Homebrewers are tackling hard seltzers. But the reasons behind this endeavor aren’t necessarily related to taste or turning a drinking craze into a craft product.
As reported by VinePair, the $4 billon and growing hard seltzer market was pretty much launched early last decade by Nick Shields, who came from a beer legacy and utilized a brewed alcohol base in his original SpikedSeltzer (now Bon & Viv) canned cocktail. So there’s a lot of crossover between the two worlds already — and plenty of craft breweries have dipped their toes into the hard seltzer market, albeit utilizing local ingredients and trying to create a more artisan product.
Homebrewers, meanwhile, have flocked to the subreddit r/Homebrewing for advice and discussion on turning their DIY expertise into creating their own hard seltzers, and some homebrewing stores are even offering kits, like this Truly Hard Seltzer Pomegranate Clone. There’s even a how-to book and, of course, YouTube videos.
Still, there doesn’t seem to be a greater point to this (for now) other than proving you can do it. As VinePair writer Tim McKirdy notes, “If you do spend some time in these threads, it’s possible you will eventually be hit with the same realization I was — that homebrewing hard seltzer seems somewhat contradictory in nature.” It’s essentially a lot of effort to achieve something that most homebrewers probably wouldn’t drink normally (although their friends and family might).
“Homebrewers are willing to try anything,” as homebrewer David Buchanan told VinePair. “And if they get that itch, they want to scratch it.”
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