Sugar Wine aka. kilju

So, I think not many people know this Finnish traditional drink. It´s called kilju or sugar wine outside Finland. Making it is pretty simple and cheap, it just needs water, yeast and sugar. Nothing else. I started fermenting a 0.5 liter of kilju(this is my first time so just making a little first). Instructions for 0.5 liter:

You need:
1 desiliter of sugar
1-2 teaspoons of bakers yeast or turbo yeast(fermentation takes longer with bakers yeast)
A bottle(I used 1,5 liter bottle so it has a lot of space for pressure)
0.5 liters of water

Now. Put 0.5 liters of water into the bottle. Then put sugar there and shake the bottle. Now, put yest there and shake again. Close the cap and leave the bottle somewhere where it´s warm enough(about 20 celsius is good). The fermentation will start in few hours. You may sometimes need to open the cap to let the pressure out(if you don´t, the bottle may explode!). You can also make an airlock, if you want to. If you use bakers yeast, it will take about 5-7 days to ferment totally. If you use turbo yest, it takes about 2 days or even less. I used wine yest, because I didn´t have anything else. I dunno if wine yeast is as fast as turbo yeast or as slow as bakers yeast. So, after the fermentation has stopped, let the yeast go to the bottom and then carefully pour the kilju to another bottle or something. The yeast will stay in the fermentation bottle and now you should have pretty clear kilju. If you don´t do this, you will get diarrhea if you drink it :mrgreen: If it still isn´t clear enough, you can do that again. Now you have some good finnish kilju.

Well, some of you will say it tastes like **** but if you really can make it very clear, it will taste pretty good. My friend made this a week ago and it tasted pretty good.

But one thing is worrying me. I made this kilju on an energy drink bottle and I didn´t wash it(I should, I know). Could energy drink have something that would make it produce methanol or some other dangerous stuff?

Looks a bit grim but I have a version of kilju brewing at the moment. It is a mojito kilju. Got the idea from Brian and Derica of CS Mead.

Video of the basic process is below. Theirs turned out really well so I’m hopeful. Mine is slightly different to theirs. I’ve put more acid in and also added yeast nutrient which they don’t do.

Fingers crossed!

Methanol comes mainly from pectin degradation in certain fruit wines,It is never in a high enough concentration to cause problems.
The antidote is ethanol which is the primary alcohol produced during fermentation.So unless you concentrate it by doing something illegal (in the uk.) there is nothing to worry about.

Bakers yeast is not good yeast for winemaking,There are many reasons for this.
B.T.W. Neither is turbo yeast.!!!

Staggering, is that about 1/2 cupof sugar to about 1/2 quart of water and 1 packet of yeast? I am in the USA, and am unsure of the metric equivialents

ozarkskye said:

Staggering, is that about 1/2 cupof sugar to about 1/2 quart of water and 1 packet of yeast? I am in the USA, and am unsure of the metric equivialents

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Welcome @ozarkskye
We don't measure sugar by volume and a decitre of table sugar is about 3oz weight. Half a litre is near enough half a US quart.
The yeast will need nutrient. Turbo yeast is a mixture of yeast and nutrient, but bakers yeast will have to wait for some of the cells to die to provide nutrient for the others. Just add half a teaspoon of wine yeast nutrient (or see other ways of making nutrient on thus forum)
I can't understand why anyone would want to drink what, to me, looks like distiller wash! At least squeeze a lemon and grate some ginger into it.

It's Finland, the place where they'll drink anything to get wrecked during the winter months.
I've had kilju before, but made with a few springs of heather in it, and it carried the flavour of the heather but was still a bit grim.