Hard seltzer or flavoured beer: which one to launch first in India

Two drinks, two bases

Flavoured beer starts as beer. Malt, hops, water and yeast make a base, often a light lager or wheat beer. Fruit, juice or flavour is then added. Shandies and radlers mix beer with lemonade or juice. Our guide to flavoured beers and shandies covers the methods.

Hard seltzer starts as sugar. Cane sugar or dextrose is fermented with yeast and nutrients into a neutral alcohol base, which is filtered clean, then flavoured, often sweetened lightly and carbonated. Some producers use a neutral malt base instead. The drinker gets a clear, light drink with little body.

Process and equipment

If you already run a brewery, flavoured beer uses the kit you have. The new skills are fruit handling, flavour dosing and stopping refermentation of the added sugar.

Seltzer looks simple but is not. A sugar wash has almost no nutrients, so the yeast struggles without a good nutrient programme and can throw sulphur and other off flavours. Then the base must be clean enough that it tastes of nothing, which usually means fine filtration and often carbon treatment. Any fault shows, because there is no malt or hop to hide it. Our guide on launching a hard seltzer walks through it.

Licences and classification

This is often the deciding factor. In India each state decides how a drink is classified for excise. Seltzer does not fit neatly everywhere. Depending on the base and the state, a seltzer may be treated as a beer, as a ready to drink beverage or in another category with different duty, licences and retail channels. A malt based flavoured beer usually sits under beer rules, which a brewery already knows.

Before you design a label, ask a licensing consultant how your drink would be classified in every state you plan to sell in. Rules change, so check the current notification.

Cost and shelf life

Sugar is cheaper than malt per unit of alcohol, but seltzer adds costs elsewhere: nutrients, filtration, flavours and longer fermentation if the yeast struggles. Price both on a per litre basis before you assume seltzer is cheaper.

Shelf life differs too. Flavoured beer carries hop and malt compounds that stale with heat and oxygen. Seltzer's risks are citrus flavour fade and microbial spoilage if residual sugar is present without enough protection. Both need cold handling in Indian summers. Both need forced ageing tests before launch.

Think about packaging early. Seltzer is almost always sold in slim cans, so a brewery that only kegs or bottles will need canning capacity or a co-packer. A flavoured beer can go on tap in your own taproom from week one, which gives you cheap, honest feedback before you spend money on packaging.

Who is drinking each one

Flavoured beer appeals to beer drinkers who want something lighter or fruitier. It also suits people who find regular beer too bitter. It sits easily on a brewpub tap list. Fruit beers built on Indian flavours such as mango, kokum, jamun or ginger give a brewery a story that imported drinks cannot copy. The seasonal fruit calendar gives a reason to release a new one every few months.

Seltzer appeals to people who do not think of themselves as beer drinkers. It is often bought for its lightness and clean taste. In India, the seltzer category is still young. Buyers may need to be shown what it is. A flavoured beer, by contrast, is easy to explain in one line.

A simple way to decide

• You run a brewery and want a fast win: launch a flavoured beer or radler on the kit you have.
• Your target drinker does not drink beer: seltzer may be the better fit, if the licensing works in your states.
• You have no plant: compare co-packers for both and let licensing and minimum runs decide.

A common mistake is to choose seltzer for the trend and then struggle with the clean base. Running a few pilot batches of each, tasted blind by your target drinkers, tells you more than any market report. Ask them which they would buy again, not just which they liked.

Common questions

Is hard seltzer cheaper to make than beer?

Sugar costs less than malt per unit of alcohol, but nutrients, filtration and flavour add cost. Compare both on a per litre basis.

Is hard seltzer classed as beer in India?

It depends on the state and on the drink's base. Some states treat it as beer and others as a different category. Check with a licensing consultant.

Why do some hard seltzers smell of sulphur?

A sugar wash has few nutrients, so stressed yeast produces sulphur compounds. A proper nutrient plan and clean fermentation prevent it.

Can a brewery make hard seltzer on its existing kit?

Usually yes for fermentation, though most need extra filtration and careful nutrient dosing to get a clean, neutral base.