Hard Seltzer

[Pillsburyjoboy]

Hey all,

My wife has recently fallen in love with canned hard seltzer. Has anyone seen any recipes for any of these? Seems easy enough but would like to confer before attempting.

Would do a five gallon batch with some fresh raspberries.

Thanks,
Pills

 

[Denny]

Buy seltzer, add vodka.

 

[Pillsburyjoboy]

Not the help I was hoping for...

 

[Transamguy77]

You could just do a sugar and water ferment and add the raspberries to the keg. If not kegging add them after 4 or 5 days in primary.

 

[Yooper]

You could just do a sugar and water ferment and add the raspberries to the keg. If not kegging add them after 4 or 5 days in primary.

Yes, but that would taste terrible and not at all like a 'hard seltzer'.

 

[ImNoExpert]

Why not just put a bunch of water into a keg, add the appropriate amount if vodka or everclear to attain the desired level of alcohol, add the artificial flavoring that you want, then carb that bad boy up?

It sounds like the big companies do a sugar and water ferment, but I agree, that sounds gross. I think the trick would be finding a neutral enough yeast. Probably not and ale yeast.

 

[Pillsburyjoboy]

I was thinking of cane sugar and fruit in the ferment and then a red star champagne yeast.

I am only into this for curiosities sake. I very well may try it for the hell of it and then try the other suggestions post failure.

I do appreciate the suggestions.
Pills

 

[Sotty]

My SO has also fallen in love with these. She likes the lemon lime flavored ones. I was planning on trying a half gallon of vodka in a keg with about 4 gallons of water, the combined zest of a couple lemons and few limes. Force carb and serve. If anyone has tried this, I would be interested in the results and/or suggestions.

I do not think you will get that close in flavor with what is basically a sugar wash with some fruit added. The seltzers have a very clean neutral flavor with a hint of flavor that I believe would be very difficult to achieve without using neutral distilled spirits. I would be very interested in your results should you try.

Good Luck

 

[Paps]

I have done asugar wash/sugar wine before.
It's called "Kil-Ju"
Some water, some sugar, some yeast nutrient/energiser & yeast.
EC-1118 is what i used.
Fermed at 65-F and left in in primary for a month if i remember right.
Contrary to the gasps/gripes/moans from people on here ( who coincidentaly have never actually made this stuff)
It does not taste horrible. In fact i found it lacking in flavor at all.
"Watered down vodka without the alcohol burn" is what came to mind when i first tried it and i was expecting it to be horrible but did it as an experiment in brewing. I ended up adding some almond and coffee extracts to give it some flavor and took it to a party where the entire batch was consumed that night. It was only a one gal batch)

Give it a go but i suggest trying a 1-gal batch first with the berries in secondary. If it doesn't turn out how you like it you only have 1-gal & if it IS what you are looking for you can scale up for next time.

As for it tasting like commercial hard seltzer...i doubt it
What Denny described is more than likely how the big companies are making it.

 

[Denny]

Not the help I was hoping for...

I realize that, but that's likely how it's really made.