Kilju (or is it Kill You?)

A random "brew" experiment: I came across a recipe for Finnish "sugar wine" (Kilju). Basically, this is a cheap, highly alcoholic (around 10-20%) beverage that some people (read: not the classy crowd) make to get buzzed. I figured I would give it a shot but I am not expecting anything spectacular (more likely the opposite). Essentially, it is just water and white sugar with some beer yeast.

Based on the negatives that were listed for this drink, I took some minor precautions: For example, the recipe says to use two washed milk cartons. I am using sanitized glass jugs, since I assume the milk residue may have leeched into the plastic and bacteria would remained. Also, lemons were suggested as flavoring. I chose to use a clementine, since orange flavoring is a bit less harsh. My thoughts: if Kilju has a natural bitter taste, I assume the lemons would only increase that. Finally, I plan to double filter it during transfers (using coffee filters) to remove as much of the yeast as possible - drinking Kilju with yeast remaining supposedly results in serious hangovers and upset stomachs.

I can't say I have a lot of hope for this but, hey, experimenting is the key to finding new styles and flavors. Starting gravity is 1.066 so watch out. Kippis!