Kilju () is the Finnish word for home made alcoholic beverage typically made of sugar, yeast, and water.
The ABV is around 15–17%, and since it does not contain a sweet reserve it is completely dry. Crude fermented water may be distilled to moonshine. Kilju for consumption is clarified to avoid wine fault, it is a flax-colored liquid with no discernible taste other than that of ethanol; an alcoholic beverage used as an ethanol base for drink mixers.
Cultural aspects
Kilju is considered to be a low-quality beverage that is consumed mainly for the sake of its alcohol content. It is commonly associated with the punk subculture.
Due to its low cost, potential wine fault (when not clarified enough), and simple production process, kilju is mostly drunk by low-income people.
Kilju is a well-established part of the Finnish alcohol and counter-culture, as witnessed even in the leading engineer school's making-and-use-of video of yore. "Four thousand litres of gases are generated. They are led to the neighbours' delight." The drink tends to invite such black humour, of the deadpan kind.
The first commercially produced kilju was introduced in 2022.
Production
The process is similar to that of homebrewing wine. If done slowly, it requires rigorous hygiene and filtering of the product. If brewed fast, specialized dried yeasts are available in amounts to drive the fermentation process through before bacterial infiltration can take place, in about three days. In Finnish the latter are called pikahiiva (lit. quick-yeast), and they are sold in about a hundred gramme packs dry, as opposed to the live standard pack of brewer's yeast of 50g wet.
Properly made kilju is a clear, colorless or off-white liquid with no discernible taste other than that of ethanol. It can be produced by natural settling of the yeast over time, but nowadays various fining agents are used to hasten the process as well.
Kilju is often produced improperly by home brewers who allow contaminants to disrupt fermentation or do not adequately filter or rack the liquid, or do not use a fining agent. The latter mistakes result in yeast being suspended, causing the mixture to be cloudy rather than clear. The yeast is not harmful, but can yield an unpleasant taste and intestinal discomfort. It is also a common mistake to leave the carbon dioxide produced by fermentation into the suspension, so that the yeast provides it with nucleation sites, keeping the yeast up in the solution. Proper technique calls for airing the product after fermentation, stirring, and perhaps for fining agents such as microsilica or various semipolar proteinaceacous or carbohydrate agents.
Ingredients
An easy way to produce fermented water is to obtain turbo yeast kits (contains Saccharomyces cerevisiae yeast strain, enzymes, vitamins, and minerals) that instructs on the package the quantity of white sugar, and tap water needed.
Inverted sugar syrup
Water
Sugars in wine: White sugar (or crystallized sucrose) is cheap and common. Also, partial refined sugar like brown sugar should be avoided, for example molasses produces a distinct flavor in rum. Yeast in winemaking: The most common yeast associated with winemaking is Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Saccharomyces cerevisiae is excellent at producing ethanol. Yeast are dependent on a few nutrients (often included in yeast kit sanchets) to produce as much ethanol as possible, the most important ones are: Invertase is an enzyme that cleaves the glycosidic linkage between the glucose and fructose molecules in sucrose. This helps the yeast metabolize the sugars faster. Thiamine: Increases the resistance of the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae against oxidative, osmotic and thermal stress. Yeast assimilable nitrogen (YAN), is the combination of free amino nitrogen (FAN), ammonia (NH3) and ammonium (NH4+) that is available for the wine yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae to use during fermentation. Outside the sugars in wine, nitrogen is the most important nutrient needed to carry out a successful fermentation that doesn't end prior to the intended point of dryness or sees the development of off-odors and related wine faults.
Inverted sugar syrup
Inverted sugar syrup for fermented water is usually home-made by fully dissolving sugar in cold tap water. Yeast requires oxygen rich water that do not exceed 25 degrees Celsius.
A common manual way to dissolve refined sugar is to mix with water in a container which is half filled, and then sealed and shaken. However, a mixer or blender may be used to automatically dissolve the sugar, in turns, if necessary.