
So, we need cereals - millet and oatmeal "Hercules" (half a cup each), turnips and carrots (one each), a tablespoon of raisins, half a teaspoon of salt, a tablespoon of dried currant leaves, three liters of water.
Cook the washed millet in one liter of salted water, then add the oatmeal. Add more liquid (one liter) and bring to a boil again. Turn off, close and leave for an hour. Previously, this mixture was passed through a meat grinder, now you can do this in a blender. We grind carrots, turnips and raisins, and add them to the resulting porridge together with currant leaves. Pour all the remaining warm water. This wort should stand for a day in a warm place. Then it is filtered, the liquid is poured into containers, corked and left in a cool dark place to “ripen” the drink. In a few days he is ready.
Strained grounds, sourdough for kvass from vegetables and cereals, can be used more than once.