What’s In Your Beer? Brewers Use Superfoods and Fruit Powders in New Focus On Health
The year 2020 marked an ever-increasing awareness of wellness and health, particularly when it comes to the foods we eat and the beverages we drink. Recent months inspired a growing focus on simple home cooking, renewed enthusiasm for brain foods and superfoods, and a shift toward mindful eating. These trends do not always manifest in the ways you might expect, however.
In fact, 2020 took a surprising turn when a growing number of brewers began incorporating fresh fruits, super foods, and nutrient-packed fruit powders into their craft beers.
Learn about the process and reception so far, and learn why wholesale super food options make craft beers, wines, and other brews markedly healthier.
Idaho Breweries Break New Ground With Fruit Powder-Infused Beers
Slanted Rock Brewing Company began adding fruit powders to its beers in 2016. It was the first brewery in Idaho to do it, and the move received plenty of praise from the brewery’s customers.
According to Brewmaster Bob Lonseth, one of his priorities was to craft excellent, high caliber fruit beers. To meet that end, Lonseth insists fruit beers still taste like beer and uses only the highest quality ingredients. That is where fruit powders come in.
“The powders are 100% fruit with no artificial colors or preservatives,” The Washington Times writes. What’s more, there are several different fruit powders available. Lonseth is personally experimenting with blackberry powders, plum powders, cherry powders, and more. For example, one of his signature brews is called the “Señor Jalapeacho.” The brew combines peach fruit powder with a spicy kick from fresh jalapenos.
Slanted Rock Brewing Company continues to embrace fruit powders for their craft beers, thanks to their many benefits. By using fruit powders, the company does not have to worry about refrigerating fresh fruit or fruit purees or them going bad. In fact, fruit powders last a year or more at room temperature.
The average restaurant or dining establishment may purchase wholesale super foods to work into their menu items. Lonseth and Slanted Rock Brewing Company are taking it one step further by using some of these same ingredients in their craft brews.
Can Beer Be a Super Food?
The staff at Sufferfest Beer Company certainly thinks so. The company prides itself on brewing “a better-for-you kind of superfood beer,” The Manual reports. Sufferfest mixes it up by adding real, wholesale super foods and nutrient-dense ingredients to their beers.
For example, the Repeat Kolsch contains bee pollen, “which has been proven to act as an antifungal, antiviral, anti-inflammatory, and overall immune-system boosting food,” The Manual continues. The beer is low-alcohol (3.5%), low-calorie, and low-carb, and high in protein as well, making it the perfect option for the health-conscious. Plus, unlike some healthier craft brews, Sufferfest is committed to crafting healthier beers that do not sacrifice flavor.
More Breweries Catch On to the Trend
Slanted Rock Brewing Company and Sufferfest Beer Company are not the only ones inspired by adding wholesale super foods and wholesome ingredients to their beers. Other companies, like Houston, Texas’s Karbach Brewing Co., Boulevard Brewing Co., and the Dogfish Head Brewery are kicking things up a notch by adding wholesome ingredients like sea salt, magnesium, turmeric, potassium, and even electrolytes to their brews. The idea is to target athletes, fitness enthusiasts, and other populations who take extra care when it comes to their health.
In 2020, people nationwide are doing their best to eat healthily and to choose foods and drinks with better ingredients. Brewing companies are making it even easier by adding fruit powders and super foods to their beers, making it possible to indulge while being mindful of nutrition.