FULL-FLAVOUR REFRESHMENT

And aside from the taste profile — which unlike hard seltzers stands apart from anything else on the market, both with and without alcohol — the appeal technically is easy to see. Hop waters don’t require new, expensive machinery to create, nor do they require technical processes like de-alcoholisation. So, both better for the consumer, easier for the brewer and less impactful on the environment… it’s easy to see why many brewers think they may be the answer to their dwindling sales.

And neither do hop waters feel like a betrayal of everything the craft beer movement promised it would be. Whereas hard seltzers felt like many brewers had backtracked on their pledges of full-flavour against the backdrop of watery, tasteless, mass produced liquids, hop waters actually seem to align with the values consumers have spent years buying into.

IS UK SUCCESS LIKELY?

So, could they be successful in the UK? There’s at least one brewer already keen to find out. Northern Monk launched its hop water last year. In fact, it’s had two iterations of the liquid. First up came its Holy Hop Water. Packaged in something more resembling an energy drink with gothic font and skull imagery, it promised an “amped up” sparkling water with Citra hops, designed to refresh body and soul. It’s fair to say though, that the packaging design screamed rebellion rather than refreshment.

Its newer product is H2OP, which again focuses on the fruity character of the Citra hop. And it’s here you can see a notable shift to the clean white packaging cues more commonly associated with hard seltzers. Unlike US audiences, UK drinkers are not au-fait with what a hop water actually is. So leading on the purity of water in its name and its branding is a key move.