For the craft beer-minded consumer, picking up a 12-pack of hard seltzer is not necessarily top of mind before heading out to a friend's party. But, once you arrive there, it's hard not to notice that coolers are brimming with flavored, clear, alcoholic water.
Earlier this summer, Christian McMahan, the president of Wachusett Brewing Company in Massachusetts, in an interview with Craft Beer and Brewing's Brewing Industry Guide, talked about why his company moved into the hard-seltzer game with their Nauti Seltzer brand. He said that it's a natural progression that brought us to this point, starting in the 1990s with Zima, MillerCoors's citrus-flavored, crystal-clear malt beverage, which is coming back this summer for a limited time. From there, other beer alternatives came to market (think Smirnoff Ice and Bacardi Breezer), and then cider exploded and faded, and hard soda became the hot new thing. Now it's seltzer.
"It's the hockey stick analogy; it can fall off quickly. So, we don't chase everything," McMahan told the Brewing Industry Guide. "We see what fits for us, and this is a natural place for us to spend some time."