Sparkling sweetened water in a plastic bottle is not like homemade kvass. This ancient drink not only quenches thirst, but also saturates the body with useful substances. The main secret of making good kvass is in high-quality wort, which you can make yourself.
Everything according to the rules
Many housewives do it simply - they buy a ready-made dry mixture for kvass in the store, or wort in jars, or even sets with which it remains to mix the contents of the bags with warm water and let it brew.
Real homemade kvass requires a different approach. You can even say respect, because it takes a lot of time for him to tinker with the wort. First of all, you need grain - rye, barley or wheat. It is necessary to buy not what is offered for feeding birds, but packages marked "for germination". The grains are thoroughly washed with warm water and soaked in cool. At the same time, it is not enough just to leave the bowl in a bright, cool place - the water must be changed to fresh water two or three times a day. In a day or two, sprouts will hatch. Once this has happened, the grains are placed between two layers of gauze on a tray, pallet, baking sheet - any shallow container. The top layer of the fabric is regularly moistened with water, and the grains are agitated. The recommended temperature is 10-18 ° C. Within a week, the sprouts will be equal in length to the grain itself. At this point, the germination is stopped and the product is dried for about 20 hours at a temperature not exceeding 45-55 ° C. At the same time, the finished malt turns out to be of a light shade and is suitable for light kvass. If you need red kvass, the malt is roasted until browning. It is then ground in a coffee grinder and used or stored.
Properly prepared and dried wort tastes sweet and smells, and the roots and sprouts are easy to separate from the kernels.
Turning homemade malt into wort is much easier. The powder is poured with boiling water (proportions depend on the recipe), let it brew for half an hour and add the rest of the kvass ingredients - water, sugar and yeast.
If the kvass ripens in an open container, raisins are added to it for sparkling. If it is closed, then put less sugar so that the gas does not burst the bottle or can.
The fermented liquid is allowed to mature in a cool place.
Option for "dummies"
A simpler version of the wort is from rusks. Wheat bread is used for white kvass, rye bread for red. The first is good in okroshka, the second is good for quenching your thirst. The bread cut into slices is dried in the oven (the degree of browning will affect the color), pour boiling water over and leave for 7-8 hours. The next steps are the same: add sugar, yeast and water, ferment and ripen.
It is easy to diversify the taste of such kvass if you use cabbage brine, whey or birch sap instead of water. In summer, kvass is easy to make from fruits. Then apple or other broth is used as the wort.
