Our Story – Its not easy being first

Like many of us working to balance family, career and health, I moderated my alcohol consumption mostly with sparkling water. Its a truly healthy alternative, but not very satisfying or social.  As you might imagine, I found moderation especially challenging as a passionate homebrewer of craft beer. 

One day, after home brewing a fresh hopped IPA, I found myself wondering what these amazing hops in beer would taste like by themselves.  After a quick trial, brewing only with hops (no yeast or grains) and carbonating it, I found that the flavor was surprisingly good, balanced and way more refreshing than any kind of beer.  It was something entirely new that my family and friends described generically as Paul’s “hop water.” Could this be a thing?

Believing it could led to years of experimentation and the eventual soft launch in 2014 at a California beer festival under the trademarked brand name H2OPS.  I was so nervous at the time, but it blew the minds of the festival attendees, and we quickly ran out.      

Despite the consistent and encouraging enthusiasm, it has not been easy.  For better or for worse, I am a perfectionist. Combine that we the incredible difficulty of commercializing something that has never been done before and you have a long expensive process. My family and cofounder have taken great personal losses dumping batches and testing new brewing methods and hop varieties that did not work out.  Retailers also did not always have the patience to test something unproven and I have discovered that it takes a lot more time and money than you would think to build awareness on a small budget.

Fast forward. Thanks to hard work, some luck, our loyal fans and a small set of patient retailers, we are now attracting investors and growing rapidly.  I am so gratified and encouraged by the number of emails from the people whose lives we improved in small but often meaningful ways.  It really has become the perfect way for active and healthy beer lovers to enjoy that amazing flavor of hops on more occasions.  It’s also become a social reawakening to those who choose to abstain from alcohol.  Keep sharing those stories with us and with your friends. That’s what keeps us going!   

What a Journey

It is hard to believe it has been over 6 years since the H2OPS trademark was officially born.  After years of development and testing, we launched in November 2014 at a BevMo! Beer Festival at the Fort Mason Center in San Francisco.  That’s my sister Anne in the photo, who gratefully dropped everything to help me pour sample after sample for the unexpected crush of people lining up to try this unheard of hop water creation. Back then, there was no Dry January or Sober Curious movements in place.  For us, it was about moderation choices and just enjoying what I loved on more occasions….the flavor from hops.   Since then, we have built a community of like-minded drinkers and even provided a social reawakening to those who have abstained from alcohol permanently.  It has been rewarding to hear the many stories on the lives we have improved in small but meaningful ways. 

A big thank you to our supporters, customers and retailers who took big risks in carrying something new and unproven.

Today we have competitors large and small offering different hop water choices and helping to create awareness and credibility for this new category of healthy beverages we take pride in having created. Our mission continues to be the true craft brewed, best and most authentic expression of hop water. I cannot wait to see how the next 6 years develops. 

Cheers!

    

Maintaining a Healthy Immune System

Many of us craft beer fans have been self-medicating to numb the bad news of this health crisis.  Hand raised.   I have also been consuming more news and doing research.  What I have discovered is that there is a lot of science backed information on things to support your immune system. As it turns out, it’s not just one thing but rather a combination of things.     

An important one is to moderate your alcohol consumption.  This leads to better sleep, better mood and more energy to be productive.  This also can free up your body’s ability to defend against other things.   

Links: Global Health Cleveland Clinic WebMD Health Harvard  

Whether it’s one of the many amazing new non-alcoholic craft beers, wine, spirits or our zero calorie, zero alcohol H2OPS hop water, these drinks can be “satisfying substitutes” for people moderating, taking a health crisis break or to maintain sobriety.     

Let us know if this is working for you.  We would love to hear from you directly or with an Instagram or Facebook post. @h2opswater Sharing helps others.  

Cheers to your good health.  Stay well.

Paul Tecker – Founder H2OPS Hop Water

Celebrating 5 Years of Happiness Through Hops

Its hard to believe that it was back in 2012, when I was home brewing with some backyard grown hops, when lightening struck to create what may be the first ever hop brewed sparking water.  After 2 years of trials (watering the yard with less than perfect batches) and blowing the minds of beer drinkers in tests at beer festivals, I founded the company in 2014.  Our brewing methods are craft and our original only contains a blend of hops and water for flavor.  This naturally results in zero alcohol, zero calories and zero gluten.   Without the sugary grains, malts and yeasts in beer, the taste of H2OPS is something entirely new and astoundingly refreshing.

Our motto is happiness through hops and we simply believe that the amazing flavor of hops should be enjoyed on more occasions.  This is not a non-alcoholic beer, it’s a hoppy sparkling water that can be enjoyed anytime and anywhere with no stigma attached.  This is revolutionary for hop heads (like me) to expand our enjoyment of hops and a game changer for the growing number of people who choose for health and other reasons not to drink beer or alcohol or just take a break.

Cheers!

Paul Tecker

Founder & Hop Pioneer

Drinking at Work – Fueling Tech Innovation?

We are continually learning about what type of occasions people drink our H2OPS Sparkling Hop Water.  Somewhat surprisingly, several notable tech companies have begun stocking us in their office fridges and offering H2OPS as a non-alcoholic alternative at company parties. No there is no caffeine in H2OPS hop water, but for some reason it seems to fit. Netflix Hollywood had a company event recently with an Oktoberfest theme – dubbed Oktoberflix.” Since it was a lunch event and the company wanted some productive work in the afternoon, they offered H2OPS as their hoppy festive drink.  Google San Francisco now offers us in their fridges alongside other sparkling waters and other non-alcoholic drinks.  They also offer H2OPS as a non-alcoholic alternative at after work events where alcohol is served.  After talking to some of these innovators, they cite a variety of reasons.  Some say the flavor and aroma of the hops is a sensory awakener that recalls time of celebration and hanging out with friends. Rather than making you sleepy, it hydrates and refreshes. But it’s not a beer or even a non-alcoholic beer most say.  It’s something different.  It’s something new and innovative.  Is H2OPS a tech company or beverage company?  I say beverage company, but some in tech may disagree.

Cheers

Paul Tecker
Founder & Brewer
H2OPS Sparkling Hop Water

H2OPS and the hop drop logo are trademarks of H2OPS LLC

H2OPS & Beer – a perfect pairing

After seeing this photo someone posted on the H2OPS Instagram page, it reminded me what a great session extender H2OPS is. As an example, I was cleaning up my garage this weekend.  To make it more enjoyable, I put on some music and cracked open one of my favorite beers.  After two, I could tell my productivity was going down.  I pondered cracking another but wisely twisted open a bottle of H2OPS and finished off the job refreshed and hydrated.  If I would have had another beer, it might have been nap time and weekend plans delayed or cut short.

After consuming and serving H2OPS over the course of several years on different occasions and pouring it at over 30 beer festivals, I have come to the strong conclusion that H2OPS pairs exceptionally well with beer.  H2OPS is brewed with hops (like beer) and when drinking a H2OPS after drinking a beer, it feels like you are still in the session.  Yet there is no alcohol or calories.  It tastes more refreshing and a bit different for sure, but it doesn’t shock your system like drinking plain or sparkling water as a spacer.

Of course H2OPS is fantastic as a stand-alone beverage enjoyed without beer, but H2OPS as a “session extender” is one of its most enjoyable and life improving uses.

Cheers!

Paul Tecker
Founder & Brewer
H2OPS Sparkling Hop Water

H2OPS and the hop drop logo are trademarks of H2OPS LLC

 

Relax Don’t Worry Have a Homebrew

Its National Home Brew Day today.  For some it’s just another “drink a beer day.”  To me, home brewing is personal and meaningful on many levels.

Home brewing kicked off when Senator Alan Cranston from California sponsored a bill to legalize it in 1978. It was a different time back in 1978.  In these early days of home brewing, all beer was essentially the same; the American Pale Lager, aka Bud, Miller, Schlitz, Hamms, etc.  Homebrewers at that time were motivated because they could brew beer they couldn’t buy in the store.  Today with the plethora of craft beer in many styles, that’s not the main motivation.  It’s more about understanding the process and becoming intimate with something you admire and appreciate.  For a select few, it’s about learning the craft and figuring out if you have the chops to be a pro craft brewer.

On a personal level, it was a shared appreciation of the reds, porters and unusual style beers that I could sometimes find at Trader Joe’s and other specialty California retailers back in the early 1990s that led this girl I was dating to buy me a basic home brewing kit as a birthday gift.  It was then that I knew she was a keeper.  We have been married now for 22 years.

About 5 years ago, my hobby of home brewing had evolved to where I was growing hops in my backyard.  It was after a day of brewing with these freshly picked hops, when it hit me that hops could be brewed in a way to create a flavorful hop water without grains or yeast.  After having friends and family taste this new brew, I knew I was onto something.  After 2 years of trial with many different hop blends and methods, I set out to commercialize what is now the first craft brewed hop water: H2OPS.

So cheers to all my fellow home brewers on this special day.  Raise a glass to Alan Cranston for legalizing it and again for the home brew shop owners who have poured their passion and life savings into providing quality home brewing supplies so that we could innovate and appreciate the wonder of beer.

As famous home brew author Charlie Papazian says:  “Relax, Don’t Worry Have a Home Brew”

Cheers!

Paul Tecker
Founder & Brewer
H2OPS Sparkling Hop Water

H2OPS and the hop drop logo are trademarks of H2OPS LLC.

 

 

 

Growing Your Own Hops at Home – You Can Do It

I was checking out my hop garden for signs of life this evening and sure enough this year’s crop is starting to peek out from the ground.  It’s hard to believe it was five years ago when I first took the plunge into growing my own hops.  In hindsight, I wish I would have done it years before.  It was this step which truly made me appreciate the magical thing that hops are.  It also directly led to my epiphany that hops could be brewed and enjoyed as a refreshing sparkling hop water.

So you want to grow your own hops?  I say go for it.  Its March and now is the time that home brewer suppliers and hop farmers are offering hop rhizomes to the public at large.  They simply ship the live root like clippings direct to your home.  Check out the many sources by searching online for “hop rhizomes.”

With regard to climate, I was very concerned that I was wasting my time because I live in Yorba Linda, California, which is located in So Cal between the Mojave Desert and the coast. The climate is pretty different than the areas in Oregon, Washington and Idaho, where the best commercial hop farmers in the West cultivate.  Because the reward was so big, I plunged ahead anyway and hedged my bet by purchasing two of every variety I could find, hoping that one would be hearty enough to survive.  I labeled stakes by variety and the one that initially did the best here was the Columbus hop; a fitting hop for what I consider a discovery.  I have since had success with other hops and have met other small commercial operators here who have impressively been able to grow a wide variety of hops in Southern California.

While there are entire books on hop cultivation, I can assure you that the planting is very easy.  Tending to what eventually comes out of the ground may present some challenges however, so choose your location wisely.   Hops can grow an impressive 12” a day at their peak season and reach up to 25 feet. You can almost watch them grow.  Many home hop farmers, especially those with 2 story homes, choose a location near their house, so they can string twine from the rooftop.  This is easier than devising a standalone system, but there are many ways to string a hop.  For most varieties, the peak harvest occurs in August and then they go dormant and you cut back the plant to near the ground.  As my new hops peak out from the soil as they did today, I usually trim back the dead wood some more and move the mulch out of the way.

All the details of planting and caring for your hops goes beyond the scope of this post, so check out You Tube and other online resources.  It’s easier than you might think and very rewarding.  Even if you are not a brewer, I am sure your neighborhood has some who would jump at the chance to make use of your bounty.  Hops are beautiful and majestic plants to look at and picking and enjoying that aroma will enhance your knowledge of beer and bring back a wave of memories of a well hopped beer.  What could be more enjoyable than enjoying a home brew, craft beer or craft hop water in the shade of your own hop plants?  You might even pick a hop and plop it in your drink as a garnish.

Hop Garnish

Cheers!

Paul Tecker
Founder & Brewer
H2OPS Sparkling Hop Water

H2OPS and the hop drop logo are trademarks of H2OPS LLC.