Birch kvass with raisins is an original vitamin drink. The best recipes for birch kvass with raisins. Step-by-step recipe for making kvass from birch sap

Since ancient times it has been the most popular drink in Russian cuisine. However, not many people know that kvass can be prepared using natural drinks. Birch sap is perfect for this, because it does not lose its beneficial properties during the preparation process.

Birch kvass with raisins - basic principles of preparation

Classic birch kvass is made from sap and raisins, but there are also many recipes with the addition of other ingredients. It could be oranges, mint, honey, coffee, etc.

For kvass, it is better to use freshly collected juice, but if you do not have such an opportunity, you can prepare kvass using canned juice. You will need ten liters of drink.

In addition to birch sap, kvass requires raisins and sugar.

The juice is filtered through several layers of gauze. The raisins are thoroughly washed and placed on a disposable towel to dry.

To prepare kvass, use wooden barrels, enamel or glassware.

Pour sugar into the strained juice, add raisins and stir until the dry ingredients dissolve.

The container with the starter is covered with a clean cloth and left in a warm room. The fermentation process takes an average of three days.

The finished kvass is filtered again and bottled. Store the drink in the refrigerator.

Recipe 1. Classic birch kvass with raisins

Ingredients

natural birch sap – ten liters;

50 pcs. dried raisins;

500 g granulated sugar.

Cooking method

1. Clean freshly collected juice from debris and strain through a sieve.

2. Rinse the raisins in warm water. Place it on a paper towel and dry.

3. Pour sugar into the drink and add raisins, stir until the sugar crystals are completely dissolved.

4. Pour the kvass into a glass container, cover with a clean towel and leave in a warm room for three days.

5. Strain the finished kvass again and pour into clean bottles. The drink can be stored in the refrigerator for up to four months.

Recipe 2. Birch kvass with raisins, lemon and honey

Ingredients

natural birch sap – 5 liters;

two lemons;

25 g yeast;

four pcs. raisins

Cooking method

1. Wash the lemons, pour boiling water over them and cut into medium pieces.

2. Strain the birch sap through several layers of gauze.

3. Wash the raisins in warm water and dry them on a paper towel.

4. Add honey, raisins and yeast to the strained birch sap. It is advisable to use raw yeast, but if you don’t have it, you can use active dry yeast. Mix.

5. Leave the drink in a warm room for three days. Then we filter the kvass and bottle it into clean bottles.

Recipe 3. Birch kvass with a large dark drink

Ingredients

freshly collected birch sap - three liters;

dark large raisins – 25 pcs.

Cooking method

1. Wash the raisins in warm water and dry them on a napkin.

2. Strain fresh birch sap.

3. In the container where the kvass will ferment, combine the juice with raisins and sugar. Mix.

4. Close the container with the drink with a lid and leave it in a cool place for three months. This kvass retains its beneficial properties for a very long time. You can prepare okroshka using this kvass.

Recipe 4. Birch kvass with raisins and oranges

Ingredients

freshly collected birch sap - 2.5 liters;

yeast – 10 g;

orange;

granulated sugar - glass;

raisins - a pinch;

a few sprigs of mint or lemon balm.

Cooking method

1. Wash the orange under the tap, pour boiling water over it and wipe with a napkin. Cut it into circles. Place in a clean glass container.

2. Grind the yeast with a small amount of sugar and pour it into a bottle with oranges.

3. Rinse the sprigs of mint or lemon balm and put them in a bottle.

4. Wash and dry the raisins.

5. Strain the birch sap through gauze, folding it in several layers, and pour it into a glass container. Mix and leave to ferment in a warm room for two days. We filter the finished drink again and pour it into clean bottles. We put raisins in each. Screw on the lids and place in the refrigerator. After just a day, you will be able to drink kvass.

Recipe 5. Birch kvass with raisins, coffee beans and bread

Ingredients

natural birch sap – 2.5 liters;

a handful of coffee beans;

stale Borodino bread - three slices;

a handful of raisins;

granulated sugar – 100 g.

Cooking method

1. Pour coffee beans into a dry frying pan and lightly fry them over low heat.

2. Place slices of Borodino bread on a baking sheet and place in the oven. Dry the bread at 60 C for ten minutes.

3. Wash the raisins in warm water and dry them on a disposable towel.

4. Place coffee beans, slices of bread, sugar and raisins in a clean, dry three-liter jar.

5. Strain the birch sap and pour it into a jar with other ingredients. Mix. We pull a medical glove over the neck of the container, piercing it with a needle.

6. Leave the jar in a warm place for three days. When the glove “deflates,” filter the kvass again and pour it into clean glass bottles. Screw on the lids. Place the drink in the refrigerator.

Recipe 6. Birch kvass with raisins and rose hips

Ingredients

five liters of birch sap;

20 rose hips;

a glass of sugar;

20 pcs. raisins

Cooking method

1. Strain the birch sap through several layers of gauze. Pour it into a wide-necked carboy or bottle. Add sugar and stir until it is completely dissolved.

2. Rinse the raisins and rose hips. Pat them dry on a paper towel.

3. Add raisins and rose hips to the container with birch sap. Close the lid and send it to the cellar.

Recipe 7. Birch kvass with raisins and dried fruits

Ingredients

natural birch sap - five liters;

300 g raisins;

dried fruits – kilogram.

Cooking method

1. Rinse dried fruits in warm water. Place them on a paper towel and dry.

2. Place raisins and dried fruits in a clean, dry glass container and fill them with strained birch sap.

3. Infuse the drink in a warm room for three to four days. Stir the kvass periodically.

4. When the fermentation process is complete, pour the kvass into clean bottles, close the lids and place in the refrigerator.

Recipe 8. Birch sap with raisins and dried apples

Ingredients

20 pcs. dark raisins;

two liters of birch sap;

15 g dried apples;

granulated sugar – 100 g.

Cooking method

1. Pour the strained natural birch sap into a jar.

2. Rinse dried apples and raisins in warm water and dry on a napkin. Place them in a can of drink. Add sugar and stir.

3. Cover the container with several layers of gauze. Leave in a warm room for three days. After the allotted time, the color of the drink should change and the taste will become slightly sour.

4. Strain the kvass again and bottle it. Close the lids and place in the refrigerator. Serve the drink chilled.

Recipe 9. Birch sap with raisins and barley

Ingredients

natural birch sap – 20 liters;

granulated sugar – 100 g;

a glass of raisins and other dried fruits;

120 g barley.

Cooking method

1. Rinse raisins and dried fruits in warm water and dry on a paper towel.

2. Also wash and dry the barley. Place dried fruits and barley in different linen bags and tie them tightly.

3. Strain natural birch sap and place in a large saucepan. Place on the fire and bring to a boil. Add sugar and lower the bags of barley and dried fruits. Boil for a minute, remove from heat and cover tightly.

4. Leave the pot with kvass in a warm room for a day. Then remove the bags and strain the drink through a sieve. Pour into bottles and close the lids tightly. Store in a cellar or other cool place.

Recipe 10. Birch kvass with raisins, apples, ginger, honey and mint

Ingredients

two liters of natural birch sap;

100 g sugar;

five apples;

3 g fast acting yeast;

5 ml light honey;

ten mint leaves;

40 g fresh ginger root;

half a lemon;

75 g raisins.

Cooking method

1. Wash the apples, cut them in half, remove the core and cut into slices. Place them in a saucepan and fill with birch sap. Place on the stove and cook from the moment it boils for three minutes. Remove from heat and cool.

2. In half a glass of warm broth, dilute the yeast with a teaspoon of sugar. Leave in a warm place for 20 minutes.

3. Pour the diluted yeast into the birch broth, add honey and squeeze the juice of half a lemon into it, add sugar.

4. Peel the ginger root and chop it on a fine grater. Wash the raisins. Rinse the mint leaves.

5. Add the prepared ingredients to the broth and stir. Cover the container with a clean, thick cloth and keep in a warm room for 12 hours.

6. Strain the finished kvass, cool and pour into clean, dry bottles.

If you use freshly collected birch sap, be sure to strain it to get rid of wood debris.
It is better to prepare kvass only using natural birch sap.
Do not use plastic containers for fermentation.
During the cooking process, you can add various medicinal herbs to kvass.
Under the right conditions, kvass can be stored for up to six months.

Kvass is the favorite drink of many Russians. Everyone in Rus' drank it before, everywhere. And they knew how to cook it in every hut and in every wealthy house.

Experience over many years (and later research by scientists) showed that this drink helped our ancestors maintain good physical health. For all heavy peasant work (plowing, mowing, collecting firewood), there was always a place for kvass in the food basket, which helped to restore strength and relieve fatigue during a short rest.

There are a lot of known recipes for making kvass. Along with the most common simple (grain) kvass, most often made from barley or rye malt, the drink was also prepared from honey, berries, fruits and vegetables. And such varieties were called berry, fruit, honey, etc.

In places where birch forests grew, the most common drink was birch kvass, to which, during preparation, dried fruits, rhubarb and fruits were added as fermentation raw materials. And for aroma - fragrant herbs, honey, and sometimes berries and vegetables.

To prepare birch kvass, first of all, you will need its main ingredient - fresh birch sap, which can only be collected in early spring. It is during the swelling of the buds that life-giving moisture rich in amino acids and vitamins appears on birch trees - “birch drops”.

The sap that birch gives us contains a lot of useful and extremely necessary substances after a long winter: enzymes and sugars, organic acids, calcium, magnesium and iron salts, microelements. Birch sap helps renew the blood, cleanses the body of unnecessary harmful substances, and restores the body after cold weather. This nutritious and tasty drink is good for everyone.

One drawback is that you can only get it once a year. And when fresh, it doesn’t last very long. But people have learned to preserve it, preserving the beneficial properties of the juice for a long time, and to prepare kvass from it.

But in order to properly make a healing drink based on the slightly sweetish, light-colored liquid secreted by birch trees that does not have a pronounced taste or smell, you need to be able to collect birch sap correctly:

Trees with a circumference of 25 cm are best suited for collecting sap (thicker trees are more difficult to make cuts);
you need to go for juice in the morning (by evening it almost stops flowing);
choose a collection location away from large settlements and highways (so that harmful substances do not end up in the product);
Having collected sap from a suitable tree, seal the cut with moss, garden pitch or dirt.

Read also: Coffee with honey: beneficial properties and recipes

Making kvass from collected birch sap is not difficult. To do this, you need to prepare raw materials. Having collected the juice, it must be filtered and boiled briefly so that some of the liquid evaporates. Then cool the juice and combine the main components with it, adding the ingredients according to the recipe. This can be yeast, raisins, honey, sugar, lemon, medicinal herbs and berry juices. After this, leave for fermentation (its duration is from a day to several weeks). After fermentation, the kvass must be strained, poured and cooled.

Do not use aluminum utensils or utensils made from most types of plastic to prepare kvass.
It is not recommended to shake or move the container with kvass, so as not to interrupt the fermentation process.
Kvass based on birch sap can be with or without yeast, with malt or specially prepared starter cultures. It is not advisable to overdo it with yeast. The natural ingredients used in kvass, when combined after a certain period of time, begin to ferment naturally. A small amount of yeast provides an additional stimulus for fermentation. If this process is very slow, their number can be increased slightly. Prunes, raisins and dried fruits can be used as natural fermentation stimulants and for better taste and color of the drink.
Honey can add aroma and sweetness to birch sap kvass. With such an additive, the drink will not only be tastier and more aromatic, but will also significantly increase its beneficial properties. Honey can be added to bottles before bottling. If the fermentation process is not yet complete, honey can make it more active. In this case, you need to open the bottles with caution. You can add honey immediately before use.
Many kvass recipes involve the use of raisins in order to make yeast-free birch kvass more carbonated and give it a bright and completely new taste. Experienced kvass makers do not recommend washing dried grapes before preparing the drink, so as not to remove substances necessary for the fermentation process from their surface.

Original and traditional recipes for kvass with birch sap

To prepare real kvass according to one of the old recipes, it will take a lot of time and effort, because the procedure for preparing wort from grain in compliance with all processes is long and labor-intensive.

Read also: Hot Toddy – warming drink with honey

In the old days (and kvass is more than 1000 years old), in order to prepare a drink, you first had to crush the grain, prepare dough from it, heat it with hot stones in clay vessels, and only then dilute the resulting mass with water, which was used for fermentation.

These days this can be done much faster and easier. For fruit juice lovers, we can recommend making homemade kvass with honey from birch sap. There are many recipes for such kvass. Today we will get acquainted with some of them that every housewife can master.

Homemade honey kvass from birch sap

This kvass is prepared from birch sap (10 liters) with the addition of yeast (50 grams, preferably fresh), 30 grams of honey and a handful of raisins (based on 2-3 raisins per liter). After dissolving the ingredients in the juice, the drink is placed in a cool place for two weeks to ferment.

You can drink ready-made kvass for one or two months without fear that it will spoil.

Classic recipe for birch kvass with honey

Birch sap – 10 liters
Raisins – (at the rate of 3 pieces per liter)
Lemon – 3-4 pcs.
Pressed yeast – 50 g (based on the calculation – 25 grams per 5 liters of juice)
Honey – 200 g

The basis of the preparation of the drink is yeast fermentation. Boil the pre-strained birch sap a little (no more than a minute) to remove excess water. Squeeze lemon juice into chilled birch sap, add raisins, honey and yeast, after dissolving them in warm water. The mixture should ferment in a warm place for 2-3 days. After this, pour and cool, you can enjoy the drink with a pleasant sour taste for a long time.

Birch kvass with honey without yeast

Honey – 1 tbsp. l.
Bread leaven – 2 tbsp. l.
Birch sap – 3 liters

To make this kvass, you don’t need yeast. You need to add honey and starter to the birch sap, stirring thoroughly until the honey is completely dissolved. And leave it to brew for 3-4 days. Next, adding a few highlights when bottling, we leave it for about two weeks.

Kvass from birch sap with rye crackers and honey

Oven-dried rye crackers – 600-700 g
Birch sap – 10 l
Honey – 2 cups (or sugar)

Pour birch sap over the crackers and stir occasionally for two hours. Add honey, a little orange zest and 1 tablespoon of sourdough to the resulting kvass base. Kvass takes about 4 days to prepare.

Kvass made from birch sap is a tasty, tonic, perfectly thirst-quenching non-alcoholic drink (alcohol content less than 0.5%), which is easy to make at home. At the same time, the recipe is relevant all year round, since not only fresh (necessarily not sour) but also canned birch sap, prepared in the spring or purchased in a store, is suitable for preparation.

Ingredients:

birch sap – 5 liters;
sugar (honey) – 200-250 grams;
raisins (preferably large dark ones) – 50 grams;
lemons – 2 pieces;
yeast - 5 grams of dry (25 grams of pressed) or wine yeast per 5 liters of wort (optional).

Sugar can be replaced with liquid honey in the same proportions, and the color of kvass from white or pale yellow (depending on the raisins) will change to deep yellow or amber. In the classic version, raisins are responsible not only for taste and color, but are also used as a source of wild yeast (found on the surface of the berries). Lemons add a light citrus aroma, promote fermentation, creating the appropriate acidity of the wort, and give the drink a pleasant light sourness.

I advise you to make birch kvass without yeast (dry or pressed baker's yeast), since their use significantly worsens the aroma. In fact, instead of kvass, you get mash. Cultivated wine yeast (available in stores) or wild raisin yeast are suitable for this recipe. The correct activation of the latter is described in the first stage of preparation.

The authors of some recipes for kvass made from birch sap suggest supplementing the taste of the drink with black bread, fermented malt, coffee beans, dried fruits and even roasted barley. But the listed ingredients completely neutralize the already weak taste of birch sap, therefore they are only suitable for homemade kvass based on water or fruit juices with a high content of solids: apple, plum, cherry, etc.

Birch kvass recipe

1. 4-5 days before working with juice, activate wild yeast (relevant if you don’t have wine yeast and don’t want to use regular yeast for baking).

The problem is that most modern raisins are treated with chemicals and preservatives for long-term storage, so not all berries will ferment. I advise you to immediately buy 3-4 types of raisins (preferably in different stores) and try each batch as a starter.

Technology: be sure to pour the unwashed raisins into a sterilized jar, add 300 ml of water (birch sap) at a temperature of 20-28°C and 1 tablespoon of sugar. Tie the neck of the jar with gauze and transfer the future starter to a dark place at room temperature. Leave for at least 3-4 days to activate the wild yeast.

Foam may not be so intense, but its presence is required

When foam, hissing and a slight smell of fermentation appear on the surface, the starter is ready. If this does not happen, an unpleasant odor or mold appears, which means that due to the treatment with preservatives, there is no wild yeast left on the selected raisins and you will have to use another one, repeating the whole procedure from the beginning.

2. Filter birch sap through gauze folded in several layers to remove small particles of debris. Pour the juice into a fermentation container.

3. Scald the lemons with boiling water, rinse in running water and wipe dry. Using a knife or vegetable peeler, carefully remove the zest from the fruit - the upper yellow part without the white pulp, which gives bitterness.

4. Add the starter made at the first stage (together with raisins) or yeast, sugar or honey, lemon zest and juice (squeeze from the fruit), well-washed raisins (if cultivated yeast is used) to the birch sap. Stir the wort until the sugar (honey) is completely dissolved in the water.

The water, sugar and raisins used to prepare the starter should be counted in the total amount of ingredients.

5. Cover the neck of the fermentation container with gauze to protect it from insects. Transfer the wort to a dark place with a temperature of 18-27°C and leave homemade birch kvass for 12-14 hours (with baker’s yeast - 6-8 hours) for fermentation.

It is better not to let the drink ferment for too long, otherwise it will become alcoholic. The theoretical maximum possible strength is 3 degrees (if the yeast converts all the sugar into alcohol, but this requires at least a few days). If the specified preparation technology is followed, the alcohol content will be below 0.5%.

6. Filter the finished kvass from birch sap through several layers of gauze, pour into storage bottles (preferably well-washed plastic ones), leaving 3-5 cm of free space from the neck. Close tightly.

Filtered raisins can be used as a starter for new portions of kvass (stored in a hermetically sealed container in the refrigerator for up to 5 days), without being included in the ingredients, but simply added at the 2nd stage instead of wine yeast.

7. Keep the bottles for 30-60 minutes at room temperature (to saturate with carbon dioxide), then transfer to the refrigerator or basement. After 1-2 hours, the kvass is ready for use.

Attention! Periodically check the pressure in the bottles (plastic ones become very hard and “bloat”) and release the gas if necessary to prevent rupture.

On dark raisins with sugar

Shelf life at temperatures from 0 to +8°C is 6 months. It is better to drink open birch kvass a day before.

Birch sap is what our native nature generously shares with us in early spring. Kvass from birch sap recipes help restore strength after a long winter, returning our body, exhausted by vitamin deficiencies and depression fatigue, the strength to live and enjoy the coming sunny days. It is unnecessary to talk about the usefulness of birch sap, but there is a drink that is not inferior, and even superior, to the sap itself in terms of the amount of organic acids, vitamins (especially group B), calcium and magnesium, phosphorus, and is also perfect for people on diets and trying to This will preserve and increase your health: the calorie content of such a drink is no more than 30 kcal per 100 grams. This drink has been known since ancient times and is called birch kvass.

The collected birch sap is filtered, removing small debris that invariably ends up in the jar when collecting the sap, poured into 3-liter jars, adding 1 tbsp. sugar and raisins and leave for a day in a warm place (for example, in the kitchen), covered with a linen napkin. Slightly fermented juice can be removed and stored in the refrigerator, drinking 1 glass per day. It’s enough to drink this drink for 2 weeks to feel that life is still a damn interesting thing!

If this “daily kvass” is left warm for 3-4 days in a closed jar, you will get real kvass - a fermentation product, the advantages and benefits of which will be immeasurably greater than from the “daily kvass”. This leavened drink does not require the addition of more sugar or raisins, and you can drink it for almost a whole year, make delicious okroshka with it, and use it for medicinal purposes not only internally.

Important! Such kvass should be stored in a closed container, without access to air and always in a dark, cool place.

Birch kvass fermented in a large 50 liter bottle should be stored in the same way. with a wide neck. A wide neck is needed in order to remove the whitish film that forms on the surface (like on cucumbers). To improve the taste of bottled kvass from birch sap, and at the same time to enrich it with vitamins, not only a full bag of raisins, but also 8-10 lemons, finely chopped into juice along with zest, will help. This kvass sours quickly, literally in 5-7 days. All that remains is to pour it into jars and bottles, seal it tightly and take it to the cellar, at a temperature of 5-10*. Kvass preserves itself - there is more than enough carbon dioxide in it.

Recipes for making kvass from birch sap are so varied that you simply can’t get tired of this drink! In addition, it contains only 1.25% alcohol, less than kefir, so even children after one year can drink it. For children, it is still better to sweeten kvass: for 0.5 liters - 1 teaspoon of sugar or honey, if there is no allergy, this is quite enough.

For gourmets, there are recipes for making kvass from birch sap that are more complex, but more refined in taste. For example, like this:

Recipe for kvass from birch sap with raisins

We will need:

10-15 liters of birch sap filtered through fabric;
100 pieces of raisins;
3 cups sugar;
1 cup fresh or pickled cranberries;
10-15 mint leaves (it’s good if it’s a sprig);
2-3 cloves;
thin rubber glove;
15-20 liter bottle.

Kvass from birch sap with raisins:

Warm the juice to room temperature.
Place mint leaves and cloves at the bottom of the bottle.
Add mashed cranberries with a glass of sugar to mint and cloves.
Pour in all the raisins.
Fill the bottle halfway (5-7 l) with birch sap.
Shake until the sugar dissolves.
Add the rest of the sugar and add the remaining juice.
We pull a rubber glove over the neck of the bottle and wait for it to inflate with fermentation gas.
We put the bottle with the “welcome” glove in a warm place and wait for the glove to deflate.
Now the fermented kvass can be carefully strained (you can simply use a fine sieve) and poured into jars or bottles.
We carefully seal the jars or bottles and send the kvass to ripen in the cool for about two weeks.
After the allotted time, the drink can be enjoyed both in its pure form and in cold soups.

Advice! To make kvass from birch sap of really high quality, it is advisable to find a glass bottle rather than a plastic one - plastic can spoil the taste of the final product.

Kvass from birch sap with bread

We will need:

filtered birch sap – 10 l;
loaf of rye bread - approx. 1 kg;
granulated sugar – 400-500 g;
raisins - a full handful;
coffee beans - a full handful;
1/2 tbsp. fresh frozen black currant berries or 10-15 dried leaves;
15 liter bottle

How to make kvass from birch sap:

We cut the bread and dry it into crackers (you can do it on a baking sheet without oil). Fry the coffee beans until black in a frying pan without oil.
Place the cooled crackers and coffee beans into the bottle.
Add all the sugar and raisins.
Add currants or its leaves.
Heat 2-3 liters of juice to 40-50* and pour into a bottle.
We tie the neck of the bottle with a linen napkin or gauze in several layers.
Let the starter ferment for one day.
After 24 hours, shake the starter well and add the remaining birch sap.
Close the neck again with a napkin and leave in a warm place for 3-4 days.
Strain the settled kvass and pour into small containers for storage in a cool, dark place.

Advice! It is best to store the juice not used on the first day in the refrigerator, and slightly warm it to room temperature before adding it to the starter.

Important! For those who have a weakened nervous system, such kvass is simply necessary! Also, this kvass is especially good for those who suffer from low acidity, as well as those whose hearts “play pranks” and blood pressure “jumps.”

Recipes for kvass from birch sap with honey

For this recipe, freshly collected juice, cleared of small debris, should stand in the house for a while (2-3 days).

For kvass made from birch sap with honey we will need:

10 liters of settled juice;
1200 g thickened honey;
50-100 raisins;
plastic bottle 15 l.

Recipe for kvass from birch sap with honey:

Pour all the ingredients into the bottle at once.
Seal the bottle tightly and place it on its side.
When the bottle swells and becomes completely hard (3-4 days), open it with caution, gradually releasing the fermentation gas.
We filter the fermented kvass and pour it into convenient jars and bottles, seal it tightly and put it in a cool place to “reach”.
This kvass is completely ready in 1.5-2 months, but you can drink it right away.
If you notice signs of vitamin deficiency and severe loss of strength, then you should not let the kvass sit for 2 whole months!
Take 1 tbsp. pureed cranberries, pour it with a glass of fresh honey birch kvass and drink in one gulp. Every day – one glass.
Such a “compote” will not only quickly quench your body’s thirst for vitamins B and C, but will also help you get out of winter depression as quickly as possible and minimize the risk of spring diseases.

Important! In this recipe, honey can be replaced with wax (the liquid product remaining after boiling honey from honeycombs). The main thing is not to overdo it, otherwise the kvass will become bitter. Calculation: for 10 liters of juice – 200 g of wax.

Kvass from birch sap with barley

This recipe will appeal not only to people who want to quickly “recover,” but also to diabetics. By stimulating the regenerative processes of the entire body, this barley drink remarkably quickly lowers the level of harmful cholesterol, providing not only tangible benefits to the cardiovascular system, but also gradually lowering blood sugar levels.

We only need two products:

birch sap itself (filtered) – 3-5 l;
roasted barley - 1 cup.

Kvass on birch sap with barley:

Fry the barley (preferably unpeeled) in a frying pan without oil. The darker the color of the grain, the more rich in taste the kvass will be; roasted barley to the state of “black coffee” will give the kvass a light, pleasant bitterness.
After letting the birch sap sit for a day or two, add the cooled barley and sugar and, screwing the lid tightly, “forget” about the bottle for 10 days.
We filter the resulting barley kvass, bottle it and put it in a cool and dark place.
If there is no desire to filter the kvass after ripening, the barley can be dipped into the juice in the form of a sachet - a small fabric bag.
This kvass is not only a joy for the heart and blood vessels, it is also an excellent cosmetic product: it strengthens gums, tooth enamel, nourishes hair roots, and improves complexion. By optimizing metabolic processes, this drink prevents the proliferation of pathogenic flora in the intestines and accelerates weight loss, including the natural diuretic process. To enhance the removal of water, you can drink this kvass with lingonberries, or add a handful of lingonberry leaves to the “fermentation tank”.
Birch kvass fermented with oats, wheat or rice is no worse in properties. The cooking recipe does not change at all.

Advice! Since there is no sugar in the recipe, fermentation will take longer, but if consuming sugar is not contraindicated for you, add 1/2 cup of granulated sugar to the wort, this will shorten the preparation of the healing drink by 2-3 days.
If you wish, you can add a few raisins and bread crumbs, but this is not at all necessary - kvass will ferment perfectly on grain.

Kvass from birch sap with dried fruits

This is almost the national drink of the south of Russia! It is extremely easy to make, has a wonderful refreshing taste and perfectly quenches thirst on hot summer days.

We will need:

5 liter bottle;
freshly collected and filtered birch sap (3-4 liters);
raisins - approx. 1 glass;
dried fruits – 800g - 1kg.

How to make kvass from birch sap:

We put raisins and washed dried fruits into the prepared bottle at once. We make several small holes in the lid of the bottle for gas to escape. Fill the fruit-raisin mixture with birch sap, screw on the lid with holes and leave to ferment in a warm place.
As fermentation progresses, shake the bottle vigorously 2-3 times a day. Fermentation continues for at least a week!
After ripening, the finished kvass must be strained, discarding the raisins and dried fruits. Pour the healthy kvass, saturated with organic acids, into smaller containers and leave it in the cellar or refrigerator until hot days.
This kvass can also be diversified by adding bread and sugar, lemon zest and yeast, which will make the fermentation process much faster, but then the subtle fresh “spirit” of birch sap will be lost and the drink will take on the taste of ordinary bread kvass. Of course - delicious! But, alas, it’s not the same...

Advice! The dried fruit mixture can be replaced with prunes or dried wild pear.
Many people believe that only juices infused with these dried fruits without apples, dried apricots, etc. have the right to be called real birch kvass!

Important! Before you start “loading,” dried fruits must be washed (but not soaked!) in hot water.

All the recipes for kvass from birch sap proposed here have one essential detail: they do not contain yeast. This is a pure product, fermented without additional process catalysts, and this is what distinguishes it from birch mash, which is often passed off as kvass with yeast. However, real kvass is not inferior to light mash in terms of the amount of lactic acid, and even surpasses it in the content of many vitamins and microelements. It’s a pity that such a “magical” drink can only be stored for six months or a little longer. The further fate of birch kvass after six months is sad - it turns into vinegar.
It can also be “helped” to turn into vinegar by loosely closed lids, direct exposure to light rays and excessive heat.

Important! To preserve the properties of the drink, you must follow basic storage rules, the main one of which is that open kvass should be drunk no later than two days later!
To do this, it is poured into small “containers” and stored, after opening, in the refrigerator, tightly wrapping the lid.
If you want to sweeten the kvass, then this should be done immediately before use, adding sugar to the glass, and not to the whole “container”.

Previously, the necks of glass bottles with kvass were dipped into boiling sealing wax or sealed with liquid wax, excluding the slightest air from getting inside. Maybe it makes sense to return to the ancient practice, since we just can’t part with the ancient habit of drinking birch kvass to stay healthy, beautiful and cheerful? And also - grateful to our native land for this amazing gift - birch sap!

Kvass made from birch sap with raisins is a healthy drink of natural origin that has medicinal properties and has a beneficial effect on the human body. Helps cure and prevent various diseases of the digestive system, quench thirst.

Classic kvass made from birch sap and raisins

To make kvass from birch sap, you don’t have to spend a lot of time and effort. The set of components is also small.

The following ingredients will be required:

10 liters of fresh birch sap;
0.5 kg granulated sugar;
50-60 dried raisins.

Classic recipe:

Clean the wort collected from birch from debris by filtering with several layers of gauze or a fine sieve.
Wash and dry the raisins.
Mix sugar with raisins and add to liquid. Stir until the sand is completely dissolved.
Cover the container with a clean cloth.
Leave to infuse for 3 days in a warm room to ensure the fermentation process.
Strain the finished product thoroughly.
Pour the drink into a glass container.

The drink can be stored in a cold room for 4-5 months.

Cooking with bread

It is also easy to make kvass based on birch sap with bread.

To do this you need to purchase the following products:

3000 ml juice;
0.3 kg of bread products;
0.5 tbsp. Sahara;
a handful of raisins.

Step by step recipe:

Using a sieve or several layers of gauze, filter the liquid. It is recommended to leave freshly collected juice in the cold for 1-2 days before creating kvass.
Cut the bread into small pieces and dry in the oven on a baking sheet or fry in a frying pan without using oil.
Place granulated sugar and crackers on the bottom of a glass container.
Pour in slightly heated juice and stir.
Cover the dish with a lid or tie a cloth on top.
Leave to ferment in a warm room for 4-5 days.
Strain the drink and pour into convenient bottles.

The product can be kept refrigerated for up to 6 months.

Based on taste preferences, dried raisins can be replaced with mint leaves, black currants, barley grains or coffee in the same quantity.

Recipe for a drink with honey at home

To create birch kvass with honey using yeast, you need:

10 liters of birch sap;
raisins (for every liter of liquid 3 fruits);
3 lemons;
45 g yeast;
0.2 kg of honey.

Step-by-step preparation:

Boil the strained birch sap for 1 minute so that excess water evaporates.
Squeeze juice from lemons.
Combine with raisins and honey.
Add yeast previously dissolved in warm water.
Leave in a warm place for the fermentation process for 2-3 days.

The sour-tasting drink is usually consumed chilled to eliminate thirst and obtain a useful complex of elements for the body.

To prepare a drink with honey without yeast you need to use:

2 tsp. honey;
4 tsp. sourdough bread;
3000 ml birch liquid;
raisins according to the number of containers.

Step-by-step recipe:

Combine the juice with honey and starter and wait until it is completely dissolved in the liquid.
Leave for 3-4 days.
When bottling, add 3 raisins to each bottle.
Leave to infuse for 14-20 days.

How to make kvass from birch sap and barley

Thanks to the addition of barley to the drink, taste qualities similar to those of conventional yeast are revealed.

To prepare kvass you need:

3 liters of fresh juice;
1 tbsp. barley grains.

Step-by-step instruction:

Filter the birch liquid to remove contaminants, bark residues, and wood chips.
Leave to infuse in a cold room for 1-2 days.
Fry the barley without oil until golden brown. This will give the kvass a softer taste. The main thing is not to overdo it; when roasted to a dark shade, the drink will acquire a bitter taste.
Combine liquid with barley. You can tie the grains in a gauze bag and dip them into a container of kvass.
It is recommended to infuse the drink for 3-4 days in a dark, cool place, stirring occasionally.
After 4-5 days, strain the prepared liquid and pour into a glass container.
Store for up to 6 months in a cellar or other cool place.

This natural birch-barley kvass can be used to season homemade traditional okroshka. It adds notes of fresh birch and sourness with barley bitterness.

With rose hips

Thanks to the addition of barley during the preparation of the drink, homemade birch kvass gives off the undertones that are present when using yeast in the composition.

Required components:

3 liters of juice;
1 tbsp. barley grains;
a handful of rose hips.

Step-by-step preparation:

Filter the freshly extracted juice.
Pour into a large container.
Lightly fry the barley in a frying pan until nicely golden brown.
Pour the fried component into the liquid.
Add berries.
Leave for 4-5 days in a warm place, stirring the composition.
Filter the drink through a fine sieve and pour into a glass container.

With lemon

Ingredients to complete the recipe:

300 g barley grains;
30 g honey;
4 lemons;
10 liters of birch sap;
raisin.

Actions step by step:

Carefully strain the birch “nectar”.
Make freshly squeezed lemon juice.
Lightly fry the barley grains.
Connect all components.
Pour the drink into glass containers, place 3-4 raisins in each.
Cover tightly with a lid.
Leave for 3 days to infuse.
Filter through cheesecloth or a sieve.

This product can only be stored in a cool place.

With dried fruits

To create a drink you need to use:

60 g barley grains;
20 g of dried fruit mixture;
birch sap – 3 l.

Step by step recipe:

Rinse dried fruits well.
Dry on a towel.
Pour into dishes (but not plastic).
Add barley grains fried in a dry frying pan.
Cover the workpieces with liquid.
Leave in a warm place for 2-3 days, covered with a lid.
Strain using a sieve.

Cooking technology with raisins and yeast

To create a tonic kvass, you need to use high-quality fresh juice. When extracting it, the following nuances should be taken into account:

the tree chosen is not young;
collection takes place early in the morning;
The trunk diameter must be at least 250 mm.

To prepare a delicious and healthy drink, you need to use the following ingredients:

birch sap – 3000 ml;
dark large raisins – 25 pcs.;
10 g dry yeast.

Step-by-step production of the drink:

Wash raisins under cool water and dry.
Filter the juice using a sieve or gauze to cleanse.
Dissolve yeast in purified liquid.
Add dried grapes. Seal with a lid.
Infuse for 3 months in a cold room.

A slight fermentation smell when using yeast usually appears at the same time as foam and effervescence. When such signs appear, the starter can be considered ready. If mold and notes of unpleasant odor appear, this indicates the absence of wild yeast on the raisins due to treatment with preservatives. Because of this, the product cannot be used. The procedure for creating a drink should be repeated again based on new components. Ready kvass should also be filtered using gauze folded in several layers.