ASHEVILLE – Devil's Foot Beverage Company, the Asheville-based maker of farm-to-can craft sodas and beverages, has announced a dramatic expansion of their Full Fruit Life program, which allows other food and beverage makers to source organic zest, spent fruit, and spent ginger pulp directly from Devil’s Foot. After the Devil’s Foot team cleans and juices the fruit (or ginger root) for their farm-to-can craft sodas, they vacuum-seal and freeze the remaining zest, ginger pulp, or spent fruit. Participating partners in the Full Fruit Life Program currently include Asheville Tea Company, Archetype Brewing, Burial Beer, Eda Rhyne Distillery, DSSOLVR, Green Man Brewery, and Well-Seasoned Table. 

Alongside the opening of their new production facility (Fall 2022), a new high-capacity zesting machine has enabled the Devil’s Foot team to dramatically expand their farm-to-can craft soda production as well as their sustainability programs. The Devil’s Foot team acquired the zester at the end of 2021, but before then, had been painstakingly zesting citrus fruit by hand. On a recent morning’s canning run, the new zester processed four cases of fruit in an hour and a half to produce well over 10 lbs. of fresh zest.

 Asheville Tea Company is Devil’s Foot’s longest running Full Fruit Life partner. “These types of collaborations really mean a lot to me, and they make running a beverage business in Asheville so unique,” says Jessie Dean, Founder & CEO of Asheville Tea Company. “We have worked with Devil’s Foot since 2020 and we absolutely love this partnership. By using citrus zest from the fruit that goes into their sodas, we are able to reduce food waste while simultaneously creating a super fresh product. We use the organic lemon and lime peels for several of our tea blends, taking the fresh product and dehydrating it in-house. For example, lemon zest makes its way into our seasonal Lavender Limoncello and Spiced Apple Butter blends, and the lime peel has been used in ‘G & Tea,’ our gin & tonic-inspired tea blend.” 

Kyle McKenzie, Head of Brewing at Green Man Brewery, has discovered specific advantages to sourcing zest from Devil’s Foot. “Usually brewers source dehydrated citrus peel, which is  fine, but it has to soak up the beer and then impart its flavor. When I use fresh zest from Devil’s Foot, it immediately releases oils, and the aroma and fruit character are much more intense and fresh.” Green Man started sourcing organic lime and lemon zest from Devil’s Foot in Fall 2022 to use in a series of lagers. 

Archetype Brewing has also worked with secondary fruit from Devil’s Foot this year. Their particular innovation was to take a small batch of their Thicc Rick stout and let it rest on spent blueberries, sourced from the brewing process of Devil’s Foot Blueberry Lemonade. The resulting brew is currently on tap at The Mule, Devil’s Foot Beverages’ taproom. “One of our biggest goals at Archetype is sustainability,” says Gaines Myer, Chief Operating Officer at Archetype Brewing. “Part of this is doing our best to use as many locally-sourced ingredients as much as possible in our processes. So, once Ben reached out and told us that they had spent fruit available, we jumped at the opportunity to give the life of that fruit one more turn in some of our beer before it goes into the compost. We have utilized their Blueberry skins in a stout and are currently experimenting with some other fruits and zests that we have gotten from them. It's very exciting for us to be able to find another local resource to utilize and help continue to strive for sustainability in the brewing industry.” 

Sarah Wickers, founder and CEO at Asheville spice shop Well-Seasoned Table, also cites the opportunity for sustainable sourcing as a big benefit: “There is so much waste in our society, and we are thrilled to work with Devil's Foot to upcycle waste-stream ingredients and turn them into deliciously unique seasonings, infused salts & sugars, and herbal teas. We use the ginger pulp in our Spiced Gingerbread Sugar Dust and Dark Chocolate Figgy Pudding Tea. The lemon zest goes into our Appalachian Lemon Sea Salt, Tropical Tango Tea, Blue Ridge Sugar, and Elderberry Lemon Tea. We add lime zest to our Cuban Seasoning. And the blueberry mash goes into our Blue Ridge Sugar and Fruits & Blooms Tea. We are honored to use such incredible ingredients from such a socially & environmentally-conscious local company.” 

Additional Full Fruit Program partners include:

• DSSOLVR: The brewery recently announced a new release called “Oath to a Devil,” a Fruited Foeder Berliner that was conditioned on second use SC peach skins from Devil’s Foot Beverages. 
• Burial Beer: Burial Beer has been sourcing organic lime and lemon zest from Devil’s Foot and using it in their brewing processes since Spring 2022.
• Eda Rhyne Distillery: Eda Rhyne has been using organic orange zest from Devil’s Foot as of Winter 2022 in their development of an upcoming release. 

The Devil’s Foot team has also sourced their own ingredients from other food and beverage makers, including recently sourcing apple pomace (pressed apples) from Botanist & Barrel for one of Devil’s Foot’s new releases in 2023. 

“A huge part of our mission from the beginning has been to ‘do more good and less harm’ in all our parts of our business. One way we do this is to reduce waste and extend the goodness of the raw materials we use. By focusing on innovation, sustainability, and collaboration, we’ve been able to build partnerships with these awesome food and beverage makers who are helping us make big strides toward those goals,” says Ben Colvin, co-founder and president of Devil’s Foot Beverages. “Now that we’re in our new production facility, we not only have room to grow into new product lines and small-batch innovative styles, but we’re also able to dramatically expand our sustainability efforts, collaborations, and our Full Fruit Life program.”

About Devil’s Foot Beverage Company

Launched in 2017 by a group of friends in Asheville, NC, Devil’s Foot Beverage Company produces a full line of farm-to-can craft sodas using local and organic roots and fruits. Sweetened with real fruit, regionally sourced honey, and organic cane sugar, each Devil’s Foot soda has 18 grams or less of sugar per can. A member of Conservation Alliance, Devil’s Foot is committed to creating sustainable solutions for every step of the production process, including re-homing the byproducts of the soda-making process, as well as collaborative local sourcing and supporting community-oriented non-profits. In  2022 Devil’s Foot Beverages opened their taproom, The Mule, which is geared towards NA-inclusive craft brewing and celebratory gatherings. Craft sodas made by Devil’s Foot Beverages can be found throughout the Carolinas,  Georgia, and Alabama. Follow Devil’s Foot on social media at @DevilsFootBrew and shop Devil’s Foot online or find a retailer near you at DevilsFootBrew.com.

Source: Devil's Foot Beverage Company