Beverage Formulation

Embedded formulation work that takes your liquid from bench concept to commercial-ready formula — and stays through the first production run.
What This Is

Forward Bev Lab is a beverage formulation consulting practice led by Levi Funk — a beverage entrepreneur who has personally formulated, scaled, and commercialized products across craft beer, hard seltzer, kombucha, RTD cocktails, and functional beverages. Unlike a traditional formulation lab that delivers a spec sheet and steps away, this work is embedded: we stay in the process through ingredient sourcing, scale-up, and the first commercial run.

Custom beverage recipe development requires more than chemistry. It requires the overlap of flavor intuition, ingredient economics, and the commercial constraints that determine whether a formula can actually be manufactured at scale. A formula that tastes exceptional on the bench but requires a $4/unit ingredient stack isn't a formula — it's a liability. Every engagement starts by understanding what the market will support, then engineering backwards to a liquid that hits that number without compromising what makes it worth buying.

The Formulation Process
01
Discovery
A category and competitive audit to establish what the liquid needs to accomplish before a single bench trial begins. Most clients leave this conversation with a sharper picture of what they're actually building — and what constraints will govern the formulation.
  • Category & trend analysis
  • Competitive liquid review
  • Target cost model & pricing structure
  • Commercial feasibility assessment
02
Bench Formulation
Flavor architecture and ingredient strategy grounded in commercial reality — what tastes exceptional, what scales cleanly, and what the market will pay for. Vision becomes specification. Craft beverage formula development happens iteratively, with sensory evaluation and reformulation cycles built into the process, not bolted on at the end.
  • Flavor concept & architecture
  • Ingredient strategy & supplier qualification
  • Bench iteration & sensory evaluation
  • Formula documentation & spec sheet
03
Commercial Scale-Up
The bench-to-bulk transition is where most great liquids fail. Ingredient minimums shift, process parameters change, and co-packer equipment introduces variables no bench trial can anticipate. As an embedded partner on RTD beverage formulation and craft scale-up work, we manage the full process transfer and are on the floor for the first commercial run — not available by phone.
  • Co-packer sourcing & qualification
  • Commercial spec & process transfer documentation
  • First-run floor oversight
  • QC spec development & sensory benchmarking
What Gets Formulated
Craft Beer & Fermented
Hard Seltzer / Beyond Beer
RTD Cocktails
Kombucha
Functional Beverages
THC & CBD Beverages
Non-Alcoholic & ANA Extensions
Enhanced Water
Energy & Performance
Stick Pack & Powder
Embedded vs. Traditional Lab

Most beverage formulation labs deliver a formula. Forward Bev Lab delivers a formula that works in production. That distinction matters at every stage — from ingredient sourcing (where a preferred supplier's MOQ can unravel a bench formula overnight) to the co-packer floor (where tank geometry, pump shear, and fill speed all interact with your liquid in ways no pilot batch predicts).

The embedded model means you have a formulation partner who understands your brand, your cost targets, and your production reality — not a consultant who shows up for the brief and bills by the hour for every follow-up question. Engagements are scoped to where you are: a founder working from a napkin sketch toward a first commercial run, or a regional producer with an established brand that needs a sharper liquid and a tighter process.

Read: The Innovation Gap — why beverage brands need a fractional model →

Start Here
Ready to start your beverage formulation?

Engagements are limited. Submit a technical brief describing where you are and what you're working on — expect a response within 24–48 hours.

Submit a Brief →