(Bloomberg) -- Claw might be the law, but the numbers back it up: Hard seltzer was the drink of the summer.

At the end of July, UBS projected an annual growth rate of 66%, taking the $550 million market to $2.5 billion by 2021. Truly Hard Seltzer is now Boston Beer Co.’s largest product, constituting more than one-third of the Sam Adams maker’s retail sales. Together, Truly and arch competitor White Claw command 85% of the market for hard seltzer, a low-alcohol, “malternative” rival to beer. 

In fact, White Claw was almost too popular—the company faced a shortage at the beginning of September. Anheuser-Busch InBev SA/NV, for one, has doubled down on the trend, extending from Bon & Viv (which it acquired in 2016) to Natural Light, going from cheap college beer to cheap, boozy water with mango-peach and cherry-lime flavors; a Bud Light seltzer is in the works. According to Nielsen, hard seltzer sales have grown 200% in the prior year this August, with July alone delivering 164.3% of that growth. 

But with flavors that are predominately light and bright—all berry and citrus, finely tuned for hot weather and memes and mindless drinking, a White Claw summer doesn’t lead to sweater-weather satisfaction.

Cape Cod-based Willie’s Superbrew is here to change that. Like the rest of the category, its seltzers fit the low-calorie, low-carb, and gluten-free lifestyle of its millennial evangelists, with a sessionable 4.5% alcohol by volume that’s able to get you sneaky drunk.  

But unlike most of the category, Willie’s uses real fruit juices and spices—no “natural” (aka synthetic) flavors or artificial sweeteners—and ferments for an end product that has a bolder body and a slight kombucha-like tang. On first sip, you might not even recognize it as hard seltzer. It has a completely different vibe.

The brand has four flavors—including the first seasonal hard seltzer, Pear & Cinnamon—but in taste tests our favorite is Ginger & Lemon. Still light and bright, its sweetness is more sophisticated, with an earthy spice that goes down especially well at this time of year. Mixing it with whiskey or mezcal wouldn’t be out of the question. (The company’s designated seasonal is a nice try, but conjured up wet, fall-scented candles and weak apple strudel.)

We’re not alone in liking it: Willie’s Superbrew won a people’s choice award at Fizz Fight, a hard seltzer contest and festival whose inaugural run came in Denver in September. A can of Ginger & Lemon comes in at 120 calories and eight grams of sugar. It has six ingredients: water, alcohol, ginger, brown sugar, lemon concentrate, and turmeric. It’s crisp and fresh, like a day spent admiring fall foliage.

“There may be a lot of hard seltzer brands, but they’re almost indistinguishable from each other,”  says Bruce Downs, head of marketing at Willie’s Superbrew. “We wanted to prove that hard seltzers can be year-round.”

 

To contact the author of this story: Alexis Benveniste in New York at abenveniste1@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Justin Ocean at jocean1@bloomberg.net

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