Beet Kvaas is an mineral supplement drink from the Russian tradition, and an AMAZING vitality tonic. After you read what’s next, you’ll wonder why everyone doesn’t have this awesome stuff in their fridge!
Just 4oz. of Kvaas AM & PM is a complete mineral supplement, probiotic, digestive aid, and liver/gallbladder cleanser. It also helps with disturbed cellular function, which we all have to some degree. It helps thin the bile and detox the body, it keeps the bowels moving regularly, and it builds healthy blood.
If you want to have it on hand continually, as I do, make a new batch about 10 days before you run out of your previous batch.
Okay. Here’s how: simply scrub & chop 3-4 large purple beets into large, 2 inch pieces (just quarter them so that they’ll sink to the bottom). Place the beets into a 1 gallon glass jar, fill almost to top w/filtered water and then stir in 1/2tsp whole sea salt, and either 1Tbsp whey from plain cultured yogurt, OR ½ wafer of lactic acid yeast by Standard Process brand, OR 1 cup kvaas from your previous batch.
Let this mixture sit covered, at room temperature in a dark place for 48hrs, then skim the bubbly stuff from the top (see photo below) w/a clean spoon (you don’t want to introduce any different bacteria), stir and refrigerate. After about 5 days in the fridge, it’ll become dark purple and lovely to drink. It’ll get darker and darker purple, and more and more tangy over the next two weeks. Stir it with a clean spoon before you drink it, as the minerals tend to sink. Kvaas keeps for up to 2 months refrigerated, as long as the beets are beneath the level of the liquid. This process is anaerobic, so you can remove the beets as you drink it down (so that they don’t stick up above the level of the liquid), OR you can add another few cups of water then refrigerate for another week, OR you can start a whole new batch. Your next batch you can use the same beets, inoculate it with a cup or two from the previous batch of kvaas, so you don’t have to extract yogurt whey each time. Also, you can include fresh ginger, turmeric or burdock root scrubbed and chopped into large, 2 inch pieces that sink, for added medicinal benefit. Kvaas should taste slightly sour and effervescent (carbonated).
You can re-use these first beets for your second round of kvaas, but they should be eaten or discarded after this. Use fresh beets for the third round, and for every other round. Pay attention to the smell and taste, and if it tastes bitter or smells rotten, dump it and start a new batch using fresh yogurt whey or 1 cup kvaas from a good batch. This time be sure to sterilize all your tools & containers with anti-bacterial soap OR grapefruit seed extract.
*To get the whey out of a cup of yogurt, layer a dozen layers of cheese cloth or muslin inside a strainer basket and set it in a bowl not touching the bottom of the bowl. Dump the plain cultured yogurt (Brown Cow with cream top removed, or Nancy’s low fat work best for this) on top of the cheese cloth, and let the whey slowly drip down through the cloth into the bottom of the bowl, which takes about 1-2 hours.
