How Hard Soda Is Made: From Malt Base to Finished Drink

Dirty word seltzer! Countering the old adage "better late than never", we’ve entered that awkward, teenage, alcopop phase. Hopefully we’ll grow out of it.

Now, before you blow your digital chops, Australia has a rich history of hard, carbonated malternatives. Arguably the world’s first alcoholic lemonade was brewed in 1993 in South Australia, called Two Dogs. These days, it seems every brewery and their two dogs make some form of non-beery, low abv, easy going, hard something something drink. Say no more, say no more.

There’s many ways to skin a hard beverage; from hard seltzer (seltzer being just carbonated water) to brewed, heavily fruited hard soda. The trade off, without even touching taxation, lies in building texture for calories. Is the goal a pseudo-healthy beer alternative, or a general flavour based, sensorial portfolio extension? Who made beer the king of the brewery, after all.

In extremely general terms, hard seltzers are based on the infusion of a neutral spirit with flavour, which can be anything from fruits to flavourings. The spirit is a vodka like product, distilled from (potentially but not necessarily) a barely dominant wash, although sugarcane and grape based spirits are also popular. The product is diluted with carbonated water and flavours to hit that 5-10% abv type scenario. This can also be brewed, using a neutral mash and yeast, and then filtered after ferment to remove the beer like flavours. The goal is to have a neutral, dry base, and let the fruit or flavourings do the talking.

Our approach, like with beer, is flavour first. So a fully brewed product, with a few not so secret squirrel brewing tricks, was packed with various flavour combos. A little something for everyone, we’ve gone citrus with a Lemon, Lime and Bitters, berries with a Raspberries and Cream, tropical with a Pina Colada and odd, with a Watermelon, Lime and Chilli.