Author: Jake Huolihan
I love beer, but there are certain occasions where consuming alcoholic beverages just isn’t in the cards and can even be dangerous or illegal. According to Lagunitas, regular consumption of beer on the job was killing productivity as employees became lethargic and probably still hungover from the previous day. To keep brewers happy and satiated yet sober while on the job, they began making non-alcoholic carbonated hop flavored water, a concoction that was spearheaded by homebrewer Paul Tecker in the mid-2000s.
I decided to participate in Dry January this year as a way to refresh my body after a holiday season that involved ample consumption of alcohol. The first day of the month, I hunted down some Lagunitas Hop Hoppy Refresher to quench my thirst for something beery while sticking to my goal. To say I was stunned would be an understatement, this sparkling hop water was not only incredibly tasty, it had a quality about it that made me never want to put the glass down. Simply refreshing!
Before that first four-pack was gone, I knew I’d need to figure out a way to make hop water myself so that I could enjoy it in quantity whenever I felt like it. Choosing to forgo looking up established recipes and methods for this beverage, I took in what the Lagunitas Hop Hoppy Refresher tasted like and designed a recipe of my own.
| Making H-brü-O Hop Water |
My first order of business was determining what characteristics I wanted in my hop water, which based on my assessment of Lagunitas’ version included decent acidity, very high carbonation, and no bitterness while possessing obvious hop character. To accomplish this, I came up with the following recipe.
H-brü-O Hop Water
5 Gallons/19 liters RO Water
3.35 g Gypsum
1.85 g Calcium Chloride
2.5 mL Lactic Acid (88%)
40 g Amarillo Hops
40 g Citra Hops
40 g Mosaic Hops
To call it a “brew day” would be sort of laughable considering how easy it was, but seeing as I made this hop water while mashing a different beer, I’m comfortable with the terminology. I started off by sanitizing a previously cleaned keg with Starsan solution.
Once emptying the keg of sanitizer, I poured about 4 gallons/15 liters of RO water into the keg then measured out the minerals and added them to the leftover water in order to fully dissolve it.
After adding the mineral solution to the keg, I measured out and added the lactic acid to the water in the keg.
On bottles of Hop Hoppy Refresher, Lagunitas claims it contains brewer’s yeast, and while I couldn’t really taste any yeastiness in the product, I had some nutritional yeast lying around and added a scoop to the keg.
At this point, I sealed the keg and gave it a few shakes to fully incorporate the minerals, acid, and nutritional yeast. When that was done I weighed out all of the hop additions and split them between two stainless mesh filters before tossing them into the homogenized solution.
Noticing there was still some room left in the keg, I added enough RO water to reach the bottom of the gas dip tube. Finally, I placed the filled keg in my keezer and applied 50 psi of CO2 for 24 hours before reducing the gas to serving pressure. In addition to being very nicely carbonated, my h-BRÜ-o hop water had a hue that was rather similar to Lagunitas’ Hop Hoppy Refresher.
| IMPRESSIONS |
Upon my first eager sip of this drink a day after it was made, I found it to be extremely bitter, enough so that I dumped the sample and thought to myself, “what have I done?” However, after a couple more days of conditioning, the bitterness faded entirely and what was left was an incredibly tasty beverage that was surprisingly refreshing.
The hop aroma and flavor in this batch of H-brü-O was absolutely spot-on in my opinion, and while different hop varieties were likely used in Lagunitas’ Hop Hoppy Refresher, the intensity was remarkably similar. I perceive Hop Hoppy Refresher as being slightly more acidic than my H-brü-O, so in my next batch, I’ll add enough lactic acid to get the water down to 4.5 pH, which I think will contribute a bit more crispness. Other than that and using different hop combinations, I’m not going to mess with this recipe too much.
Having the ability to compulsively pull a beverage from my taps whenever I want while still being able to function is pretty awesome, and the fact this H-brü-O hop water tasted as good as it did only added to my satisfaction. No alcohol, fat and sugar free, hydrating, only takes a day to make (with carbonation), and it’s cheap as hell—what’s not to love?! I would highly recommend anyone who loves hops but isn’t always in the mood for actual beer to try this recipe out, or if you’re in the Denver area, stop by my place, because I’ll be keeping a keg of H-brü-O on tap at all times!
If you have thoughts about this recipe or experience making something similar, please feel free to share in the comments section below!
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41 thoughts on “Brü It Yourself | H-brü-O Hop Water”
Thanks for sharing Jake. Can I ask about the yeast? What do you think it’s adding (if anything?) I can’t say yeast flavour in-and-of-itself really appeals, so I’d be wary of using it unless you think it adds a perceptable “umami” flavour.
As a side note, I’d also be curious to know whether you think a single-hop version of this might work as a useful at-home ‘hop chronicle’ method for investigating the flavour profiles of different hop varieties? Or is the flavour you get so divorced from beer that it wouldn’t necessarily work?
Lagunitas claims they add Brewers yeast for bio transformation. I am dubious that adding yeast to water would do anything and did it mostly as a joke.
Single hop versions would totally get you ball park hop flavors.
Adding yeast to the water helps scavenge oxygen and prolong hop character. That would be my guess as to why it’s added if it isn’t needed for carbonating.
I’ve played around with hop water and tried one batch where I added a small amount of table sugar and some yeast. I can’t seem to find my notes, but I believe I targeted an ABV of about 0.25%. Sure, it’s no longer non-alcholic, but that had quite a bit of effect on the hop flavors.
My go to recipe for hop water is however a simple one with about 15g of hops for a 5gal batch, but I add the hops to heated water at about 75°C and let it sit for 20 minutes or so. Then dillute it with cold water.
I’ve been using this for about a year after realizing we were spending $40 on Topo Chico per month. Always have a keg on tap now, and the cost is negligible!
https://khymos.org/2012/01/04/mineral-waters-a-la-carte/
I found that same link for the mineral water calculator a month ago and I’ve been carbonating kegs of sparkling mineral water for the whole family to enjoy. I’ve been using the “Carola Rouge” profile which seems like a good balance of minerals without being extreme TDS levels.
There’s quite a bit of evidence that higher Magnesium levels in drinking water have a positive effect on heart health: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4728619/#:~:text=We%20conducted%20the%20first%20comprehensive,the%20risk%20of%20CHD%20mortality.
Just looked at the Topo Chico profile and it looks quite soft. In fact not far from my well water profile from Ward Labs, with a bit less calcium and more sodium.
I’ll have to try a few different profiles in the future!
How long are the hops in the water for? If the entire time have you noticed any increased flavor as the water is consumed? Thanks !
I left them in the entire time. You could pull them whenever you want though I guess.
Jake, great article. Consider me inspired. Question: was the water “room temp” and then put right in the keezer? So basically a cold hop extraction?
Thanks, water was probably about 68F when added to the keezer. All extraction done at relatively cool temps.
Does the hop water maintain sufficient carbonation when left at typical serving pressure (10-14 PSI)?
@Carl – I would like to know about serving pressure on this as well. I normally serve plain seltzer at 32 PSI on my setup and it works great, very fizzy and no head (a flow-control tap helps). With this Hop Water, I’m getting tons of foam at that same pressure. How are others serving this?
What temperature had the water when putting in the hops resp. lagering the hop water?
Cheers
Pitt
I wonder if boiling hops for a short time with non-fermentable sugars such as lactose, maltodextrin or maybe Carapils could produce a no- or low-alcohol beer with some sweetness to balance hop bitterness. It might taste more like real beer.
Yep! That’s the whole theory behind Brewdogs Nanny State. Malt that can’t really ferment adds flavour and body. https://brewdogrecipes.com/recipes/nanny-state
Except I think Nanny State is wildly bitter. When I had a taster I couldn’t even finish the sample.
My guess on the presence of yeast is that it is used to deoxygenate the ‘brewing liquor’ . I would think Lagunitas would want the most stable product possible so it would make sense to remove dissolved O2. You can add ~10 g of yeast and ~10 g of sugar and have the O2 drop to zero in your get in about 20 minutes.
This is great, thanks for putting this one together. The first non-beer hopped product that I tried and really liked was Hoplark Hop Tea. I’ve contemplated making something similar but may have to give this a try first. Now I just need to get a bigger kegerator!
Thanks Jake .. I first had “hop water” at Buffalo Bayou Brewing in Houston TX — a must taste brewery if you are in Houston! They have it on tap, free next to the regular water for proper customer hydration. Good stuff. I guess I will be forced to buy another keg or two. Being a one keg brewer is a hard life. HaHa.
Just wondering how long you have kept this on tap? Has it faded more or stayed pretty stable in taste? Love this idea, just wondering how much to make. Thinking of doing a 3 gallon and see where that takes me.
We drank it all in like six days because it was so tasty. Second batch I made didn’t last any longer either…
How much lactic acid did you add to the second batch?
I think I added 10 mL but do not recall. Whatever I added was a touch too much imo, going to try 7.5 next time.
Can you explain what you’re trying to achieve with RO water and the Gypsum, Calcium Chloride, and Lactic Acid? I only have access to tap water now and I’m wondering what sort of profile you’re trying to achieve, and if I could do this recipe without this step. Thanks!
Do you have an estimate on how much nutritional yeast you used? Also, how do you think a muslin bag in place of the mesh filters would fair?
This is really interesting. Wondering if using hop oils simplifies things too. I have a vial of El Dorado oils that might just do the trick.
Incognito will probably work great here!
Do you think this would be possible for those who only bottle carbonate (aka me)? I’m assuming the amount of alcohol produced (if any) by adding yeast and priming sugar would be negligible, but I wonder how it would change the flavor.
I have successfully bottle conditioned hop water. I added 1ml of a yeast slurry saved from a previous brew to each bottle and enough dextrose to hit 2.8 vol CO2 (sorry I don’t have my notes handy for the weight). It carbed up nicely. You do have to decant carefully when pouring to keep the yeast in the bottle. It’s pretty gross looking in the glass
Made some of this the other day. Floating dip tube seems to be a good idea ….
Floating dip tube proven to be a good idea. I like this stuff – and it will help me moderate my beer intake. During the week!
is anyone else having a lot of hop particulate in their pours?
I was going to ask this same thing. I’m getting tons of hop particulates and an aggressive/unpleasant raw hop character that overshadows the fruity hop flavors. This fades some with time but is still present. Wonder if anyone else experienced this? I am using a 300 um screen but it clearly isn’t doing a great job containing hop particles.
Wow, this recipe uses an incredible amount of hops! I’ve done 4 or 5 batches of hop water that turned out pretty great using FAR less hops than the recipe and no need for RO. The method I use is not quite as easy as just dumping everything in a keg but using roughly 4 oz less per batch of expensive hops and minimal vegetal hops in the keg is worth the little extra effort to me. Here it is
For every gallon of good tasting chlorine-free tap or filtered water use;
1.5g hops (I like the fruity varieties)
Juice from 1/2 a small lemon (or could do a 2 ml 88% phosphoric acid)
1/8 tsp salt
1/8 tsp bread yeast
2 tbs honey (optional, for head retention and hint of sweetness to balance)
Boil water, kill boil and add yeast.
Chill to 160-170 (I throw some ice cubes in) add all other ingredients.
Let steep 10-20 minutes
Transfer to keg, pour through a filter if you want (I use floating dip tubes so don’t bother).
I prepare 2 gallons of water hot side but add the ingredients for a 5 gallon batch, then top up with water in the keg. For example, 2 gallons boil, extrapolate all ingredients for 5 gallons and add to the 2 gallons. That way it’s faster, easier, and don’t need to chill, the top up water gets it room temp. As a bonus, there’s no problems with pulling hop particles that make it through the screen because there’s not 120 grams of hops in the keg at the bottom.
Hello Brad, 1,5 g of hops for which quantity of how water? Thanks.
Could you do this in a consentrate and just add a splash to a glass before toping off with a la croix pure? Don’t have the space for a keg but love the idea… thanks!
This is exactly what I do! Works great. Follow a 5 gallon recipe, but only use 1.25 gallons and you’ll end up with a gallon of final product hop tea concentrate. You can then adjust the ratio to your liking. I’m on my 3rd batch of hop tea concentrate; this time using the above recipe as a guide.
Are these hop quantities correct? They are like 10x more than most other hop water recipes I’ve seen. I made the recipe and, like you, was also bowled over by the excessive bitterness (who says you need to boil hops to extract alpha-acids?). Except in my case it did not resolve after 1, 2, or even 3 days. I then tried Homebrew Academy’s version which used 4 grams of hops/gallon in a hop bag x 6 hours + juice of 1/2 lime and it was much better.
What are the main differences in steeping at 170 degrees for 20 min vs steeping at room temp for 6 hours vs just putting it in a keg for 24 hours cold? We are buying a Drink Mate (similar to Soda stream) and I was wondering how things would taste if I just threw some hops in a sock in a 2 Liter water pitcher in the fridge or used a tea infuser pitcher in the fridge for > 24 hours?
did you purge the headspace before reducing to serving pressure?