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Beet kvass is potent, nutrient-rich tonic made by fermenting beets. It is essentially a DIY liquid multivitamin and more effective than taking brands from the store that contain synthetics!
One of the most nutritious and health-boosting fermented beverages you can make in your home is beet kvass. Beets are chock full of vitamins and minerals. Fermenting them supercharges nutrient levels even further and enhances absorption potential.
This ancestral tonic is extremely beneficial to those with any sort of digestive complaints.
In addition, beets are highly cleansing, so those with liver issues benefit from consuming beet kvass on a regular basis.
There isnโt another fermented drink that can improve health as rapidly in my personal experience.
Beet Kvass: DIY Liquid Multivitamin!
As a tonic, beet kvass is recommended first thing in the morning and after your evening meal.
Just 4 ounces or so is all you need to sip.
This highly nutritious superfood is far better than taking a multivitamin loaded with synthetic vitamins like folic acid.
Iโm sipping a morning glass of beet kvass as I type this! ย What a great way to start the day and rev up your digestion each morning!
The recipe below was adapted fromย Nourishing Traditions Cookbook.
Most people make kvass with red beets. For a slightly sweeter and less earthy flavor, try making golden beet kvass.
If you find the results a bit salty, reduce the sea salt in the recipe to your liking.
Beet Kvass Recipe
Traditional beet kvass recipe that is an unbeatable morning and evening tonic for rapidly boosting health.
Ingredients
- 1-2 beets (1 large or 2 medium) preferably organic, tops removed
- filtered water
- 2 Tbl liquid whey
- 1/2 Tbl sea salt
Instructions
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Wash beets thoroughly and slice into chunks no smaller than about 1/2 inch across. Feel free to peel the beets if desired; doing so reduces chances for mold on the ferment.
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Put beet chunks into a clean, one-quart mason jar. Add whey, sea salt, and enough filtered water to fill all but 1 inch from the top of the jar. Stir and mix well. Close the lid and leave on the kitchen counter for 1-2 days. Try to keep it away from the fruit bowl to discourage the growth of mold.
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Drink as desired and refrigerate once the fermentation period is complete. A 4 ounce glass morning and evening is recommended.
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When an inch or so of beet kvass liquid is left in the jar, refill with more filtered water, stir, and close the lid again and leave on the counter for 2 days more. Refrigerate fresh batch of beet kvass and drink as desired.
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When all the liquid is used up from the second batch, discard or compost the beets and start the process again.
Recipe Video
Recipe Notes
If the beet kvass is too salty for you, feel free to reduce the salt to 1/4 tablespoon for your next batch.ย
White fuzzy bubbles forming on the top of the liquid is normal and fine as the fermentation progresses.
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More Fermented Drink Recipes to Enjoy
How to Make Fermented Lemonade
Orangina Recipe (Fermented Orange Juice)
How to Make Kombucha
I made it regularly for a while and need to get back in the habit. It’s yummy, too!
A small glass of beet kvass in the morning is a better choice than a multivitamin full of synthetic vitamins and other undesirables.
Hi Sarah,
That was a great video! I made beet kvass 2 days ago and its completely white in the surface… This is the mould you are talking about right? Can I drink it now (if I remove the mould) or I just make a new one from scratch?
Thank you so much for your help
xx
I think the number one cause of mold in lactofermented products is the admission of air. I regularly make pickled peppers etc, which are stored for a year and more with sealed lids and no air and they do not mould. I have fermented them both hot and cool, but time has never seemed to be an issue no matter the temperature. One of the great benefits of being a modern lactofermenter is the we CAN exclude air if we want to. Open vat fermenting leaves open the probability of yeasts and moulds which form scums and spots on the top of the ferment. Not only is this kind of gross and can form off flavors, it can also be somewhat dangerous. Left long enough, the oxygen loving organisms can metabolize enough of the lactic acid to shift the ph toward the alkaline side enough to allow or encourage spoilage bacteria. That is only likely to be a real problem in long stored goods like the olives and peppers I make, but I tend to avoid air in the mix when I can. Using a sealing jar such as in this video, it is easy to exclude all air. Some air is trapped in the jar when it is sealed, but it is quickly flushed out by the carbon dioxide produced by the ferment leaving a cushion of inert gas in the top of the jar. During active fermentation, the jar can be opened and will be quickly flushed of oxygen again when it is resealed due to the continued production of carbon dioxide. Once fermentation has slowed down, it is best to keep the stuff stored in the fridge to slow the growth of unwanted microorganisms. Even so, some scum will occasionally form on the surface and often in conjunction with unsavory flavors. I have other issues with my ferments that I can’t always control, but my impression after over 10 years of making and storing fermented vegetables is that scums and molds are completely preventable by controlling the admission of air. I talk more about this in an article I wrote for my website @ http://www.paleotechnics.com/Articles/Pepperoncini.html Thanks for the video Sarah, I love my Kvass! BTW, it seems to take much longer than two days at any temperature for my Kvass to get really good. That may be a matter of taste, or due to the fact that I do not use any starter.
Steven is right on the money. Air is the foe here. And two days is not enough to get a proper ferment. See this great site for more details: and
Curious, Steven, do you an airlock system–or just rubber-seal jars?
Ha ha, great project, you’re awsome! I have lots of comments and maybe I’ll try to post them to your experiment page, but in short, I like mason jars. I ferment in them almost exclusively and I don’t open them until I need to get the food out because that would just let air in and start spoilage. Some stuff gets stored in the fridge, and some is stored at room temp. I’m eating olives now out of mason jars that have been in room temp storage for a year and a half. My preference is for the white plastic lids with a canning seal underneath. I have never had a jar burst, so I’m not worried about that. The first Kvass I ever made the lid was on too tight and it bulged out really far without breaking the jar. I never tighten them that much any more and find that moderate hand tightening is just fine. Since the jars are made to vent hot gasses out while in a canning water bath, they are perfect for this use. I think salsa jars etc… are fine too. My grandma used to can in those and just reuse the lids. I don’t actually think that the canning jar system is ideal and I would like to see a better product invented for using canning jars, but I think it is totally adequate for home use. I use new or used seals as long as used seals are in very good condition with no scratches on the bottom side. The reason I like this system and not an airlock is that you can put the food up and just put it away when it’s done fermenting. you can imagine a shelf of jars with airlocks sticking out the top would not be that convenient and if the airlock is removed to put on a lid for storage, then air will get in. If no air gets into the jar, the food doesn’t even have to be under the liquid because the blanket of gas in there is inert and nothing nasty can grow. The whole “below the liquid” rule is left over from a time when fermentation was done in containers exposed to air. I try to get it all under, but often some of the liquid will overflow out the edges of the jar and besides some very mild discoloration that sometimes occurs, I have never noted this to be a problem. What I would really like to see is a product that works like a mason jar lid, but with no rustable metal parts which is non-toxic, re-usable, inexpensive and with something to hold the food down just for good measure even though I don’t think it’s enough of a problem to worry about at home. I’ve thought about inventing that, but I’m too busy thinking of other things to invent and then not inventing those either. The down side is that the lids can rust due to salt and lactic acid exposure, especially if the food is stored for a while. Also, the spilling over of brine is not ideal. I’ll usually set the jars on a plate or something during the very active part of fermentation. The overflow is due to pressure in the jar. One could theoretically loosen the lid so that it is just tight enough to make a seal and keep it, but without building up too much pressure, but my experiments along those lines have been mixed. I think its best at this point to just fill the jars pretty full, tighten them moderately firmly and then snug them up a bit when the ferment is done.
Having said all that, much of this does not apply to beet Kvass. For that I would just use a mason jar lid and ring, or a white plastic lid in place of the ring, screwed on moderately tight, and as soon as the Kvass hits the point where it tastes good, put it in the fridge and start using it. If it is stored at room temperature after the lid is removed, scum will form and often in association with off tastes. That’s my experience anyway. Checking while fermentation is very active is Ok, as the CO2 from the ferment will purge the oxygen, but it is still a good idea to top the jar up with brine so that there is less air to purge out of the jar. I wouldn’t open it near the end of fermentation and then leave it out though. I think that there are very few cases where the scums and moulds form a really acute health hazard, but I think that with the technology we have now it is best to avoid them and I would also guess that results are more uniform, though I’m not sure I can support that notion if called to. It is possible with long exposure for the moulds to actually metabolize the acid in the brine and shift the ph high enough to pose a health hazard, but that takes a while and it would look and probably smell pretty funky by then. A ph of 4.5 or lower or a salt content of 10% or higher are both adequate for the prevention of botulism. Most home ferments rely on the low ph as 10% salt is pretty salty. Ok, I’m going to stop now.
Could you use ph strips to test the ph in your kvass before drinking it, to make sure the ph is as low as it should be?
I want to make more beet kvass but I am out of whey and raw milk has been pulled off the shelves in California where I live. Can I use probiotic caps like in other fermented foods or beverages? If so how many? What else could I use? I ordered raw goat milk whey powder but I see that may have been a waste of money since I just read here that it can not be used as it doesn’t tolerate the drying process.
Thanks!
Can you used mountain rock salt, becuase i lived in Guatemala and there are no sea salt here.
Thanks
Tai
My kvass has some kind of white bacteria clusters floating on the top of the liquid, and it smells, funky. Is this safe to drink. I am a little nervous. It has been out for 2 days, but I am in Canada so it is a little warmer here. I used some Redmonds real salt, and a little of the liguid from my lacto fermented kimchi (about 1/8 of a cup)
Dear Sarah,
I am delighted to have stumbled upon your website and, having watched your video on making coconut kefir, I made a delicious batch (using freeze-dried kefir starter). I was wondering if the whey from the coconut milk kefir can be used for fermenting other foods–particularly in making kvass–or if it is absolutely necessary to use dairy whey for kvass. I have had issues with sodium and hope not to have to depend on salt for making the kvass.
Thanks! -Abby
Hi! Thanks for all of the terrific videos, I am learning so much! ๐ I’d like to ask a quick question about the beet kvass…I made some and drank it, then tried to refill the jar with filtered water and leave it on my counter again. I didn’t add whey or salt the second time (was I supposed to?). After 24 hours, there was a foamy cover on top of the liquid that swelled when I opened the jar. It didn’t smell or taste at all right so I dumped the whole thing. Can you tell me if adding whey and salt the second time is necessary? Or maybe I didn’t leave enough of the original liquid? Thanks so much!
Hi Sarah,
I have been purchasing Beet Kvass from a local farmer and I have been enjoying it greatly, it always tastes very fermented, effervescent, it is not salty because the sour flavor it balance it out. After I saw your video I thought about making it myself, because the one from the farm I think is pretty expensive.
I followed your recipe and left it out for two days, but I don’t think it’s fermented enough, but after reading all the comments seems like that is the norm.
I too, do not enjoy it this way, but I really do when is fermented a little more.
I guess my question is, should I leave it out a little longer next time, or will it continue to ferment in the refrigerator if I wait long enough?
Thanks,
Anita