Hard Seltzer

Hard seltzer is sparkling water with alcohol and a light fruit flavour, usually low in sugar or sugar free. It's one of the easiest drinks to make at home because there's no malt, no hops and nothing to age. This collection covers every way to do it, from ready to keg kits and 1 litre U-Fizz mixes to the nutrients and flavour shots for brewing your own seltzer base.

Three ways to make hard seltzer at home

Ready to keg. The Hard Black Paw ready to keg kits come pre-mixed in 9.5L or 19L sizes, in standard or strong strength. Pour into a keg, carbonate and serve. Mango, peach, passionfruit, pine lime and fresh lime are all zero sugar.

DIY / BYO spirits keg kits. The Black Paw and Hard FUKUSODA DIY kits are flavour bases you mix with your own neutral spirit and water, then carbonate. They're zero sugar (under 0.5g of sugar per serve), come in 9.5L and 19L sizes, and suit anyone who already makes a clean vodka-style spirit.

Brew it from scratch. Ferment a simple sugar wash into a clean, neutral base, then flavour it. The Hard Seltzer Packs give you the ingredients for a 19L batch in mango and lime, lemon and lime, or raspberry. Or build it yourself using the steps below.

How to make hard seltzer: the base

1. Dissolve dextrose in warm water and top up to your batch size. As a rough guide, about 2kg of dextrose in 20 litres ferments out to around 5% ABV. Take a gravity reading so you know where you started. Dextrose is in turbo sugar and fermentables.
2. Add a seltzer nutrient. Plain sugar has almost none of the nitrogen and minerals yeast needs, and a starved ferment stalls or throws sulphur and cider-like flavours. Propper Seltzer and DYNAMO 800 are both made for this job.
3. Pitch a clean yeast. Propper Seltzer pairs especially well with Lutra Kveik, a dried yeast with a clean flavour, a wide temperature range and a fast finish.
4. Ferment until the gravity holds steady over a couple of days, usually one to two weeks.
5. Clear it. Cold crash, then rack or filter off the sediment. You want a base that's clear and close to flavourless, because every off note shows through a light seltzer.

Flavouring

Add flavour after fermentation so the yeast doesn't strip it. The Impressence seltzer flavour shots (lemon, mango, peach, yellow peach, pineapple, pine lime, grape, passionfruit and sour apple, plus two-part yuzu and fresh lime) dose straight into a keg or bottling bucket. Add a little, taste, then add more. U-Fizz Natural seltzer mixes turn 50mL into 1 litre, alcoholic with your own spirit base or kept alcohol free.

Carbonating and kegging

Seltzer is usually served fizzier than beer, and it looks and tastes best force carbonated in a keg. Chill the keg first, since cold liquid absorbs CO2 faster, then give it a few days on gas at serving pressure. Any kegerator or kegging setup works as is, and a mini keg suits smaller batches. For a litre at a time, the U-Fizz Carbonator carbonates the VINKA U-Fizz seltzer kits straight in the bottle. To take seltzer to a party or share it, can it with a canning machine. For other mix-and-pour drinks see ready to keg kits.

FAQ

What is hard seltzer made of?

Water, alcohol, flavour and CO2. The alcohol comes either from fermented sugar or from a neutral spirit mixed in. Most of the kits here are zero sugar.

How long does it take to make hard seltzer?

A ready to keg kit only needs carbonating, so a few days. Brewing a base from scratch takes about two to three weeks to ferment and clear, plus carbonation time.

Why does my homemade seltzer taste like cider or rotten eggs?

Almost always stressed yeast. Use a proper seltzer nutrient, ferment at the yeast's recommended temperature and let it finish fully before you flavour it.

Can I make hard seltzer without a keg?

Yes. The U-Fizz system makes 1 litre at a time, or you can bottle a flavoured base, though a keg gives clearer, more even carbonation.