Beet Kvass: DIY Fermenting and Colorado Craft Beer

It’s best if you listen to this song while reading this post. I am recently obsessed. 

Beet kvass is an ancient, and healthy recipe. It’s lacto-fermented beetroot, drank traditionally in Eastern Europe as a cure-all. Scientific research suggests that the lactobacilli that turn yoghurt, lambic, and sauerkraut tangy are superbly healthy for us (yes, that is a primary source. Science, baby). Kvass has them, too.

I made some kvass to drink in the mornings, or afternoons, before work. It’s bracingly earthy. I want to make cocktails with it. I love feeling healthy and having a hand in my own health. DIY kvass recipe, below.

Kvass

• Two beets, cut into large chunks
• Fermenting water (I took mine from traditionally-made sauerkraut), 1 cup
• Water, salted with natural salt (1 tsp to 1 cup)

Put all the ingredients into a jar and shake well. Leave for two days in the fridge to ferment. Drink and dilute at will. 

Making kvass can turn one’s kitchen into a murder scene, and beet juice is known to be a stainer. Put some on your lips if you want a nice rosy glow!

I also got my hands on some actual, Colorado craft beer this weekend. Working for Brewdog is great, but as a doucher told me in the bar yesterday, according to many in the UK  “all US beer is complete shit. It’s all Budweiser and Miller Lite.”

Well, Miller Lite this a’int. Sawtooth is one of my favourite US beers, and especially because I’ve climbed mountains (Mt. Bierstadt and Mt. Evans) that are right near it. I love the new bottle, by the way. I took one sip and exclaimed, “Dear god, I miss craft beer!”

Oops. I mean, Brewdog is craft beer. It just isn’t Lefthand. It isn’t Colorado. It isn’t my craft beer. I am a Colorado native, and I know when I have beer that tastes like home.

It’s so fucking dark here. This picture was taken at 14:35. Dark as crap. Oh, England.