High-alcohol, flavoured beverage

[Fergmeister]

Hi all, I have been intrigued by the recipe for kilju for a while and have decided that (due to a lack of demijohns) I am going to purchase a 5l bottle of water from sainsburys and use that for brewing some. My only concern is how to go about it; I have seen figures of 15-20% mentioned (the stronger the better) and I was just wondering how best to maximize the performance of the yeast? would I be better off dissolving about 1.5kg of sugar in the water at the start, or adding it little by little? I will be using youngs super yeast compound and I plan to use this stuff as a base for a flavoured schnapps type drink as it is far cheaper than vodka! also, what should I do about an airlock? do I need one or could I get away with just get away with leaving the lid open a bit?

 

[Moley]

Young's SYC already includes some yeast nutrient, but add some more. Also add some citric acid or the juice of a lemon as there's nothing in just sugar and water for the yeasties to get excited about. That sugar level should be fine, all in at the start, net OG 1.108 but you'll get a higher reading if the PET isn't quite filled.

Even if a cap isn't screwed down tight it can still lift slightly under gas pressure and form an effective seal, particularly if the screw thread is wet. Fit an airlock.

 

[Fergmeister]

Thanks moley, going to start this up tomorrow. Another question though, when this has fermented to the abv that it manages to reach will I need to potassium sorbate it in order to stabilize it and help it clear, or would just leaving it a week or so and avoiding the sediment when bottling be enough?

 

[Moley]

Fecked if I know :whistle:


Ah what the hell, I've got a spare PET kicking around the kitchen and I've always got sugar in the cupboard, I'll join you. If I can ferment tomatoes I'm sure I can ferment water, then if I add some fruit juice and blue food colouring I'm sure my daughter will drink it.

 

[LewisA]

Thanks moley, going to start this up tomorrow. Another question though, when this has fermented to the abv that it manages to reach will I need to potassium sorbate it in order to stabilize it and help it clear, or would just leaving it a week or so and avoiding the sediment when bottling be enough?

When I was given a kit, I believe it contained potassium sorbate and many other chemicals. I believe it also contained activated carbon. sorry for the vagueness

 

[Fergmeister]

Lol fair enough, I won't bother. Ye it could be a base for almost any number of 10-20% abv liquers so that's my plan too, lager and cider for me, imitation malibu and limoncello for the other half.

 

[Moley]

Talking of slow starters (Ribena cider), I mixed up a gallon of Kilju early last Friday morning. Even though I added 2 tsps of yeast nutrient, a B1 tablet and 1 tsp each of citric and tartaric acids, by Sunday morning it was only giving 2 BPGPM.

To explain, I have invented a new standard, Bloops Per Gallon Per Minute. It's no good comparing bloop rates of 1 gallon of Kilju against 3 gals of WOW-style vino pinko unless they are equated for volume.

This time yesterday, Kilju (day 3) was up to 7 BPGPM while the pink WOW (day 10) had slowed to 17 BPGPM.

Now I've got the Kilju (day 4) in a 21°C water bath, I can hear it fizzing and it's up to 14 BPGPM. The pink WOW is down to 6.

 

[Fergmeister]

Ah, that's a good standardization! Mine seems to be on about 2-4BPGPM, although its only about 15 degrees in the house as the boiler has died again (second time in 2 weeks!). I have had it near an electric heater most of the time, but it still looks very active, fizzing away like a fresh glass of coke. I pitched my yeast on Friday too and I'm very eager to get this bottled and attempt to flavour it but I aren't going to even check with a hydrometer until its slowed down.
By the way, my hydrometer only goes to 1.130 and the SG was off the scale!

 

[Moley]

By the way, my hydrometer only goes to 1.130 and the SG was off the scale!

How much sugar in what volume?

 

[ingypingy2]

OOOOOOHH!!! I've just discovered the thread about kilju and have endless ideas running about my head right now!!! Moley....with your expertise...I'm sure you are going to be able to answer me this......if I make kilju...I can then add schnapps/liqueur flavourings to make a reasonable high strength but tasty drink can't I???? :grin:

I'm thinking likes of butterscotch schnapps, melanori, coconut, peach etc :)

 

[Moley]

I believe you can, but I've never used any of those flavouring essences myself so I can't advise.

 

[Fergmeister]

I used 3kg sugar in 5litres of water, before topping up to approx 8 litres total. I think it works out at 22.1% so it just depends on when the alcohol kills it off really. I will check the gravity at the end in order to approximate the abv.

Yes ingypingy, that's my plan! Although I am going to stick to essences and actual ingredients as much as I can. I know that this mixed half and half with a bottle of the Monin syrups would be fantastic, but it would half the abv too!

 

[screamlead]

I have made this and its almost stopped fermenting now after 2 months! and its dropped perfectly clear too. As the other thread suggests if you want to use as an alcho coke then dilute to 10ltr from 5ltr then it wont blow your brains out.
Flavourings you can basically add anything but watch out for any with sugar in them as that will trigger fermentation again if you bottle it :shock:
Some are using 'diet coke' from soda stream or any flavour but if its diet it conains sweetners and not pure sugar so wont referment etc.
I cant get those here yet but have got a few like blue bols- aka blue wicked, pomegranete flavour and a green melon flavoured thing too.
I am going to bottle and carbonate mine with a t spoon of sugar and stick in capped beer bottles :

 

[aneray]

This recipe seems very much like the slightly expensive high alcohol kits.

Once fermented and racked, would it be an advantage to add activated food grade charcoal to clean up the leftover bad tastes, smells etc etc.

 

[ingypingy2]

I was thinking I might look into doing some natural flavourings or extracts, but had wondered about the likes of these too :)

http://www.the-home-brew-shop.co.uk/aca ... Range.html

 

[Moley]

I used 3kg sugar in 5litres of water, before topping up to approx 8 litres total. I think it works out at 22.1%

That would be 375g sugar in the litre giving 1.135, so only just off your hydrometer's scale, and potentially around 19% alcohol.

Given the yeasties' obvious lack of enthusiasm for their task I'm already wondering how far they will take it and how long it will take them to get there.

I'm only using a GP yeast compound so charcoal shouldn't be necessary.

 

[Fergmeister]

I'm unsure, it only took about 1.5 litre to top up to 8L (presumably because the sugar displaced the water or something). Either way, that will do me fine! I'm using the Young's Super Yeast compound which I think has Bentonite in it so it should aid clearing, although I may use some wine finings to speed things along.

Oh and I have never seen those mixes before! They look very tempting... I may try using other (cheaper) flavourings this time, although after seeing that butterscotch stuff I may have to order a few bottles.

How good are coffee filters for mild filtering? I plan on filtering, racking and then filtering again before flavouring. I know they relatively poor at the job in comparison with charcoal or a proper water filter, but it's really just to get the main of the sediment out of it.

 

[ingypingy2]

I had just typed schnapps flavourings in google to investigate as a nice man had donated a 25l fv and a whole bag full of bits and pieces to me which had some similar flavourings for creme de menthe and such like....only prob was most of the stuff he gave me (bagfulls of bottles and pots of various brewing stuff) was that most of it was BBE 1999 - 2001 lol!! :) I thought I'd check what was out there now and found the butterscotch!! it will have to be done :) One of those little bottles will do about 1.25L so 4 should do a whole 5L, but I think I'd rather do a gallon of kilju and split into a few flavours to start with :)

 

[Fergmeister]

Haha, nice one!

I was thinking along the lines of a lemoncello recipe that I found lately, which called for 1 litre of vodka and 1 litre of water (resulting in an abv of around 19%). Given that people seem to be able to make a 20% brew for next to nothing, I thought I would rather try that than spend £15+ on a litre of vodka to water down!

For less than the price of that litre of vodka I will have made 7 or 8 litre of differently flavoured kilju to try. Fair enough, it may be ****, but even if it only tastes half decent it is significantly cheaper.

 

[Moley]

I'm unsure, it only took about 1.5 litre to top up to 8L (presumably because the sugar displaced the water or something).

It's called sugar bulking, the volume increase is half a pint per pound and this is why there are hydrometer tables for sugar IN the gallon and sugar ADDED TO the gallon. If you add 2lbs of sugar to 1 gallon of water you will have 9 pints of solution so the gravity would be lower than if you dissolved the sugar and made it up to 1 gallon. I think the conversion is around 600ml per kilo, but I could be wrong.

How good are coffee filters for mild filtering? I plan on filtering, racking and then filtering again before flavouring.

I have never tried them but I would be surprised if they made much difference at all. Yeast cells really are tiny, typically around five thousandths of a mm, so they will get straight through a paper filter. Use finings and time.