What Is Kvass? Taste, Alcohol, How It’s Made

Kvass in short

• Kvass is a fermented drink of rye bread or rye malt, water, sugar and yeast, drunk cold.
• It is low in alcohol: fermented kvass is typically 0.5 to 1.5%, and homemade kvass grows stronger the longer it ferments.
• It tastes malty, gently sweet and tangy, with a toasted-bread finish and a light fizz.
• Kvass appears in the Primary Chronicle of Kyivan Rus, handed out in Kyiv with mead and bread.
• Homemade bread kvass takes about a day: dry the bread, steep it, ferment the liquid 12 to 24 hours, bottle it for fizz, chill.
• Bottled kvass ranges from fermented kvass to kvass-flavoured soft drinks; the ingredient list tells you which.

Where does kvass come from?

Kvass is one of the oldest drinks of the Slavic world. Its name goes back to an ancient root meaning to turn sour, the same root that runs through the Ukrainian words for fermenting and pickling, so kvass is, quite literally, the sour drink.

It appears in the oldest surviving chronicle of Kyivan Rus. The Primary Chronicle, compiled in Kyiv in the early twelfth century, tells how Prince Volodymyr the Great, after the Christianisation of Kyivan Rus, had carts loaded with bread, meat, fish, vegetables, mead in casks and kvass, and driven through the city to the poor and the sick who could not come to his court.

The word reached English in 1553, spelled quass, and by then kvass had long been the everyday drink of the region, made at home from whatever grain and bread a household had.

How was kvass part of Ukrainian life?

Kvass was the drink of the field and the kitchen. A household kept a crock of it going through the summer, feeding it with stale rye bread, and carried jugs of it out to the fields at haymaking. Old rye crusts that would otherwise be thrown away became the next batch.

Ukrainian kitchens fermented more than bread. Beet kvass, made by covering sliced beets with water and leaving them for several days, was drunk on its own and, above all, used to give borscht its sour, deep-red base. Pear and apple kvass were traditional too, and later recipes added mint, honey, raisins or berries; historical recipe collections record more than 150 kinds, from apple and pear to mint, raspberry and cherry.

In the twentieth century kvass moved onto the street. In Soviet times it was sold in cities across Ukraine from large tank barrels on wheels, poured by the glass or into jars and bottles that people brought from home, and a mug of it on a hot afternoon became a summer memory for generations. Today most kvass in Ukraine and abroad is bottled, from small brewery kvass to big soft-drink brands, and bread kvass is still made at home.

Is bottled kvass the same as homemade?

Bottled kvass covers a wide range. At one end is fermented kvass, brewed from rye malt and bread, filtered and bottled; at the other are kvass drinks blended from water, sugar and kvass concentrate and carbonated like a soda. Latvia, where kvass is also popular, defined the difference in law in 2010: kvass is fermented from kvass wort, with no more than 1.2% alcohol, and an unfermented mixture must be labelled a kvass beverage.

The ingredient list tells you which you have. The Ukrainian-market label of Monastyrskyi, a 2 litre bottled kvass sold in Ukraine, lists prepared water, sugar, citric acid and fermented kvass concentrate, with a shelf life of 180 days. Bottled kvass of this kind is sweeter, clearer and more consistent than homemade, and keeps for months unopened.

Homemade bread kvass is cloudier and livelier. It tastes more of bread and more sour, carries a little more alcohol, and changes from one day to the next as the yeast keeps working, which is why it is made in small batches and drunk within a few days.

What kinds of kvass are there?

Bread kvass

The classic, made from dark rye bread dried in the oven, water, sugar and yeast. The darker the bread is toasted, the darker and more caramel the kvass.

Beet kvass

Sliced beets fermented in water, sometimes with a crust of rye bread to start it. Deep red and salty-sour, it is a traditional base for borscht and is also drunk in small glasses.

Pear and apple kvass

A traditional Ukrainian fruit kvass, fermented from fresh or dried pears and apples with sugar or honey. Lighter in colour and gently fruity.

Mint kvass

Bread kvass with a handful of fresh mint added during fermentation, for a cooler, brighter taste on hot days.

Honey and raisin kvass

Honey takes the place of some or all of the sugar, and raisins go into the bottles to feed a stronger fizz.

Berry kvass

Bread or plain kvass fermented with raspberries, cherries or currants, pink and tart.

Malt kvass

Made from dried rye malt or kvass concentrate in place of bread. Quicker and more consistent; this is how most bottled kvass begins.

How do you serve and store kvass?

• Serve it cold, straight from the fridge at about 4 to 6 °C (40 to 43 °F), in a tall glass or a mug. Ice dilutes it; a chilled glass keeps it fizzy.
• Drink it on its own on a hot day, or with a meal: kvass goes well with varenyky, with salty dishes such as salt pork, pickles and smoked fish, and after a bowl of borscht.
• Pour slowly. Homemade kvass carries fine sediment from the bread and yeast, and the last centimetre of the bottle is best left behind.
• To store homemade kvass: keep it in the fridge in closed bottles and drink it within 3 to 5 days. Open plastic bottles once a day to let out the pressure.
• To store bottled kvass: unopened, follow the date on the bottle; once opened, close it tightly, keep it cold and finish it within a couple of days, while it is still fizzy.
• To cook with it: beet kvass sours borscht, and plain unsweetened kvass is used across the region as the base of cold summer soups.