[Visor]

    I got a wild hair to try brewing a hard seltzer - just for gits and shiggles you know- but I'm not having much success finding recipe ideas. I'm thinking corn sugar, water, yeast and nutrients, my specific concern is the nutrient aspect as the "wort" will have zero grain provided nutrients. For the 1st try I plan on a 1 gallon batch with 1# of dextrose & O.G. of ~1.046.

[denny]

Usually it's water, something like vodka, and flavorings

[Robert]

Usually it's water, something like vodka, and flavorings

But those "malternatives" made by companies with a brewers notice like Boston Beer have to be made by some beer-like process as Visor is mulling over.... 

Ages ago, Visor, I made English style "ginger beer,'' akin to many "country wines" like elderflower champagne etc.  The basic process was to boil up some sugar water (plain table sugar) with whatever botanical flavorings, and a healthy dose of yeast nutrient (don't recall the type, the old beer/winemaking shop in the day probably didn't have much of a clue either; I'd think you'd want both the Wyeast sort with vitamins and minerals and some DAP type,) cool and pitch dry beer or wine yeast as desired.  HTH

[denny]

Usually it's water, something like vodka, and flavorings

But those "malternatives" made by companies with a brewers notice like Boston Beer have to be made by some beer-like process as Visor is mulling over.... 

Ages ago, Visor, I made English style "ginger beer,'' akin to many "country wines" like elderflower champagne etc.  The basic process was to boil up some sugar water (plain table sugar) with whatever botanical flavorings, and a healthy dose of yeast nutrient (don't recall the type, the old beer/winemaking shop in the day probably didn't have much of a clue either; I'd think you'd want both the Wyeast sort with vitamins and minerals and some DAP type,) cool and pitch dry beer or wine yeast as desired.  HTH

Yes, but Visor doesn t have the equipment they do.  AFAIK, they make a malt base, then filter it to rwmobbe color and flavor.  To me, it's just not worth it to ferment sugar water.

[Robert]

Usually it's water, something like vodka, and flavorings

But those "malternatives" made by companies with a brewers notice like Boston Beer have to be made by some beer-like process as Visor is mulling over.... 

Ages ago, Visor, I made English style "ginger beer,'' akin to many "country wines" like elderflower champagne etc.  The basic process was to boil up some sugar water (plain table sugar) with whatever botanical flavorings, and a healthy dose of yeast nutrient (don't recall the type, the old beer/winemaking shop in the day probably didn't have much of a clue either; I'd think you'd want both the Wyeast sort with vitamins and minerals and some DAP type,) cool and pitch dry beer or wine yeast as desired.  HTH

Yes, but Visor doesn t have the equipment they do.  AFAIK, they make a malt base, then filter it to rwmobbe color and flavor.  To me, it's just not worth it to ferment sugar water.

Yeah, I can't imagine getting anything as flavor neutral as a selzer base.  Vodka soda and a squeeze of citrus is way easier.  But if anybody tries something like this it'll be interesting to hear about.

[Visor]

   Like I said, I got a wild hair. I am interested for a number of reasons on BREWING hard seltzer, not just making some. I will worry about flavoring it once I get the brewing part figured out. Sugar, water and yeast are easy to figure out, I'm just lacking in expertise on what necessary nutrients will be lacking in an all sugar "wort" [if it's made from corn, which is a grain, then it's beer, right ].
   And Denny, how do you know what kind of tools I have, you been peeking in my garage?  Hell, I could be a trust fund baby [ya, right!].

[Robert]

Well then I think, like I said, you'll need all the nutrients you can get.  Sugar got nuthin.  Wyeast nutrient has minerals, especially zinc, and some other stuff yeast really needs, but not necessarily significant nitrogenous material (malt worts supply their own.)   Cider, mead and wine makers, whose base is deficient in such things, use DAP and amino supplying nutrients (I think Fermaid is a name.)  So I guess I'm guessing, use both nutrients for beer and for cider/mead/wine to be sure the yeasties are happy.  (If I had to guess, the stuff I was sold  way back for the ginger beer was probably marketed to winemakers.  Wasn't much specialized beer stuff in the shops in England 30 years  ago.)   (And throw in one of those wild hairs, maybe an eye of newt.  Can't hurt. )

[joe_meadmaker]

Rob is correct.  What you want to look for is Fermaid K or Fermaid O.  Basically the same thing, but O is the organic version.  Either will have you covered for DAP and nitrogen content.  Fermaid O is what I use in mead making.

[Visor]

   Thanks for the input Rob & Joe, kinda what I figured. I have Fermaid K & Wyeast nutrient, servomyces also but with the Fermaid it is probably redundant, and a lot more expensive. If the combination of Fermaid and WyNut doesn't work I'll have to think of sumpin else.

[Robert]

   Thanks for the input Rob & Joe, kinda what I figured. I have Fermaid K & Wyeast nutrient, servomyces also but with the Fermaid it is probably redundant, and a lot more expensive. If the combination of Fermaid and WyNut doesn't work I'll have to think of sumpin else.

Servomyces only provides zinc, so in terms of redundancy, it's WY nut that makes Servomyces redundant; Fermaid is covering the aminos your malt would bring to a beer wort. 

I never use Servomyces anymore because WY nut has it covered and then some, which I figure is good insurance, and speaking of insurance, for the price of a pack of Servomyces caps I could make a good chunk of my next homeowner's premium. 

[jim.layman@treuhouse.com]

Do I really need PET bottles (@ $4 each) like the recipe suggests?

[denny]

Do I really need PET bottles (@ $4 each) like the recipe suggests?

Just go buy some cheap soda, drink it or dump it, clean the bottles and use those.

[a10t2]

I'd just used a DME base, supplement with sugar, and add amylase enzyme to further increase attenuation. To hit the low-carb specs of the big boys the FG has to be around -1°P.

[Northern_Brewer]

It's worth pointing out that turboyeasts were developed in the UK by one of the predecessor companies of Bevie/Mangrove Jacks back in the 1990s, specifically to make the alcohol for what we know as alcopops. AIUI they brew high-gravity from molasses, and then dilute as required. So the turboyeast not only have all the right nutrients but also some buffering agents to get the molasses solution into the right pH.

I'm not entirely clear as to how hard seltzer differs from alcopops, they seem to be essentially the same thing, but turboyeast would be a great place to start.

[denny]

We did an episode on hard seltzer...https://www.experimentalbrew.com/podcast/brew-files-episode-68-hard-times-seltzer-town