Kilju - Finnish Sugar Wine - SUPER Cheap Wine at Home

[@pointdironie5832]

Never in a million years did I think I would see a lovely middle-aged non-Finnish couple brewing kilju. Internet is amazing sometimes!

[@oscarn-]

Exactly. 😅

[@petrusinvictus3603]

Neither did I! IAre these AI-algorythm getting in memories 40yrs ago? Why else this pops when I just casually open youtube after a week. Creepy...

[@mr.grumpy3683]

Facts 😂

[@CitySteadingBrews]

Lol

[@steffenrosmus9177]

They are not brewing, technically😂

[@Dewkeeper]

As a Finnish (former) student, I can say that your experimentation with flavorings truly honors the spirit of kilju consumption. If you don't scowl at least once while trying mixes, you didn't really experience kilju 😂

[@CitySteadingBrews]

LOL, thanks for the vote of confidence!

[@Sibula]

Yup, lemon and grapefruit are two that usually work pretty well to mask the horrible taste of the turbo yeast. EDIT: Almost forgot about salmiakki, that one is the best

[@Nobody-Nowhere]

As a Finnish person from Korso, the kilju capital of finland. I can say that no, you don't flavor kilju. And its supposed to be white and still bubbling when you drink it. You also make it in 30l containers and drink it from 2l Mehukatti canisters.

[@Sibula]

@@Nobody-Nowhere no no no, if you want to drink it neat it needs to ferment dry and settle first. Sweet and yeasty kilju is one of the most disgusting things you can safely drink.

[@OriginalElbowTactics]

It’s supposed to taste foul and hit you like a baseball bat.

[@Noctureal]

The origin (and main use) of Kilju here in Finland is to get drunk cheap. It's not fancy drink that people enjoy. It's very popular among students who don't have money to buy alcohol. So what they do is Kilju. Usually it's done with some kind of "turbo yeast". Which basically means that you let it ferment maybe a week, sometimes less. No flavoring, no fancy things, usually done in cheap bucket. Then you drink that sugary water that tastes like yeast. It's not good but it gets people drunk.

[@Finwolven]

Back in Jyväskylä Uni we used to get a cheap mixed-berry juice concentrate and use that to flavor the kilju. It was 'good' when you could no longer taste the yeast.

[@themarchhare154]

My kilju tastes a lot like cider or apple juice but I think it's cause I use turbinado sugar and just bakers yeast lol it's honestly the cleanest drunk or best hangover I've had. Can drink it at 7% or 12% and it's just fine, head is clear the next day. I haven't even actually had it survive long enough to be bottled. The hangover has been tested with multiple people too. Been using the same yeast colony for months as well just adding a bit more every couple weeks. I quite enjoy it to be honest.

[@xjesusxchristx]

My Finnish step grandmother used to make it all the time! 😂 I find it funny realising today it's kinda a counter culture, and college thing, because I grew up with her view that it was just an "old country brew" that everyone she knew would probably make.

[@NestaSimbaSauti]

@@xjesusxchristx Europe is one big moonshiner town lol So no doubt You might think that way. Cheers.

[@CitySteadingBrews]

This isn’t moonshine at all. It’s fermented not distilled.

[@MaunoKoivistoOfficial]

As a Finn, I literally burst out laughing at your thumbnail. Traditionally kilju is made by highschoolers using empty juice bottles (Mehukatti brand being the most authentic choice, IMO). Having that highbrow a packaging for this beverage is intrinsically hilarious.

[@CitySteadingBrews]

Sure, that’s where it comes from but… why couldn’t it be more? :)

[@leohuxtable439]

@@CitySteadingBrews Guessing because you might as well be making wine if you're willing to take your time and spend an extra 50c per bottle. Kilju is traditionally used to make Finnish moonshine. On it's own I've never heard anyone drinking it besides teenagers or alcoholics. It's about as revered in Finland as Pruno is in US.

[@johnpeiredaquavoii2213]

@@leohuxtable439 I'm making some pruno right now!

[@NikoMikkanen]

Yeah, basic kilju is just sugar, water and yeast, but that's just opening a gigantic door to a whole world of kilju. If you're short on yeast, use bread. If you're short on sugar, use bananas or apples. Kilju has always been a way to make alcohol out of anything available, and "punk kilju" (as in the punk rock music lifestyle) is a whole chapter of it's own. So adding taste to kilju is perfectly accectable. If it produces alcohol through fermentation in the corner of your bathroom, it's kilju. And the only thing that's ever made me sicker than kilju was the night I discovered tequila in my early 20s...

[@CitySteadingBrews]

I may have to quote you!

[@Pyhantaakka]

False, I was brewing some fine imperial stout in my student apartment (kept it in the shared bathroom).

[@just_jouni]

This is accurate. Orange juice + turbo yeast was a popular combo within the high school age delinquents population of my town back in the day..

[@YuckFoutube-e1z]

Oven temps kill yeast.

[@John-mz6ig]

What doesn't Kilju only makes you stronger.

[@CitySteadingBrews]

Exactly.

[@cuchulainnmurphy8729]

😂😂😂

[@kimberlyharris4360]

Can I get that on a t-shirt please??! 😁

[@jusas1]

Greetings from Finland. I have done lots of kiljus in my life and have few tips. Add 100-500g of raisins in the mix helps with fermentation and not too expensive to "screw up" main idea of kilju. You can use a "raisin bomb" to restart fermentation, add put sugar, raisins and yeast to a other container and let it start fermentation for 4-12 hours and add to kilju. And in my mind you can add what ever you want to kilju, but only if its cheap. Main idea of kilju is that its cheap and high in alcohol. I like to use some kind of citrus or ginger for example. Love your channel btw!

[@lukehahn4489]

i made this without knowing what it was called, maybe i'm a Finn at heart. sugar-water-yeast, left it on the water heater for a week, cold crashed, carefully poured off the the good stuff and added a packet of lemon-lime koolaid. Ambrosia!

[@pekka1971]

My friends and I were 15 years old. We left the kilju to ferment in an anthill for 2 weeks. We went on a nature trip at night. It was fun, even if we threw up.

[@poika22]

This review does a good job capturing the essence of kilju, which is that no one really thinks it's better than... any other drink really, but it's a whole lot better than nothing to drink.

[@alexlarsen6413]

Lol, this brings me back!! This isn't just a Finnish thing. Thing is, alcohol is abnormally expensive in all nordic countries. Norwegians buy booze in Sweden and the Swedes come to Denmark which is the cheapest, but still way more expensive than the rest of Europe. Also, the yeast used to do this is usually some type of turbo yeast strain that can chew through anything...basically the distiller's yeast already mixed with DAP and other nutrients in their original packaging.

[@Paul__Allen]

Ive heard of road trips to Estonia to stock up

[@alexlarsen6413]

@@Paul__Allen Yeah, from Finland to Estonia on ferries

[@msai257]

@@Paul__Allen Yeah, it's so widespread it makes the Estonian alcohol consumption statistics look bad :/ And then even Estonians are going to Latvia, and Latvians to Lithuania, and Lithuanians to Belarus...

[@mihaelfajt293]

oh yeah alcohol is so cheap in estern europe so people here just buy it, i've never heard of anyone making their own, except if it's an actual hobby

[@miningboi4207]

@@mihaelfajt293 don't they make rakija in many eastern european countries? or wine

[@Necrospunk]

This video takes me back. We were poor high schoolers but we liked to party, so we whipped up a 30 litre batch with sugar, fresh bread yeast and pear flavored "Mehukatti" juice concentrate. Halfway to the brew our buddies mom (who was kind enough to lend her closet to let it ferment) had told my buddy something akin to "you boys have no idea what you're doing", dumped some turbo yeast or similar in with some more sugar. In a total of two weeks we had a taste of it, raw with no mixers. I can remember me downing my second glass, a buddy of mine having grapes in his butt crack as a joke of some kind and then waking up with vomit all over my bed. Good times!

[@johnpeiredaquavoii2213]

Do you think fast-acting yeast is turbo yeast?

[@Necrospunk]

@@johnpeiredaquavoii2213 fast acting dry yeast I think

[@Necrospunk]

@@johnpeiredaquavoii2213 and for the love of all thats holy please do not try to replicate it

[@siprus]

Adding some nutrients for yeast is correct in my experiance. In finland it's usually done by adding Brown sugar (sugar with syrup mixed in). Finnish alchol law used to be that you aren't allowed to make alcohol only from sugar, but you had to had enough fruits to "effect the taste". And kilju is spesfically type of alcohol generally not in compliance of that law. Often a single raisin is added as half a joke, so you can say "there is fruit in there as well".

[@RaDeus87]

Ah yes, the single raisin in alcohol, aka Finnish summer soup 😂

[@DelPlays]

Honestly, that single raisin tends to be my favorite thing to eat.. Also supposedly it's there to tell you when the drink is ready based on how bloated it is. But I'm not an expert on the subject

[@Sir_Baddington]

My dad made kilju by brewing rosehip tea and adding sugar and bakers yeast in that. It was pretty good.

[@billdevany3303]

I make this as my primary drink of choice. I make 5 gallons at a time using 8 to 10 lbs of sugar and 2 oz turbo yeast. 4 to 6 days later its ready to drink! I brew in a stainless steel keg with a tap an inch off the bottom. no air lock, just a small hole at the top. no racking needed. I have made hundreds of gallons and never had a stall, oxidation or contamination issue.

[@snowandcoal]

Man it's been two decades since I had Kilju. This is nostalgic.

[@Sefhen]

One buddy of mine made making Kilju into a science in his University days, he used coffee filters and active charcoal to clean out all the crap from it and that was left from fermentation, it was a clear liquid with a slight black tint and it was strong enough to give a warm feeling in your stomach. I think he sold it for 2 euros for 1,5 liters so when you get a couple of 1 liter orange juices and extra empty 1,5 liter bottle, you've got a fun night drinking outside and probably not so fun day after talking norwegian with your toilet.

[@cuchulainnmurphy8729]

@icankillbugsROFLMAO!!! 😂

[@wizandoz]

It is so strange to watch you guys actually make a proper enjoyable drink out of it. In my student days here in Finland kilju was made just to get drunk dirt cheap and "flavoring" was just to hide the awful sugarwatery yeast taste - neve thought anyone could actually drink it for its taste. But bravo to you, well done.

[@lougriffiths]

Same in the uk

[@1andonlyMiro]

I'm new to your channel, but if you haven't tried making "Sima", which is also a traditional Finnish, somewhat alcoholic, beverage consumed around Easter, you could really like it. It's simple, fairly fast to make, pretty hard to mess up and tastes just lovely. It CAN be made with more alcohol, it is usually made for kids but often more for adults as well by adding more yeast/sugar/time. I personally really like it. Basically lemons, brown sugar, white sugar, (sometimes dark syrup and/or honey) water, yeast, time, bottled + raisins (when the raisins rise to the top it is ready at least for kids), time, done. Sparkly. Delicious. Refreshing.

[@ItsMeTrist]

So, basically mead with raisins and lemons.

[@mtsanri]

I think they have made "Skeeter Pee", which to me looked like an American equivalent of Sima

[@CitySteadingBrews]

Sort of…

[@frogjunk]

I made a kilju, it ended up high abv around 16% but sweet, so I added ginger and lime. Tastes really good.

[@per-olamjomark7452]

Did not know about this fine tradition, although I am not surprised. Finns have always been inventive when it comes to these things.😃 In neighbouring Sweden we call this concoction 'mäsk' - and it is best known for giving you a terrible hangover. Not least because of the fusel oils. (I think.)

[@Ataraxis99]

A little tip from my beer brewing/country wine experience. Check your water hardness and monitor pH during fermentation. If your water is soft then add some kind of buffering agent before fermenting. Some calcium carbonate does wonders to keep the pH above 3-3.5 and will prevent stuck fermentation due to soft water👍

[@mrwalter1049]

Interesting since Finland has generally very hard water. Especially in houses out in the sticks that have groundwater wells.

[@Tunkkis]

​@@mrwalter1049Quite the opposite, water in Finland is generally soft.

[@jyrki2275]

​@@Tunkkisluulis toisin. Sen verta kalkkiset suihkun lattiat ja muut sellaset

[@rullywinkle]

I never thought to make it; but I appreciate the idea of a simple wine for infusions. Really cool idea.

[@GodBroly]

Honestly Ive watched you guys for YEARS like since the first super simple cyser when it was in the kitchen lol I have made many of your brews but this is honestly one of the best recipes because this is one of those brews that basically anyone can do and anyone can make taste anyway they want almost perfectly which to ME is the true heart and soul of home brewing making something that tastes exactly the way you want.

[@CitySteadingBrews]

I agree. Thank you for watching us all this time!

[@rastimo229]

I was a teen in the early 80's, we made kilju with friends. Then, in early 90's as young adults we moved on to fancier stuff, "Home wine packages". Those even tasted fairly okay, even though a lot of white sugar was involved. After '95 and EU, alcohol got somewhat cheaper, and one could bring cheap booze from "the south". So that pretty much ended this national hobby 😄

[@kala1780]

Alcohol didn't to my knowledge get cheaper, but we got more wealthy as a nation due to our country properly entering global markets and EU benefits of less tarifs and tolls etc. So it was relatively cheaper to our wealth level.

[@erebys21]

Wait, y'all come down to Estonia for cheap alcohol? Why don't y'all just cut out the middleman and go straight to Latvia?

[@kala1780]

@@erebys21 Distance and convenience... it's only a 2-3 hour ferry ride to Tallin if you live near Helsinki. I mean some "professionals" may take the ferry to tallin and drive to latvia to buy booze and then go back, but I think most people value their time more than the money saving they may get for spending all that extra time (and fuel) going all the way to Latvia.

[@TitaniusAnglesmith]

Don't worry, me and my homies continued the tradition in early 2010s sweden.

[@kapteenikosmos]

Im from Finland and I have been making kilju for over 15years now (way longer if i count what we managed to produce in our teenage years with my friend) at first it was because i was poor student and later i just noticed that i save way more money per month if i just keep drinking kilju and its pretty good now. I usually just use water, sugar and turbo/fast yeast to make it fast and strong and then use some sort of concentrated juice for flavor. Theres nothing wrong with mixing it to make it down easier :P

[@anxietyfox4322]

When I was a student, we made this in a bucket under my friends bed or in the bathroom. Plastic bucket, sugar, turbo yeast, water and most importantly; frozen orange juice. It has to be frozen or it won't work. Put everything in a bucket with a lid and an airlock, leave it sealed, and when it stops bubbling it's done. It should taste like an orange fanta, bubbles and all. Tastes pretty nice actually. It'll get you drunk too.

[@sauravbasu8805]

Real juice or the packaged juice ? Why does it not work if not frozen ?

[@anxietyfox4322]

@@sauravbasu8805 the orange juice we used was packaged from the store, not fresh, and the legend goes that they add stuff to it to make it not work. It's supposed to stop the process of converting sugars to alcohol. That might not be true, maybe it's just an urban legend, but fresh orange juice can spoil in the vat for sure. It's better imo to use a packaged juice ready to drink and just freeze it overnight. You don't want goopy moldy kilju!

[@329icepeak]

Recipe for no problem kilju. OG 1083 FG 988 Golden slap sugar 1lb Water 1700ml Fermaid o 2.5g EC1118 2.5g Forget about it for 9 months and it will taste like a very dry white wine. Happy brewing and thank you for a awesome show.

[@VilleSarmiola]

Commenting on the flavouring of Kilju. One of my favorite recipes is soaking some Twinings "four red fruits" tea bags in. They give the drink a mild berry flavour and also a nice reddish color. Then serve the drink cold with lots of ice.

[@rscottmccoy]

Earlier videos where you discussed what a stall was and how to fix it helped me save my Birch Beer this year that I'm making for my family reunion, so thanks again and know that your advice is appreciated.

[@CitySteadingBrews]

Happy to have helped!

[@midlifecrisis2988]

It did the same thing for my Vikingsblod

[@justskip4595]

"Will this work? Eh, lets try it." Is definitely what students do. What you happen to have at hand and what is cheap are great qualities. You could also try making Pyttipannu sometime if you want to experiment with food.

[@vituixman1912]

Thank you for great video. I feel like time travelling to my student times. In that time it was illegal to made kilju, but of course illegal things can be interesting. We add to kilju some potatoes. Sometimes oranges too. In my student box I made table from empty cardboard box. Many people written poets, made music etc. beautiful things there. Basic things make people happy. ❤

[@moonwater13]

I really appreciate you showing us all the ways you get a stall going. Thanks!

[@chrisnotaperson8127]

my wife and I use left over hard candy from christmas to make a basically sugar wine. We use 3 lbs of candy per gallon of water and melt the candy on the stove in the water before finishing it off with the rest of the water. We've done at least 3 batches over the years now and the last batch we used the root beer and wintergreen and spearmint candies with a yeast that's often used to make rums. That last batch is interesting in flavor. I'm hoping that at 2 years it will have mellowed into something really nice but the more standard ones we've fermented with champagne yeast come out really good after 12 months of sitting around.

[@DG_427]

I am really impressed with your pronunciation of kilju, Finnish pronunciation can be really difficult for foreigners.

[@CitySteadingBrews]

Thanks. A few have said it really is said with a j sound? Any ideas?

[@DG_427]

@@CitySteadingBrews You pronounced it near perfectly, if someone is saying otherwise they don't know what they are talking about. I should know, I'm Finnish. :)

[@Rubberduck-tx2bh]

Did you happen to check the PH after the 1st stall event? Sugar ferments tend to crash quite hard (think

[@CitySteadingBrews]

It's possible was a pH issue. 3.5-4.5pH is ideal for most yeast.

[@BigEdsGuns]

@@CitySteadingBrews ^^^ Duck is correct. The Ph dropped and it stalled. Another option to self correct Ph are Marble Chips. A Bag of "white rocks" you can get at any garden center. In a small batch sugar wash like that, just drop in 5 to 6 small marble rocks at the beginning. When the Ph drops below 4.5 the chips dissolve and keeps the Ph above 4.5. If the Ph does NOT DROP, nothing happens to the chips and they just sit there. If you are paranoid about using dirty chips, boil them in water for a couple minutes. Don't put Marble chips in sanitizer, they will slowly dissolve if left in it for a long period of time.

[@xjesusxchristx]

My Finnish step grandmother used to make it in full 6 gallon carboys, use a distiller's yeast, the peels of 12 lemons(2 per gallon), an orange cut in half(a wedge per gallon), a handful of raisins, half a cup of molasses, and oat malt. She left Finland during early WWII, and always called hers traditional. The additions were mostly for nutrients, in her viewpoint, and a hint of complexity, and would often mix it into freshly made lemonade to drink. She would sometimes use a sourdough starter instead of brewer's, saying that's how her father would make it - but she preferred distiller's or high tolerance ale yeasts for flavour, reliability, and less likely to stall. In spring she'd often add young birch shoots or twigs for flavour, and in fall she'd use Spruce or pine needles for a winter brew.

[@sasiuru]

That sounds lot like a kotikalja (home beer). Reciepe sounded first as an "sima" due raisins, but molasses are for kotikalja. Sima is made from water, yeast, sugar, cane sugar and lemon. And raisins are added to sima when you bottle sima.

[@shake544]

nowadays that might be called hard sima and drunk around easter or 1st of May to get that spring feeling going...

[@xjesusxchristx]

@@shake544 Nice! Sure did get that spring feeling flowing! hahaha. She's no longer with us - I've been thinking about trying to recreate what you used to do!

[@xjesusxchristx]

Her English was sometimes broken, especially when she was translating a distinctly Finnish concept. She also sometimes just called it "Farmer's Beer", so I think you probably nailed it.

[@garyblore1]

I used to make something like this back in my student days. I got a 5 litre bottle of water, poured out half a litre. Add the juice of half a lemon, a sachet of wine yeast and 1kg of sugar, shake it up to dissolve the sugar. Leave the top of the bottle undone enough for the gas to escape. After a week add another 1kg of sugar and shake it up. Then leave the bottle with the top undone enough for the gas to escape for another week. We would then drink it adding cordial for flavouring.

[@drmike5507]

I made a version of this when you guys did the mojito version a while back. instead of lime, i ended up adding half a bottle of Ocean Spray 100% cranberry. It delicious. I keep flip top's of it in the fridge and its super refreshing. Thank you for the constant inspiration in creating new brews.

[@izonker]

You mean to tell us that it's not ..Finnish-ed yet??

[@CitySteadingBrews]

Lol

[@robbytheremin2443]

(Groan)

[@MaaZeus]

Dad, get out of my internet!

[@izonker]

@@MaaZeus Never! I was here first, LOL.

[@chelleyroberts]

Dad jokes followed by pantheon/deity jokes. This gets better and better

[@valveillen]

I never knew anyone in university who wanted to make kilju, but this would have been a cool experience! Just trying out different flavours with it. Alcohol is pretty expensive in Finland, so I'm not surprised about people making kilju even today! Very interesting video!

[@Legion_One3]

I've started another kilju, 2 weeks in, 7% so far and still lightly bubbling. Made with 1.5kg Demerara sugar-4 litres warm ish water and Young's super wine yeast compound🤙🏻

[@sauhamm3821]

paper and pen... that made the old timer in me smile. like when people say "tape" when they're talking about a digital recording :) you two are pure entertainment, thanks! edit - so entertaining in fact we had a literal 'mic drop' during the performance! #bravo

[@CitySteadingBrews]

Glad you liked it!

[@IxTwistyy]

I will always remember the story my grandpa told about his army days. Whenever they were going for a longer excercise camp, 5+ days, he and his mates would put a kilju to brew during it and they'd drink it afterwards. This was in the mid 60's

[@Heraclitean]

I love the idea that sugar wine is a uniquely Finnish thing.

[@overi9949]

As a Former kilju-expert i can confirm that it's not made for the flavour but for the effect :D also "Turbo-yeast" is usually used because it will fermant 6kg's of sugar almost in 24 hours, after that you place 25L kilju-bucket it in a cold place so the fermantation will stop, then you wait for few weeks and enjoy :D

[@CitySteadingBrews]

Cold doesn’t actually stop fermentation but I see your point :)

@@CitySteadingBrews context matters, "a cold place" in Finland refers to near or negative centigrade numbers

[@CitySteadingBrews]

Still doesn’t stop fermentation permanently.

[@porcomalo]

as a former kilju expert i wonder who has the time to wait for a few weeks to dig in the kilju bucket? you put the brew on tuesday and on friday you're getting smashed with your best mates. 5/5 investment.

[@tomsbrewing1]

I wish I'd known about this when I was in college. Better than some of the beer we were able to get. Good video guys! Thanks.

[@mefirstyoulater]

Having worked with sugar washes multiple times, if you don't give them a lot of help early on, they frequently stall out. I think the missing ingredient in your wash was magnesium. Yeasts tend to like trace amounts. They can usually pull what they need from whatever they're fermenting. However, in a sugar wash, there just isn't any to use, and the fermaid doesn't have it either. I always do a wet starter for sugar washes. Every time I've added the yeast directly to the sugar wash, it stalls on me, even if all the other ingredients are the same. So I mix together a few ounces of warm wash, yeast nutrient, a quarter teaspoon of Epsom salts, and a healthy dose of distillers yeast. (Adding the epsom should give it all the magnesium it's lacking) At 2lbs sugar per gallon, it runs dry in about a week every time i've done it that way.

[@walterwhths]

I love this concept. I’m gathering the equipment to do this right and can’t wait to start.

[@saumcbatonrouge8798]

Tried out this recipe with similar results… OG was 1.092… Stalled at 1.050… Added yeast hulls 1st, then later 1/2 tsp bread yeast to get it started again… Eventually went down to 1.016… Added 6 oz dried mandarin oranges and let sit for 11 days… Made a wonderfully smooth, not too tart orange wine at 1.026…

[@thebytespider]

My understanding is that it does typically take many weeks to ferment and only when you use Turbo yeasts it can be done in a few days

[@rogersartandsolutions5074]

I'm wondering if doing it with bread yeast will yield different results. Also a fun, quick Wild Fermentation you can may want to try if you liked Kombucha is Tepache. It's a Mexican fermented Pineapple beverage that you use the skins(the source of the bacteria and yeast) and some of the pineapple to make a probiotic drink. Ingredients are a whole pineapple, 250g brown sugar/piloncillo, and a cinnamon stick. Takes about 2-4 days for it to ferment and about 1-2 days for it to carbonate, then you refrigerate it. After it is chilled you can drink it. If you try to drink it not chilled after it carbonated it will spew everywhere.

[@marcusmoonstein242]

During the Covid lockdown the sale of alcohol became illegal in my country for about six months. This ban also included all home brewing supplies. First thing I did was go down to the supermarket for some "food supplies". I came back with a 2.5kg bag of white sugar, 4L of apple juice, and 2 sachets of baking yeast. (They even took all the brewers yeast off the supermarket shelves!). Mixed all ingredients in my brewing pot with 10L of water, decanted into my fermenter and left for two weeks. I ended up with a (sort of) dry cider of about 10.5% ABV. Made the lockdown much more tolerable. I went on to experiment with other fruit juices and even golden syrup, and regularly got ABV's of around 10% to 11.5%. The taste was surprisingly good if you left it to mature for about three months, but it seldom lasted that long. Conclusion : bread yeast totally works for home brewing, BUT you can't get the ABV higher than about 11.5% before it dies on you.

[@r2db]

Bread yeast has a very low alcohol tolerance. It would have stalled even earlier than the wine yeast that was used.

[@CitySteadingBrews]

12% is pretty typical for us.

[@rogersartandsolutions5074]

@@r2db I get 12% regularly with bread yeast. The reason I said bread yeast may yield different results is that it is bred to make more CO2 so maybe it has more of a tolerance to the CO2 that is made.

[@CitySteadingBrews]

It does not make any more or less co2. It’s a chemical thing. All yeast create roughly equal amounts of alcohol and co2. There’s nothing in the sugars to create more co2 and less ethanol and vice versa :)

[@RePetesBees]

Great content you two! Recently found your channel and have just been watching one vid after another. Love this style video, start of product to end of product, all in one video. No multi month long cliff hangers. Keep up the great work!

[@CitySteadingBrews]

Thanks for watching!

[@SuperRenegadex]

About to start my journey on brewing and your channel has taught me so much. Such a lovely and wholesome couple with alot of brewing knowledge.

[@CitySteadingBrews]

Happy to help!

[@beatnik6806]

I think it's has more of a reputation to being a drunkards drink than college kids drink I think 🤔 it's commonly made on huge 10-25l containers, use turbo yeast and you can start drinking the day after tomorrow 😂 and be drunk for a long time for just a couple of euros. Awesome video btw, and most effort I've ever seen someone put into kilju 👍🏻 first your video I've seen and I'm going to watch more now!

[@Caprifool]

As a Scandinavian (Swede) this is one of your best and most relatable video's. ❤ The lets put some of this in, and some of this....hey, what about licorice? Or grandmas rhubarb cordial? Anything for some flavour. 😏🤭

[@MrWaco63]

My 1st thought when you started flavoring the Kilju was the water flavor packs that sell so well now. (Big fan of the Mango Punch) Served over ice....... not going to last to long LOL. Thank you both for another great video.

[@CitySteadingBrews]

Sure, that should work fine.

[@hotlavatube]

Neat. I'm reminded of those bochet brews you made. I know you can caramelize sugar dry in a pan, which would probably exchange some fermentability for flavor. It'd be interesting to caramelize some sugar and ferment a kilju-type brew with that. It wouldn't be the neutral-flavored mixer kilju is known for, but it might produce some interesting caramel flavors.

[@GermanBrew]

I liked the mojito kilju Video from 2019 (I think) I also made it then after the Video. It was delicious too. 😅😂. Also you made me start Homebrewing Not only do I now have my own brewing channel I also plan to start a meadery as a side business. So thanks for everything

[@CitySteadingBrews]

You are welcome!

[@eddavanleemputten9232]

I really hope those meadery plans get off the ground and flourish. Especially now that you’ve moved. 😊 With a little bit of luck, my employer’s next meeting for the DACH territories will be in your area. If it does, I hope you’ll be open to meeting over a glass of mead, cider, beer or Glühwein (depending on season etc). I’ll bring a sample or two of my product if you’re willing.

[@GermanBrew]

@@eddavanleemputten9232 sure just contact me early enough. Because my new job also needs a lot traveling. The meadery starts just small. 10l for a colleague and his friends 😂

[@eddavanleemputten9232]

@@GermanBrew - I’ll be sure to contact you the second I know. As for the meadery: fingers crossed! It’s a start and there’s no knowing where it’ll take you. I really hope for you that it’ll lead to great things!

[@AdamFranklin500]

They done a superb job with the Mojito Kilju

[@pleviaka]

Another Finn here - deeply touched by this, thank you.

[@CitySteadingBrews]

You are welcome. It’s nice that some have fond memories of kilju. Many have been telling us kilju has to be disgusting to be kilju… I just don’t get it.

[@pleviaka]

@@CitySteadingBrews around 99% of kilju made is done by people (kids) who don't know what they're doing, this quickly lends to "has to be disgusting" type of romanticism. The point is: cheap, has alcohol, flavor it with whatever you can/want to get it down - you guys were right on the mark and your batch was beautiful.

[@miksologia]

I'm from Finland. I read an article recently saying that cherry is one of Finlands least favorite flavors for just about anything (lemonade, juice. yogurt, desserts (incl. pie) etc). Therefore I suspect you won't get many people trying the cherry flavored kilju.

[@CitySteadingBrews]

Ok.

[@sonjaimmonen6610]

I found it quite hilarious, that they decided to go with cherry flavour, because that is like the most un-Finnish flavour choice. Cherry just isn't a popular flavour here. But on the other hand, kilju has a tradition of being mixed with anything that covers up the yeastiness, so there are no wrong answers in that sense.

[@CitySteadingBrews]

In the truest sense of Kilju flavoring… we had it available :)

[@TK-rs9lq]

Excellent chaos energy reminescent of some university shenanigans! I was supposed to go to bed at Late Enough To Be Early o'clock but here I am, watching Muricans make kilju and reminding me that I forgot to make Finnish mead/fermented lemonade for May Day...

[@stalwartlenny9883]

Now that you have made proper kilju, i think you could do some experiments with it. I have always thought of kilju as an decent base for experimenting with different flavours as it is a very "neutral" and "basic" wine. So it would be cool to see you make more kilju, for example something similar to that orange kilju i told you guys about back last year i think.

[@DukeNauticus]

Oh man, talk about a trip down the memory lane. Me and a handful of my friends used to make Kilju back when were were students like, 17 years ago, in what must have been like a 15 gallon bucket. Everyone would chip in to buy a bunch of yeast and both white and brown sugar, as well as other stuff to flavor it with occasionally, and given how much we made, everyone that chipped in would then have free access to come and fill bottles with the stuff whenever they wanted. During the warm summer, we'd make it in this old abandoned shack at the nearby field and during winter, we'd do it in my friend's basement in hopes that his parents wouldn't find out. We didn't really let it ferment for more than a week, two at most, and I can fully admit most of the batches didn't taste too good, but it did give you that nice buzz, as long as you could drink enough without getting queasy and ending up on the toilet, ahah.

[@Nudgeworth]

After making mojito kilju last year, I made plain kilju with hardy champagne yeast. I ended up mixing it with homemade Lemon squash. It was unbelievably delicious!!

[@Nudgeworth]

We opened our last bottle of Mojito kilju a month ago. It was lovely, smooth and minty. It was well worth keeping it for a while year and a half.

[@AvogadroAvogadro]

Love watching your program, very informative for newbie wine enthusiast. Thank you.

[@CitySteadingBrews]

Thank you for watching. Glad you enjoy it :)

[@jamesvatter5729]

Now that was different. This sounded like a great idea offering a better option than dilution to top off after racking. The crazy time it took to brew it and not being totally dry gives me pause though.

[@CitySteadingBrews]

It isn't always that long, lol

[@rachellemazar7374]

What a precious collection of extract, ❤️the wheel idea.

[@internetexplorer1057]

The best ad in Finland I've ever seen was a local store advertising sugar for 1Kg for 1€. It said "Niin halpaa että tekee mieli kiljua". It can translate to: "So cheap you want to scream" or "So cheap you want to drink kilju."

[@kubakielbasa5987]

It's a completely different language family so if you know it and indo-european languages(descending from proto-indo-european) you're smarter than an average bilingual. Or at least you put in more work.

[@MasentunutMuki]

That lemon and honey kilju is simular to "sima", finnish May day non alcoholic drink. And I use my own kilju in homemade vanilla extract

[@angelvazquez4457]

Great video as usual. Looks like the Mr's was getting 🤏🏾 tipsy. You guys are great..silly..geeky with great movie quotes..love it..👏🏾👏🏾

[@squidcaps4308]

I don't think i've ever drank kilju that has been fermenting more than two weeks... But, ours always had some fruit or berries in it...When you do it from just sugar, it is easy to distill too, without danger.. ;) And if you put some toasted oak sticks in the moonshine and let it sit for couple of weeks, shaking it a few times and filtering it really well.. It comes out... amazing.

[@TheRealFOSFOR]

We made kilju (or something similar) when we were still under aged... our most memorable version was flavoring it with pear fruit juice, of the brand "mehukatti". We put everything in the bucket at the same time and let it bubble away for a week or two. The result was a really amusing green liquid, that was also pretty tasty. The real bummer of kilju is the awful taste of yeast.

[@_Naaraaja]

Mehukatti is the way. Aint nothing more proper than good 'ol mehukatti bottles filled with kilju.

[@NiVoldiza]

Ei maistu hiiva, kun ei juo raakana :D. Oon aina ihmetelly miks kukaan ei annan kiljujensa käydä loppuun.

[@veryrancid3128]

Mehukatti is the way to go😅

[@Tunkkis]

​@@NiVoldizaKellä on aikaa kärsivällisyydelle, kun voi sen sijaan juoda alkomaholia?

[@StillFunBrewing]

Love the 5th element reference! Then at the end you hit us in the face with Ghostbusters! Just great.

[@CitySteadingBrews]

Glad you liked it!

[@mitesh8utube]

Kilju (sugarwash) will always stall if water doesn't have enough buffering capacity, which some spring waters or well waters have, but most purified water doesn't. It's due to pH crash. Easiest way to avoid pH crash is adding seashells at the start of fermentation itself. Seashells will dissolve as much as it's required to balance the pH. pH crash happens within few hours or days of starting fermentation. If everything goes right, sugarwash will ferment dry even with bread yeast within a week.

[@mil-fpv4931]

Now I understand why she sells seashells by the seashore. Learn a new thing everyday!

[@Coaltergeist]

You want to make sure no mold grows in this brew or else it could Kilju. If you want to add any flavorings make sure Helsinki to the bottom of the carboy. Also, you could make it Finnish dry but it won't be as sweet. Oh, and when you're siphoning you can do it while you're sitting down if you put the destination vessel in your Lapland.

[@Max_Snellink]

ABT Above Blood Temperature is now a thing ❤😂

[@CitySteadingBrews]

Lol

[@MrOj53]

This is what we make homemade. In Sweden I got hold of a recipe for sugar beer, it is made with raw cane sugar and hops

[@astonsuperreal]

We have turbo and super etc. yeasts that we use, they have nutrients in them so no rules broken.

[@oecherclips2711]

Experimenting on brews at the moment, seems i unintentionally made Kilju with caramelized sugar last week. Temperature dropped today, so now i know it'll probably take a break fermenting. Thanks for the heads up =)

[@colinmacvicar2507]

If you invert the sugar first by heating it up with water and then adding some citric acid it will help fermentation. And you’ll get a cleaner taste (if that’s what you’re looking for). That’s what I do when I make my hard seltzers. I also flavour them with Olivenation which I find a little goes a long way. You might have been over doing some of those flavours.

[@Hacker-at-Large]

I suspect pH is most of the problem. A pH of 5.2 to 5.4 is ideal for most yeasts.

[@CitySteadingBrews]

Actually much lower, more like 3.7-4. But yeah pH might still be the problem.

[@Sibula]

@@Hacker-at-Large 5.2 to 5.4 is optimal for mashing grains, so that's probably where you got that number from. The optimal pH for fermentation is kinda hard to figure out, since it depends on so many variables (temperature, oxygenation, and especially yeast strain, probably other stuff as well), and also the phase of fermentation. For the first phase where the yeast multiplies the optimum is more like 5.5, while for the actual fermentation it's closer to 4 I think.

[@jantschierschky3461]

Citric acid removes oxygen, also you don't want pH too low. I also would use natural cane or white beet sugar.

[@R4lliS0puli]

you're right that we don't measure anything, but we usually do fermentation in a 25-liter container. usually 4-6 kg of sugar and a bag of turbo yeast. starts to almost immediately and has become dry in about a week. then juice concentrates are mixed into it. but Kilju is rarely managed to be bright. it's a really good kilju if you don't get a stomach bug. and if you put berriers fermentation container its home made wine but it´s still kilju 😂

[@kennylovesfishing]

Try adjusting your pH down to around four right before you pitch the yeast. Our well water comes out of the tap at about seven so every time I tried this, it would stall. Once I figured out that PH was the culprit. I am now finishing in 4 to 5 days to complete dry. .

[@CitySteadingBrews]

That makes sense actually. We're used to honey or juices that get the acidity down.

[@trustn01rs]

A really cool experiment for you guys would be to caramelize some sugar and use that to make kilju and see what it would be like

[@arghapirate2427]

Last year I made the Mojito kilju, still half 0.5 liter. It's briljant with this how weather. My only mistake is I made not enough.

[@GEInman]

Thanks for doing the experimentation, so I Don't Have To! I tried the kilju recipe you presented, and pretty much got the same results.I tried your tea wine recipe and got Better Results. So, I'm sticking to Tea Wine. I appreciate your hard work!

[@CitySteadingBrews]

Hope you enjoy

[@grappler99]

Love the video, question - can this sugar wash be made with corn sugar instead of table sugar? Would this create a different taste for this brew? Thanks again for another great video, love you guys

[@CitySteadingBrews]

I've not done it, but it should work, yes.

[@josephstaton4820]

I've made this a bunch of times over the years using Fleischmann's bread yeast and Fermax nutrient. When the fermentation stalls, I add a teaspoon of Red Star DADY to restart the fermentation. The last time I made it, I flavored it with a coupla packs of True Lime watermelon limeaide. Right now I'm brewing a coupla gallons of Tapuy.

[@nowgray1]

I use pulp free orange juice in my Kilju it gives me a screwdriver vibe.

[@CitySteadingBrews]

Nice!

[@GraddFil]

When i was teen and in my early 20´s ( on my 40`s now) we used to put some raisins in kilju to give yeast a "home". seemed to work quite nicely.

[@CitySteadingBrews]

They really just add some flavor :)

[@msai257]

I think kilju is a lot more widespread than just Finland, we just put a name on it. Also to soothe your worries, the drinking age in Finland is 18 and general college-starting age is 19, so all good and legal on than front. Alcohol is just super expensive because of taxes, and kind of a nuisance to get sometimes because of various sales restrictions. If you want to get super Finnish with the flavouring though, try salmiakki (salty liqourice). It masks the taste of kilju really well, but then the flavour of salmiakki isn't generally enjoyed outside of the Nordics :D

[@drakelazerus]

You guys are just great. I am a beginner and I appreciate your humor and sharing your knowledge!

[@CitySteadingBrews]

Happy to help!

[@damiku-8866]

This was a helpful video. I'm currently making a gallon of tea wine that I started on April 22 with 6 teabags of generic black tea and 2.25 lbs of white sugar that has been going steadily now for about 7 weeks. It didn't really stall, it's been bubbling away steadily that entire time. I added some Fermaid-O and was thinking about adding some more yeast (originally used EC-1118). But it's now down to 1.010 and still bubbling and I think it's finally nearing completion. The strange thing was I had a strawberry preserve mead at the same time that also took forever but seemed to finished at 1.010 so I bottled it without incident so far. Most of my brews are done in 2-3 weeks so having these two basically go for months was bizarre.

[@frankmueller2781]

How do you know when you've shaken it enough that 'bejesus' has left the must? 😁

[@CitySteadingBrews]

It’s mostly just mixing :)

[@rachellemazar7374]

OK, this is a brew made by college students during long Finnish winters, I’m thinking trying to replicate it in your wonderful Florida spring climate maybe an exercise in futility. I admire your experiments with this sort of neutral spirit, it is fun.

[@saddletramp1979]

"Give the Yeast a chance." should be on a shirt.

[@romanbanias2218]

It's all we are saying, after all

[@ml.2770]

The problem with sugar brews is they need way more nutrients than just Fermaid O at wine or cider addition rates. Nutri2 is designed for sugar washes and has a usage rate in line with the increased needs of such a nutrient poor substrate. It'll ferment out quick. You can still use Fermaid O, just try 4-5 times normal.

[@dbrockway84]

What's it missing? It's not that type of show😂....you'd have to pay extra for that!

[@samamies88]

About mead and kilju: finnish people make this drink called "sima", especially around nordic holiday called vappu (in finnish or vappen in swedish). This drink often is made with sugar, but rarely also from honey. And it has bit of lemons and optionally raisins. Problem tho: honey mead uses same word "sima" as this other drink which kinda just is kilju with some lemon (with maybe honey and/or raisins) mixed in. Hearing your rant about naming conventions at the end of video made me nod my head in agreement ^^ (Also yes, on video that lemon juice + honey mix with kilju is kinda close to what we call sima aka mead.. altho the finnish sima has honey and lemon added during brewing, not after - but the taste should be similar).

[@bleichlaufstorung3905]

in my summer car it feels easier

[@CitySteadingBrews]

Yeah, I would think it'd be easier in a video game, lol.