Kilju! - City Steading Brews

What is Kilju you ask? Well Wikipedia says “Kilju (Finnish pronunciation: [ˈkilju]) is the Finnish word for home made alcoholic beverage typically made of sugar, yeast, and water. It often has additives such as citrus fruits, apples, berry juices, or artificial flavorings.” To hear Kilju pronounced by an actual person from Finland, click this! https://forvo.com/word/kilju/ Kilju has a really interesting history often associated with the punk subculture. Most of our Finnish friends state it is a staple of collage students looking for an inexpensive home brewed alcohol. Shockingly enough (or perhaps not so) Kilju production was illegal in Finland prior to 2018. This seemingly didn’t hinder it being made throughout the county, but perhaps limited it from being sold.

The concept was intriguing to us and thus we went forth to create our own. We have various versions, but the purists might prefer this particular rendition.

Let’s make Kilju, or Finnish Sugar Wine.

We’re going to try to do this as accurately as possible. However, the yeast had different ideas! In the end, we tested it with various flavorings. Kilju is very versatile, you can do just about anything you want with it. Kilju is also pretty cheap, so you can always have some brewing.

Ingredients

2 lbs (.907 kg) Sugar

Water to fill to a Gallon

2.5 grams Fermaid O: https://amzn.to/3Nou1bR

Red Star Premier Blanc Yeast: https://amzn.to/42uvZeR

Additions

1 teaspoon Yeast Hulls (if your brew stalls): https://amzn.to/43yF47W *please watch the video for all the additional techniques we used to “fix” a stall

Flavors of your choice. We used Cherry Juice, Lemon Juice and Honey, and some extracts.

Tabletree Cherry Juice: https://www.tabletreejuice.com/

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