What Type Of Alcohol Is Actually In Cans Of Twisted Tea?

If you're not into beer, there's lots of alternative alcoholic beverages on the market, like alcopops, hard seltzers, and for those who aren't into carbonated beverages, spiked teas. One major brand that's been around for a while is Twisted Tea, which is owned by The Boston Beer Company. You'd think that the alcohol in it would be from a neutral spirit similar to vodka, but the website's FAQ section reads, "Twisted Tea is made with real brewed tea, natural flavors and a malt base made from beer."

So the alcohol isn't derived from a distilled spirit, but from a fermented one, which means it was created similarly to beer. If you look carefully at other alcopop-type beverages, you'll find that many of them are also described as malt-based, a fact that's usually displayed on the packaging. But if you sip on your adult drink carefully, you'll notice that there's no actual malty overtones to it. That's because the malt-based alcohol in things like Twisted Tea have been stripped of their original flavor.

This alcoholic malt base can be called a "neutral malt base," where the malt-based ferment is created by a brewer using a wort, which is a liquid derived from the mashing process for making a drink like beer. This process normally imparts flavor, but thanks to modern technology, all those characteristics can be subtracted using a host of methods, like reverse osmosis and carbon filtration. These result in a colorless and flavorless liquid (that contains alcohol) that can then be shaped into whatever the manufacturer wants — like a Twisted Tea.

This isn't to be confused with malt liquor, which is its own category of drink. Malt liquor is just a variety of beer with a high alcohol content (usually over 6%), but instead of relying simply on malted grain, it can contain other ingredients like rice, corn, and types of sugar to bolster its final ABV. It does contain hops as well, but can contain a small amount if none at all. So no, when you're drinking alternative beverages like Twisted Tea, you're not actually drinking malt liquor, but a different drink that uses the same base ingredient.

Of course, none of that applies to Twisted Tea's most recent offering, the 65 proof (or 32.5% ABV) Sweet Tea Whiskey, which is exactly what it sounds like, a blend of brewed tea with a bite of the classic amber spirit. For folks that aren't looking for straight booze, this is a more approachable alternative for straight sipping or mixing.