Two weeks ago I was at The Wine Factory in New Westminster, to cook a batch of their hard seltzer, which they call “Hard Bubbles“. I selected the Wildberry Hibiscus Lemonade tea infusion flavour. I felt like Walter White from Breaking Bad cooking the batch, which then had to ferment to dry and have the flavour added over a two week period. I had my Hard Bubbles sweetened with monk fruit. I asked for the least sweet amount and it did come out quite dry. You can read about my Hard Bubbles cook-out at this link.
Today I canned the Hard Bubbles. As this is a U-VIN, you do the labeling and disinfecting of the cans, adding the Hard Bubbles to the cans, and then sealing the cans. Each batch makes a total of 23 Litres or about 48 tall cans (473mL) of hard seltzer. It will take you about 1.5 hours to do this process if you are on your own. If you bring along a friend or family member you should be able to have everything done within an hour. Carbon dioxide is added to the tank holding your hard seltzer before you arrive to give it the bubbles.
I opened a can when I arrived at home and you can really taste the wildberry flavour. I did not pick up much of the lemonade. The red colour I think comes a lot from the Hibiscus. You can make your Hard Bubbles as sweet as you want using either sugar or monk fruit, a sugar-free alternative. I have also tried their Strawberry Hibiscus lemonade flavour with a bit more sweetness than my Hard Bubbles, and it was quite tasty. I may go for medium sweetness in the future.
If you are thinking of something to enjoy with friends, casually over the holidays. You have time to make your batch as the whole process takes two weeks.
Give Don Holmsten, owner, a call at 604-540-8907 or email – info@winefactory.ca
Thanks to Don for providing me with this experience at no charge.
