Homemade sourdough kvass

I want to share a recipe for wonderful kvass that will delight you and your children during the hot days of summer.

Ingredients

• dark malt 50 g
• ground crackers 150 g
• water 5 l
• sugar 1 glass
• rye sourdough 100 g

Directions

1. 1. 1st day (it is better to start cooking in the evening, a little later it will be clear why). We take 50 g of malt (a little more is possible so that the taste of kvass is richer).
2. 2. We take 150 g of crackers (you can use some ground, some just dry pieces of bread). If the crackers are from white bread, then you need to grind them in advance and fry them in a pan until brownish.
3. 3. Boil 1 liter of water. As soon as it boils, we fall asleep with our mixture of malt and crackers. And simmer over low heat, stirring from time to time, for another 5-10 minutes.
4. 4. In parallel, boil 4 liters of water in a five- or six-liter saucepan. When the water boils, pour the contents of a small saucepan into it (thinned malt with breadcrumbs). We leave it on low heat for a couple more minutes, turn it off, stir and leave it to cool until morning (I usually hide it from children in the oven). If there are unnecessary crackers at home, you can also throw them into the pan. Work completed for today.
5. 5. 2nd day. In the morning, when the contents of the pan have cooled, we filter it into another, of the same size, through a sieve. You need a sieve with not very large and not very small holes so that something still passes into kvass, which will help it become “alive”. It is possible that after filtering the liquid (future kvass) it will become about a liter less - boil an additional 1-1.5 liters of water and add it to the pan (how much it takes). Add 1 cup of sugar (can be replaced with honey, you can in a 50/50 ratio).
6. 6. We wait until the liquid has completely cooled to room temperature (this is important!). And only after that do we add 100–120 g of rye sourdough (the sourdough does not have to be fresh, the sourdough can also be added from its excess, which we usually collect in a separate jar). P.S. If the starter is added to a hot liquid, it will die, and the next day you will not see foam on the surface of the kvass. In this case, you will have to re-add 100 g of sourdough and wait another day. This concludes our work for today. We leave the pan in a warm place until tomorrow (I again put it in the switched-off oven).
7. 7. 3rd day. Our kvass has brightened a little. We check it for foam. If there is foam and small bubbles “shoot” on the surface, then the kvass is ready, you can and should (!) bottle it and send it to the refrigerator. At this stage, it is important not to keep the kvass warm!
8. 8. We pour kvass into bottles through the same sieve. If it seems to you that kvass is not sweet enough, then you can add a little sugar/honey to the bottles.