Beet Kvass

I made a batch of beet kvass, which I've appropriately named Beet Kvass.

Alternatively named "We Got The Beet!"

Beets are an odd vegetable to me.  They show up every now and then in my CSA, and then they sit in the fridge waiting for me to roast them or.....roast them.  Somebody must love beets, because people keep growing them, but unfortunately my wife is not one of those somebody's.  I tried grilling them once and thought it came out pretty good, but she wasn't a fan.  I've thought about using them to make veggie burgers, but it seems like a lot of work for something that might not go over well. So I stick to roasting them when they show up, because its the only way she tolerates them.

Cubed beets in a jar.  There, now you've seen everything.

But its summer, its hot, and who wants to roast vegetables in an oven when its 80 degrees out?  So I figured I'd give fermenting them a go.  I've seen beets fermented in two ways.  The first is sliced and fermented with ginger, which is how Small World does it here in Rochester.  The other way is to make it into a drink called Beet Kvass, which I've seen in stores and done by Small World.  We have a jar of the sliced beats from Small World in the fridge right now, and while I like it, its not exactly flying off the shelf, so I figured I'd give the Kvass a try.

Apart from some beer back when I was in college, this is the first fermented drink that I've made.  It's also the first time I've ever actually had beet kvass.  If you Google around, you can find an assortment of recipes for the stuff that include all kinds of ingredients, which can make picking one to start with confusing. So I consulted The Art of Fermentation and decided to try a simple one, which was:

• 2 beets - skinned and cubed
• 1/8 cup of Sauerkraut juice
• 1/2 tbsp salt
• water

That's it.  I jammed all that into a quart sized mason jar filled about an inch below the bottom with water, put a cap on it, and then left to ferment.

It can also  be used to chum the waters for sharks.

It turned the water pink instantly, and then progressively got darker and darker until it was a real deep purple (go ahead, enjoy the video, I'll wait).  It also lightly carbonated, enough so that each time I'd open it to check on it beets would ride the fizz to the top and the head space would fill with bubbles.  After 6 days, I called it done, and filtered out everything so that just the liquid remained.

I know what your thinking and the answer is yes, it stains everything.

In the end it came out pretty good.  Its a combination of salty, sour, and earthy....which is the polite way of describing that dirt like flavor that beets have.  Lets not avoid it, its just a fact, beets sort of taste like dirt.  But I actually like it. It's not something your going to chug a pint of, but a small glass in the morning is pretty good. And my wife likes it too.  Which is great news, because I have two more beets in the fridge that I need to do something with.

***UPDATE.  It's kid approved.  Chloe says its "Goooood!"***