This recipe was named after the KISS principle: “Keep It Simple, Sillyhead”. I’ve used it to test out a variety of hops, most recently Medusa.
The recipe produces a nice, light-colored, low-alcohol beer that tastes delicious and gives you a good baseline for comparing hop flavors and aromas. This produces a 5 gallon batch, of approximately 1.040 gravity.
Malt Bill
9 Pounds Weyermann Pilsner
1 Pound Crystal 15
Hop Schedule
0.5 Ounce at 60 minutes
0.5 Ounce at 30 minutes
0.5 Ounce at 15 minutes
0.5 Ounce at 0 minutes
Ferment with your favorite neutral ale yeast.
Pilsner malt may seem like an odd choice, but I like the toasted bread flavor it contributes and slightly more body than plain 2-row. I also find the light crystal malt adds a hint of sweetness without contributing lots of color or strong caramel flavors.
By sticking with what may be considered an old-school hop schedule, I get to see the range of bitterness, flavor, and aroma the hops contribute. Also, by using a set weight of hops, you could brew multiple batches and see how differences in alpha acids affect the flavors and aromas in your beer.
Not Just for Hops
I have also used this recipe as a base for experimenting with different yeasts. I’m particularly fond of a batch made with all cascade hops and fermented with Kveik Hornindal at 80 degrees Fahrenheit.
If you want to experiment with ingredients, find a good base recipe you can get familiar with, adapt it to your tastes, and then try stuff out. Learning can be both fun and delicious!
When I was setting up my kegerator, and looking to add kegs, I remember being confused on why different sizes of new kegs were basically the same price.
Looking at the current prices in December, 2020, Adventures in Homebrewing has 5 gallon, 2.5 gallon, and 1.75 gallon, brand new, ball lock kegs for the same price: $75 (on sale). They also have new 3 gallon kegs for $69, which is weird since the regular price for all 4 sizes is $119.
My Flawed Logic
When I was first getting kegs, I was confused why kegs that were half the size weren’t half the price. Or at least, like 60% of the price.
My assumption was that since they’re so much smaller, there should be a significant price difference.
What’s the Deal?!
I was talking to someone about a different product that this person helped make. But they were talking about how difficult it was to explain why their shirts cost the same amount of money, regardless of size.
They went on to explain that the cost of the material is the smallest part of the cost of producing the shirt. The main expense is the labor needed to precisely cut the pieces, then carefully arrange and sew the pieces together.
This made me realize that the extra 6 inches of a sheet of stainless steel is not the expensive part of producing kegs. The expensive parts are producing the precisely machined holes and threads where the posts and lid attach; making sure the bottom of the keg is shaped correctly so the low spot is where the dip tube lines up; and producing clean, sanitary welds along the seams between the top and bottom of the keg and the sides.
The small amount of extra stainless steel and the extra couple inches of welding along the side don’t cost much more for a 5 gallon keg versus a 1.75 gallon keg.
Buy What You Need
I guess this is a long explanation focusing on the fact that if you want small kegs because you’re splitting batches, or just because that’s the size batch you make, don’t overthink it. Buy the size you need.
Sometimes, I get too focused on getting the best bang for my buck and end up getting something that doesn’t really solve the problem I’m trying to solve. Don’t do that, get the best tool for the job you’re doing.
As homebrewers, we do not need to worry about the same legalities a brewery, distillery, or bar would need to consider. We can do what we want.
Why Does it Matter?
Breweries must produce the alcohol they sell in-house. This means they must create a sugary liquid for yeast to ferment into the alcoholic content of their seltzer.
As a result, a brewery cannot take an alcohol solution produced elsewhere, carbonate it, add flavor, and sell it as hard seltzer.
But We Can
As homebrewers, we have a lot more legal leeway, since we are not selling what we produce. The main benefit of this situation, especially as it pertains to making hard seltzer is that if we have a kegging system (affiliate link), we do not have to produce the alcohol used to make hard seltzer.
Even a tight squeeze lets you use the kegs to their best function.
We can take any neutral-flavored spirit, dilute it to the ABV we want, and force carbonate it like any other keg we put in our kegerator. Primarily, this means we can take vodka at 40% ABV (80 proof) and dilute it down to whatever strength we want. There are also other spirits available, like Everclear 190 Proof (95% ABV), that require less volume to produce the desired strength.
Unfortunately, Everclear 190 Proof is not sold in many states in the USA. Because of its high alcohol content, the 190 proof version can be hard to find, but they do have a lower-ABV versions at 60%, 75.5%, and 189% ABV. However, the 120 Proof version is the most available. Even this will reduce the quantity of spirit needed to make your seltzer by half.
How Much do I Use?
There are formulas available that will walk you through the process of hand-calculating the volume of spirit and the volume of water you will need to produce the seltzer at the desired strength you desire.
But I found a handy calculator that greatly simplifies the calculation for you. Given that most seltzers clock in at 5% ABV, and I have a 2.5 gallon keg, I was curious what it would take to make 2.5 gallons of seltzer using Everclear 120.
The calculation is based on liters, so I put in 9.5 liters as the target volume after dilution, 60% as the actual before dilution, and 5% as the target after dilution.
This handy tool spits out the handy instructions that I need to combine 0.79 liters of spirit at 60% ABV with 8.71 liters of water to produce 9.5 liters of seltzer.
The Simple Version
There you go. Fill that small keg, force carbonate, and you’re all set. You have delicious, unflavored hard seltzer.
Oh, wait, you wanted flavor? Well, you could treat it like my keg of carbonated water and keep an array of Italian soda syrups, fruit juices, and mixers on hand so you can mix up whatever tickles your fancy.
The nice thing about this is that it allows you tailor your beverage to your tastes at the moment you want a drink. Not sweet enough? Just add more of your flavoring.
The Committed Version
If you have a flavor you know you want, there is another option. And if you have 5 gallon kegs rather than 2.5s, there is a simple option just a few clicks away. You just re-run the dilution calculation above so you have a target volume of 19 liters (5 gallons).
This gives you a needed volume of 1.58 liters of spirits at 60% ABV, combined with 17.42 liters of water to produce 19 liters of beverage.
The link above takes you to list of fruit wine base concentrates. They come in 1 gallon jugs and are intended to be diluted to make 5 gallons of wine. One gallon equals 3.79 liters, so you could make 5 gallons of the flavor you desire by combining:
1.58 liters of spirits at 60%
3.79 liters (1 gallon) fruit wine base
13.63 liters of water
And you’re off to seltzer town! This ratio would produce a fairly sweet sweet seltzer, with a similar flavor profile to fruit juice. You may need to play around to find the right combination of what you enjoy.
