Great South Bay Brewery Joins The Hard Seltzer Market

BAY SHORE, NY — Great South Bay Brewery in Bay Shore is hopping on the hard seltzer craze. Summer 2019 saw sales of White Claw and other spiked-seltzer brands quadruple as the boozy carbonated beverages became popular. Now, local breweries like Great South Bay are creating their own small batch, craft variety of the beverage.

"We pride ourselves on being a brewery that can brew anything," said Zachary Popp, a sales representative for the company. "Great South Bay Brewery has a long traditional of winning awards as we have won 18 awards [in] a large variety of different styles. So when we saw the seltzer market blow up we thought, why not bring a seltzer to the Long Island market that is locally produced, and of the highest quality."

The product, called Spike, will be available at the brewery's tasting room at 25 Drexel Dr. with new and different flavors available periodically for tasting. And just like craft beer, the process of making a hard seltzer is unique to each producer.

"It may be a surprise to a lot of people but it's extremely difficult to produce a craft seltzer to the quality that the mainstream companies do. The mainstream companies are using fermented cane sugar, while we are still using a malt base product. We also don't use any artificial flavoring of any sort like some of the big companies do. That gives us what we believe to be an advantage in terms of overall taste profile," Popp told Patch.

The spiked seltzer will be available in draft for local restaurants and bars by mid-March, he estimates. The canned Spike drinks, which are 6% alcohol by volume, will be sold at beer distributors in variety flavor packs for $15.99 for a 12-pack. Can flavors include Sour Cherry, Watermelon, Pineapple and Sparking Lemonade, while a new on-tap flavor at the tasting room is called Mixed Berry.