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.

Cultural Affinity

Will other brewers join in? Should they? It’s likely many who were quick to join the hard seltzer trend — of which there were many — may be feeling a little burned. The products did not culturally land here in the UK, where the fast track of launches left consumers confused and unengaged and the perceived lack of flavour left little for drinkers to remember or set them apart from competitors.

Do hop waters stand a chance then? That very much depends on how brewers choose to market them. We are entering the era of the hard water, where brands are looking to piggyback on the purity of water and its health-halo with boozed-up products that straddle the line between naughty and nice (look out for a raft of hard still waters coming from the US). Hop waters are not that. And brands need to be careful to distance themselves from them. The key strength of hop waters

The key strength of hop waters lies in their ability to tap into a number of trends and patterns of consumer behaviour. Their full flavour, water base and lack of any alcohol whatsoever, puts them in a unique position to pitch themselves as suitable for a number of occasions that even alcohol-alternatives have never been comfortably able to do, from post gym to afternoon in the office.