Hard Seltzer

From various fruits to coconut and cacao nibs, Phase Three in Lake Zurich, Illinois, takes a pragmatic approach to using a wide range of flavor adjuncts. Here, cofounder and head brewer Shaun Berns goes into deep detail on their philosophy and process, ingredient by ingredient.

Smooj lit up the craft beverage world in 2020, its thick fruit-puree approach a stark counterpoint to more minimalist seltzer offerings. In this episode, head brewer Nick Panchamé gets into the methods behind the fruit-heavy madness, and into new experiments with hop-forward beers.

Levi Funk of Untitled Art and Funk Factory Geuzeria discusses the challenges smaller breweries and homebrewers face in packing real-fruit flavors—safely—into their hard seltzers and other beverages.

Hard seltzers and similar flavored beverages have never been so popular. It’s worth taking a clear-eyed look at the processes and flavorings upon which they rely. Randy Mosher takes us behind the curtain.

Brewmaster Phil Markowski of Connecticut’s Two Roads is known for a methodical approach to wild and sour beers—but he’s embraced hard seltzer as a drink that has its time and place. Here, he discusses the development of their H2Roads hard seltzer.

The rising interest in hard seltzer and other not-so-beery beverages has led to new looks at existing gear in the brewhouse—as well as investments in equipment or partnerships that could have wider benefits.

If your hard seltzer fermentation gets sluggish toward the end, there are things you can do—such as check and adjust pH—and there are things you shouldn’t do. Chris Colby explains.

Chris Colby lays out specific suggestions for ensuring the clean fermentation of a sugar wash, from yeast-pitching rates and aeration to the surprisingly wide variety of yeast strains that can do the job.

Tulsa’s American Solera began with a serious devotion to coolships and mixed fermentation. It has since leaned with abandon into hazy IPAs, big adjunct stouts, fruited foeder lagers, and ... pumpkin seltzer?

Yeast love to eat sugar, and a sugar wash has it—but unlike wort, it doesn’t have the nutrients that yeast need to grow. In this video tip, Chris Colby walks us through the necessary additions as well as the options on what yeast strain to use.

Are you ready for the challenge? Chris Colby leads this full video course on the ins and outs of brewing hard seltzer at home—from the technical difficulty of making a clean, sparkling base to adding flavors, and much more.

Here are a few standouts from the rapidly evolving world of fruit-forward fermented beverages.

Here’s a basic recipe for homebrewed hard seltzer—a blank canvas for an infinite variety of flavorings.

Hard seltzer isn’t hard to make—unless you want to do it well. Like all the pro brewers across the country who went from turning up their noses at the stuff to embracing its popularity, you too can do the same crowd-pleasing 180° in your home brewery.

Beer? No. Craft? Yes. These drinks outside the beer space have grown exponentially over the past year. They’re hitting their stride. From the sublime to the absurd—and from cider to mead via seltzer and kombucha—here are some of our favorites.

The cofounder and editorial director of Craft Beer & Brewing Magazine® has traveled the country from coast to coast, talking to brewers and tasting their beer. Here’s a selection of highlights of his past year of beer.

Levi Funk follows two seemingly contradictory brewing philosophies—the hardcore traditionalism of Funk Factory Guezeria, and the boundary-pushing experimentalism of Untitled Art.

The author of the new Brewers Publications book "How to Make Hard Seltzer" joins the podcast to talk about the best ways for brewers to dive into the sparkling world of this skyrocketing beverage.

This inline system is designed to make hard seltzer out of the beer that brewers are already producing. As a bonus, it can facilitate low- or non-alcoholic beer without loss of taste or quality.

Kyle Matthias is assistant brewmaster of pilot brewing at Deschutes Brewery in Bend, Oregon. He oversees a production calendar of about 140 brews per year on the brewery’s 3.5-barrel pilot system. The potential for learning is immense.