“I came at the whole seltzer thing kind of like an asshole,” says Evan Price, cofounder and head brewer at Green Cheek Beer in Orange, California.
Here’s what Price means by that: He figured that with his years of brewing experience and a trophy case full of GABF and World Beer Cup accolades, brewing a neutral base would be a cinch. He was wrong. It took a humbling year of research and development before Price was happy enough with the product—Le Squawk Hard Seltzer—to launch the brand. “We made some fart bombs,” he says, “and we dumped batch after batch.”