How to make Hard Seltzer with a kit

How to Brew Hard Seltzer The Sugar-Based Method for Sparkling Refreshment

The trend used to be brewing Kombucha, and while brewing beer will chug along, the drinking rage these days appears to be Hard Seltzer. Hard, as in Seltzer with alcohol in it. And some fruit.

Like 'Wild Cherry' because THAT implies a good time when drinking, eh? Well, sure, there are lemon-lime fizzy drinks that give you hangovers that have been on the market for years but... the 'Marketing Team' will tell you that seltzers are perfect as low-calorie, low-carbohydrate alternatives to beer, and are thus ideal for consumers seeking out health-conscious drinking habits.

Aside from marketing spin, seltzer is simply a sparkling drink with added fruit. If you are US based, you might know them as 'White Claw'. A good seltzer is easy to make with a seltzer kit, just as easy as a cider kit or ginger beer.

There are two main ways to make it. One is simply to mix water with spirits, add some flavouring and force CO2 through it (like making a gin from vodka). But that is nowhere near as fun as the Sugar Based Method, where you ferment it yourself.

Sugar Based Method Steps (Using a Kit)

We trust you've sourced a seltzer kit and have read the instructions. Take our guidance below with the knowledge we've done a bit of brewing and that sometimes manufacturer's instructions aren't handy enough for the real world.

1. Heat 2.5 gallons of water in a large pot. You can do this on the stove or use a gas burner.
2. While heating, add 4 pounds of corn sugar (dextrose) to the kettle and stir until dissolved.
3. Bring this solution to the boil for 10 minutes.
4. Cool the mixture. When the 10 minute boil is finished, cool the sugar solution to approximately 70°F (21°C) as rapidly as possible. Beer brewers will often use an immersion chiller at this point, or you can place the brew kettle in an ice bath in your sink.
5. Sanitize your fermenting equipment (we love to use sodium percarbonate). Sanitize the fermenter, lid, airlock, and any spoons.
6. Fill your primary fermenter with 2 gallons of cold water, then pour in the cooled sugar solution.
7. Add more cold water as needed to bring the volume to 5 gallons (approx 23 litres).
8. If you are keen, measure the specific gravity with a hydrometer to determine your potential ABV.
9. Add your yeast once the temperature of the sugar solution is between 60° and 80°F. This is called pitching yeast. It is critical the liquid is cool enough not to kill the yeast.
10. Seal the fermenter drum tightly and add your airlock.
11. Nutrient Schedule (Critical):
    • 24 hours after pitching: Dissolve one nutrient packet in water and add to fermenter.
    • 48 hours after pitching: Add the second nutrient packet.
    • 72 hours after pitching: Add the third nutrient packet.
12. After 1-2 weeks, primary fermentation should be complete. You can now bottle your seltzer. Don't forget to prime with sugar and add the flavor pack included in your kit!

The Science: Why Nutrients Matter

When making beer, malt provides a nutrient-rich environment that helps yeast build strong cell walls and reproduce. Hard seltzer is made from pure sugar and water, which has zero nitrogen or minerals. Without adding Yeast Nutrient (like DAP or Fermaid O) at staged intervals, the yeast will be stressed, resulting in "rotten egg" sulfur smells (H2S) or a stalled fermentation.

Tip: How to Get Crystal Clear Seltzer

Every brewer loves a clear drink. Since seltzer is meant to be sparkling water, haze looks unappealing. Use these beer brewing techniques:

• Cold Crashing: Place the fermenter in a fridge for 48 hours before bottling to force yeast to sink.
• Finings: Use gelatin or Biofine Clear at the end of fermentation to grab floating particles.

Recommended Seltzer Kit

Ready to make your own? Here's a popular kit that's available for order on Amazon:

Video Tutorial

Here's a great video tutorial that you can also follow to make your own seltzer (Raspberry flavour?).

Adding Salt to Beer Brews (& making Gose)

A good beer should be worth its salt 

Some beers even have salt added!

I once had a boss who added table salt to granny smith apples (the green, sour ones) as it made them taste even better, I tried it and she was right. By adding a pinch of salt, it tasted better.

It's the same reason bartenders will rim a glass with salt for a margarita.

Salt in beer is associated with the “rediscovered” German beer style, 'gose'.

The 'gose' can be described as a tart, spicy, wheat style where the salt adds a nice, crisp, briny note to contrast the tart flavors.

 

The reality is you can do all kinds of beer styles with the addition of salt.

• An IP that features toasted coconut and Himalayan pink salt!
• A salted caramel stout!
• A saison featuring roasted sunflower seeds and Outer Banks sea salt!

The world is your oyster, even salted Oyster Stouts work!

Why do you add salt to a beer?

The intended effect of adding salt is to achieve 'beer balance'. It can act as a counter to a beer's bitterness.

However, when we think of salt, we generally think about table salt which is the kind found in the sea, sodium chloride.

But in the science realm, a salt can be many things and such salts can be added to your beer to change the make up.

There are all kinds of salts that can be added to beer though - gypsum salt being

Ultimately, it’s the trace minerals in the salt that are adding the additional flavor.

Salts can also be used to adjust mash pH, which is a crucial element of making good beer for example brewers can use lactic acid to reduce the pH level).

Brulospohy did an experiment to determine the effect on beer and confirmed it can alter taste and aroma - much to a drinker's satisfaction.

So, you add Sodium Chloride (table salt) to a beer to counter a tart taste and you can add all kinds of 'salts' mainly calcium and magnesium based to your beer to achieve a reduction in pH levels.

Make sense? 

'How to brew' has some great guidance on how to use these kinds of salts in your brews. 

To test if your briny addition has achieved ph balance, you'll need to use a pH meter or colour coded pH test strips (the same as Kombucha brewers use). 

When do I add salt to beer brew?

Make your mineral adjustments to your brewing water before mashing and fermentation i.e can be done during the boil. 

If you are making a pale ale, it may not be the salt you are after - you may be on the path of altering the alkalinity of your beer and may wish to consider adding calcium instead of sodium chloride. 

How do I add the salt to my wort?

We suggest you place the desired amount to a glass, add just enough water to dissolve it, and then pour in the beer wort. If you don't dissolve it first it can make the beer foam like crazy.

What is a Gose style beer?

Originating hundreds of years ago in Germany's Goslar region, where the mining town’s mineral-rich water gave the local wheat beer a saline edge, give the sour ale with a sharpness that played well with its twangy, lemony profile.

Modern craft brewers look for new twists on old brews have revived the ale, and it has become somewhat popular again.

Because of the use of coriander and salt, the goes style does not comply with the Reinheitsgebot, the famous German Beer Purity laws - however, it gets a pass due to it being a 'regional speciality brew'.

How do 'oxygen absorption' bottle caps work?

Dedicated brewers will know that beer exposure to oxygen should only occur before fermentation and not after

It's the same with food - oxygen will damage food so that's why many foods are packaged in plastic with 'oxygen scavaging' features - look at potato chips, the bags they come in are filled with nitrogen!

So if you are trying to minimize the amount of oxygen in your bottled beer, mead or wine, you may want to consider using oxygen absorbing caps.

The bottling process can add unwanted oxygen into the beer if you are not careful and too rough with your wort. 

To remediate this you can do things like being careful with your pouring into the bottle and using a bottling wand.

If you want to do more than that, the bottle caps can help remove the oxygen that sits above the surface of the beer and between the bottle cap.

If you are looking to cellar or age your beer, these caps could help you achieve your goal.

Do oxygen bottle caps really work?

Now, let's take a skeptical view of this concept first. 

Do you really need to remove oxygen from the beer bottle?

If you have bottle-conditioned 1000 beers and never had a problem, do you even need to use these crowns?

If you are intending to age beers or extend the hoppiness of your beer, they can certainly give your beer the edge.

The loss of hops aroma can be one of the first signs of oxidation.

In addition, the compounds extracted from hops will can with oxygen, which forms inert compounds that have less aroma and thus a reduction in hop flavor.

Bottle caps which 'scavenge' oxygen from the beer will help prevent or delay this reaction from occurring.

If the food production and beer brewing industries spending millions of dollars doing it, then it surely works.

If you intend to drink your beers quickly, you may not need them.

How do oxygen absorption bottling caps work?

Oxygen-absorbing caps have an internal liner that once activated by water, will absorb oxygen in the headspace of the bottle.

Oxygen absorbing technology is based on oxidation or a combination of one of the following components: iron powder, ascorbic acid, photosensitive polymers, and helpful enzymes (amylase enzyme is really good for brewing actually).

Glucose oxidase is an enzyme that is popular in the elimination of O2 from bottled beer or wine.

The question you need to ask yourself is to what degree do they work and how much of an effect will they have on your beer.

Some brewers think they are only good enough to give worrisome brewers piece of mind!  Given they are only a few cents more per cap, this can make it worth it. 

How do you use oxygen absorbing caps?

These caps activate once you get them wet. 

So once they are capped on, you can invert the beer to wet the inside of the cap and they will stand ready to begin absorbing oxygen. This process starts a day or two after they first get wet. 

>> Side note - if you are adding sugar to your beer bottle at a time, the inversion will make sure no sugar stays in the bottle neck. This is not an issue if you are batch priming the whole wort with sugar)

For clarity, store your brew normally after the inversion.

Many suppliers recommend to not wet or sanitize caps in advance of your bottling session or they will not work correctly. They’ll still close the bottle off from the air like any other cap, but the oxygen-absorbing function will be used up. 

This does mean you can sanitize them just prior to use. 

But that might lead you to ask:

Do I need to sanitize oxygen-absorbing caps?

This author personally no longer sanitizes beer caps. They come out of their bag clean and frankly after 1000s of beers bottled without them, I've never had a problem. 

That said, if it is your standard practice to sanitize caps, then a quick dunk in some Star San is just fine, as long as you do it just prior to bottling and not well in advance. This is because the wetness activates the liner of the cap.

But frankly, we've given up sanitizing beer caps and we've never had any issues - they are kept well clean in bags prior to use.

The choice as the brewer, is always yours!

Check out the range and price on Amazon

↠ Making beer wort

Guide to make really good beer wort for home brewing

When I first started making beer I was totally confused by the word 'wort' that I kept seeing everywhere. 

"Cool your wort quickly!" the internet said. 

Um what?

Well know I know, it's clear that 'beer wort' is the starting point for making beer. It is the amber liquid extracted from malted barley.

In the most basic sense, you can describe the wort as unfermented beer.

Beer makers use the wort as the basis to which start the beer. 

Think of the wort as the base contents of the potion in a witch's cauldron.

As the witch adds 'eye of newt' and other goodies to her potion, the beer maker does the same by adding flavourings and hops to the wort to prepare a solution ready for fermenting. Like a painter needs a well prepared canvas, the wort is the same building block for making great beer. 

So basically then, the wort is just flat beer. 

It's kind of true....

Kinda 

Like making a cake, if you don't use the correct ingredients in the right proportions your cake fails, a wort needs to be properly prepared.

If you are making beer using a beer kit, then your wort is easily made simply by adding the content of the can to the required volume of hot water.

Boom, you have wort. 

You then add to your beer potion, hops, and sugars such as dextrose or a beer enhancer. 

If you're boiling your own wort, it's more complicated. You the one who is in charge of making sure you have all the ingredients and that you boil the hops at the right timings - this is crucial if you are trying for a specific kind of bitterness  - so make sure you have the right gas burner to get your wort to a hot temperature. 

Mashing is required to turn the grains into sugars. The grains a mixed with malt and hot water for an hour or so in a mash tun. When the liquid is ready, it is 'sparged' from the mash and ready to be boiled. 

This is to extract the bittering, flavour and aroma from hops. This is critical if you want your beer to have the characteristics of beer!

The bittering hops are usually boiled in the wort for approximately one hour to one and a half hours. This long boil extracts resins from the hops which provides the bittering.

Near the end of the boil, flavouring hops can be added. Then, if you're fully on your beer brewing game, finishing hops are added last. This part of the wort boil extracts the oils which provide flavour and aroma.

Chill out, man

Once your wort is boiled it's now time to sparge the wort - that means to drain it from the grain mash.

and everything has gone to plan, the wort is chilled very quickly using a wort chiller.

Due to the temperature requirements of yeast, it needs to be at a temperature which will allow it to thrive. If you put your yeast into the extremely hot boiled wort, you will kill the yeast and get flat beer.

It might taste nice but there won't be any alcohol in it either!

Brewers have a tough enough time trying to work out if their beer has fermented properly, so make sure you get that part of your beer brewing right!

Here's some New Zealand classic beer clone wort recipes you might like:

• Steinlager Clone
• Panhead Supercharger Clone

Image credit to Alan Levine via Creative Commons Licence