# Kilju



## jivesucka

I've come across several recipes, but first a brief description. Kilju is made from sugar and water. An average fermenter would need six kilos of sugar, the normal amount of water and preferably turbo yeast. what the document doesn't mention is the fact you will need to filter out the sediment prior to bottling otherwise it makes you ill. some other website reccomends using pantyhose to filter it out. anyways,
below
is the
link to the
the document


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## sinkas

sounds like a nazi slogan more than a drink


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## goatus

sounds like it would taste aweful. to each their own I guess.


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## Cortez The Killer

Why would you want to make it? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kilju

You'd be effectively drinking a wash http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wash_%28distilling%29

Cheers


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## Airgead

Cortez The Killer said:


> Why would you want to make it?
> Cheers



Because you live in Finland. Its dark for 6 months of the year. Too cold to go out and there's frack all else to do than sit around getting as drunk as possible as quickly and cheaply as possible. The Finns are famous as heavy drinkers. Even the Russians (who aren't exactly a nation of lightweights) are scared of the Finns.

Mind you, if I had nothing to do but sit around getting drunk I'd probably make something a little more palatable to do it on. That stuff sounds vile.

Cheers
Dave


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## iScarlet

Airgead said:


> Too cold to go out and there's frack all else to do than sit around getting as drunk as possible as quickly and cheaply as possible.



Don't forget the saunas.

That said, I can only assume it would taste much like the stuff we used to disinfect the microbiology labs when I was a wee one.


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## danbeer

Cortez The Killer said:


> Why would you want to make it? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kilju
> 
> You'd be effectively drinking a wash http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wash_%28distilling%29
> 
> Cheers




I once made something like that - in an effort to replicate subzero. (Am I showing my age here? Anyone remember that shite?)

I succeded, in that fermented sugar water was just as vile as the bottled stuff.


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## Bizier

Hehe, i have early memories of one of my grandfather's buddies in amazing convulsions throwing up from what I now know to be Kilju. It might be worth noting that proper Finnish bakers yeast used for sahti is different to other such yeasts and throws out certain funky flavours. Definitely sounds vile.


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## jivesucka

danbeer said:


> I once made something like that - in an effort to replicate subzero. (Am I showing my age here? Anyone remember that shite?)
> 
> I succeded, in that fermented sugar water was just as vile as the bottled stuff.



yes! i remember that stuff! the closest you can get these days is that smirnoff black ice


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## cdamarco

I am inclined to believe that the reason kilju would taste so fowl is because of the lack of natural nitrates, phenols and various nutrients found in traditional sugar sources of brews like malts, grapes and apples. Has anyone tried making kilju with yeast nutrient added in sufficient quantity? I would imagine you could make a clean, tasteless drink this way, perfect for mixing.


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## manticle

There is a more refined version called Sima which may be spiced with lemons and raisins.

I would try it if I was in Finland and offered it with the traditional donut or whatever other rituals/customs they have but I'm in no hurry to make it myself.


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## Maheel

i currently have brewing

5.5 kgs sugar
juice of two lemons 
pinch of epson salt
200grams of tomato paste
made up to 23L 
40 +- grams dry bakers yeast
(this is someone else's recipe)

it kicked off at 1090 and is now around 1050 (day 5)
it should work down to 990 ish (i hope) and be around 13% alc.

I tasted some today, and it's still very sweet and the subzero comment made me just think of what it's kind of like it's fizzy !!
with a good shot of some sort of syrup it could be drinkable (for a drunk, maybe)


the 5L experimental batch i did is at 990, it surprisingly tastes ok (ish), and smells quite ok (ish)
it's still a little cloudy and needs cold crashing but no room in the fridge. 
it looks a lot like this in the bottle right now


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## evilNat

not to mention the price of spirits in Finland is sky high as the country is trying to reduce the extremely high rate of heart disease due to the amount of drinking there...but, oh what a place!

I've been dappling with gin, grapefruit juice and lemonade to try and replicate the Finnish 'Lonkero'.

I might try a cidar type recipe one day but use grapefruit and juniper berries.

Kippis!


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## cdamarco

well i did something similar to this, i used 6 cups of dextrose and 1 gallon of water, a crushed up vitamin b pill, and some yeast nutrient, let it brew to 35 proof (which took only 4 days with some champagne yeast) added some vanilla flavor and chilled it, nothing so rough as anyone seems to describe it, but then maybe the nutrient makes the difference, id do it again


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## Tanga

Apparently they mix it with juice? My brother drank this while he was over there. I have no idea why - their homebrew essences are as cheap as ours (coopers mostly).

*Marco* - how much vanilla essence? Did you use that as your primer? How did it turn out? When did you add the nutrient and how much? Something like this might work to create an alcopop style drink (with cordial added in secondary and as the primer for flavour's sake).


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## spog

jeez steady on, my ancestors are finns,via norway,then tassie and now south oz.
thats why i have 2 heads,3 dicks and am pissed 6 days out of 7.cheers..spog.... 


Airgead said:


> Because you live in Finland. Its dark for 6 months of the year. Too cold to go out and there's frack all else to do than sit around getting as drunk as possible as quickly and cheaply as possible. The Finns are famous as heavy drinkers. Even the Russians (who aren't exactly a nation of lightweights) are scared of the Finns.
> 
> Mind you, if I had nothing to do but sit around getting drunk I'd probably make something a little more palatable to do it on. That stuff sounds vile.
> 
> Cheers
> Dave


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## SuiCIDER

This has got me interested. 

Has anyone seen those flavourings at the brew shops? Would these work in something like this?


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## milob40

i think the finish use alchohol in the blood like glycol to stop their blood from freezing. 
my brother brought bback a bottle of "spitz" which is 160 something% proof (over 80 % abv)
it has non subtle paint thinner overtones with a hint of cherry vomit :icon_vomit: 
why the hell would anyone punish their body drinking this is beyond logic.
i use the bottle as a dare for people to have a nip. they only ever try it once, the bottle is nearly 7 years old now and still 1/4 full :icon_cheers:


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## Tanga

Mintu (a mint schnapps) is pretty damn awesome though. Nom! Goes great in hot chocolate too.

According to my brother it's not really Kilju (pronounced Kill You (no really)) unless it's made in a bucket with sugar and bread yeast. Though personally if I wanted to drink paint thinner I would

What flavours does turbo yeast give off - is it a clean (non-existent) flavour? I think it, dex (rather than sugar) with nutrient would give a pretty pure flavour you could play around with.


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## sp0rk

sorry to dig up an old topic,
i put down a 5 litre batch of Kilju yesterday afternoon, and added some lemon peel and a little lemon juice to taste
doesn't seem to be doing much so far, had a little foam on it when i got home from work at midnight, but that's gone now
everything i've read online seems to say it should be going off chops by now, bubbling and foaming
i didn't activate the yeast before i pitched it, may this have lead to the yeast not working properly?


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## Tanga

I found my Kilju was pretty slow to start. I added a little lemon juice to mine too (for the acidity rather than the taste - just 20mL in 2L). Did you use dextrose or normal sugar?

EDIT: Here's my recipe:
http://www.aussiehomebrewer.com/forum/inde...=tanga&st=0

100g of dex / L was right for me. It's strong enough so that a 50c batch will get you blotto, but not so strong that you produce off flavours by stressing the yeast. (Ends up at 6%)


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## sp0rk

i used dextrose
also, i went nuts with the amount of dextrose, i used 1.5kg's to the 5 litre batch...
i'm expecting around 14%-15% once it's done
also, i'm thinking of bottling half and fractional freezing the other half, just for laughs to see how high i can get the alcohol content


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## Tanga

So a wine yeast? Wow, that's going to end up pretty high alc. Otherwise similar to mine, so it should work. I didn't add nutrient to mine, and it still fermented. It only had a light sprinkling of bubbles in the middle, no foaming, but then there isn't really anything in there to foam (if that makes sense).

I'd be very wary of the fractionally frozen Kilju. The lack of nutrients may lead to even more nasty production (esthers, etc) than usual, and they will be concentrated. It could make you pretty ill.


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## sp0rk

i probably won't be drinking any of the fractionally frozen stuff, just want to play around to see what i can get the alcohol content up to (i get bored easily and decide to do dumb crap)
yeah, i did use a wine yeast, it foamed a little after the second day
it's still really cloudy, so i might crash chill it once it's finished fermenting and see how that goes


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## sp0rk

I think i may killed it...
i put the heater belt on and went sat down for a bit, accidentally fell asleep, woke up and the temp was up at 35 degrees
it's almost stopped bubbling all together, whereas it was still going quite well before it got hot
should i add a little more yeast, or just bottle it and drink it?


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## Tanga

Depends on whether it's done or not. If you don't want to check th SG then taste it. There should be no sweetness.


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## sp0rk

it's still rather sweet
i guess it's off to my LHBS to get more yeast


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## Tanga

Probably your best bet, though you may get lucky and have your yeast start up again.


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## sp0rk

well it ended up around 8% and still kind of sweet,
it stopped fermenting to i just crash chilled it and had a few glasses
isn't too bad, but i can't drink too much of it


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## Tanga

Add lemon juice to cut the sweetness? I am probably going to have a go at the 6 percent again. A fermenter full, or one of those 11L waterbottles full at any rate. Then see if I can't cut back the wine taste with carbon (thanks Tony if you're reading this, though I doubt it).

Besides super sweet what other favours did you get?


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