Brewers are Greening Up Hard Seltzer

Sugaright will offer brewing chemists a more sustainable alternative to water white liquid sugar for use in hard seltzers at the American Society of Brewing Chemists annual meeting to be held in Pittsburg, PA on June 4-6, 2023.

Hard seltzers were the first beverages in the brewery where the majority of the alcohol production is based on fermented sugar, creating what we know as sugarbrews. Additionally, innovation in the space of fermented sugarbrews will likely gain traction as craft brewers, and other innovators, utilize the base product in new products.

Liquid cane sugar, providing a pure unadulterated sweet sucrose profile, is the preferred source of primary sweetener for this product type. However, to provide the industry standard cane sugar, “water white ICUMSA 45”, the cane sugar industry expends additional energy, and creates a significant water waste stream in the refining step alone.

There is now an alternative of a less refined liquid sugar source being used in both the dairy and the soft drink industry that could be utilized in the beer trade for sugarbrews and other brewing needs. With brewers utilizing finishing steps of various polishing, filtration and centrifugation steps, the demand for water white sugar at the start of the process becomes excessive in cost and in environmental impact.

Sugaright, a division of CSC Sugar, provides a more environmental choice for a sugar supply for sugarbrews, or other sucrose brewing needs. Our ICUMSA colored 60 - 350 products provide both significantly better environmental metrics for this raw material, and better economics for the brewery. (Sugaright energy use clocks in at 27.15 kg CO2/MT sugar vs traditional water white granulated sugar consumes 190 kg CO2/MT sugar as reported by Tate & Lyle.)

At the poster session, we will present comparison of data from sugarbrews made with Sugaright 350 liquid cane, Sugaright 60 liquid cane, and a standard water white 45 liquid cane. We will include the in-process fermentation data such as yeast counts, plato drop, pH, and finished product analytics including color and microbiology metrics, along with sensory profiles of all the brews, with and without flavor over adds.

We will also present the environmental benefits of using Sugaright liquid cane sugar, a key characteristic of those millennial buyers who are driving the demand for hard seltzers.

The data will show that brewers now have a lower cost and more sustainable sugar option and innovative brewers are “greening up” their hard seltzers.

Not attending? Please contact us to learn more.