“With 4-Across, non-alcoholic drink with a flavor reminiscent of beer”

A friend found something wild in yesterday’s New York Times crossword puzzle: “Hop Water” was the answer to a clue!

When I launched the first craft-brewed hop water over a decade ago, it was a category of one. My biggest hope then was that people would even understand what it was. To see it grow into a vibrant, competitive category of many has been incredibly gratifying. But to find it so recognizable that it’s now a New York Times crossword clue? That’s something I never saw coming.

What an incredible feeling to see a passion project become part of the cultural lexicon.

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 (be a thing) 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 with the incredible difficulty of commercializing something that has never been done before and you have a recipe for hardship and heartbreak. Dumping less than perfect batches and trying new methods and hop varieties that did not work out have tried the patience of our investors. Retailers also rarely have the patience to test something unproven, even when we think we got everything just right. Although entrepreneurs commonly warn other entrepreneurs of these dynamics, I have discovered personally that it takes A LOT more time and money than you would think to build awareness for something unheard of.

Fast forward. Thanks to hard work, some luck, our loyal fans and a small set of patient retailers, we are now attracting bigger 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!

    

Hydrating hop heads at LA Beer Week

What an incredible day and venue for the #LABW7 festival Saturday at Exposition Park Los Angeles. Thank you to all who came by and sampled our hop water. It was so gratifying to see the faces of people trying it for the first time. It typically started with an “I am intrigued” and ended with “that’s amazing, it’s so refreshing, not what I expected, can I have some more and finally where can I buy some?”

We had a steady flow of people coming by the booth in the beginning, but mid festival until the end we had line ups of people.  Many who came up said they were told by their friends that they had to go over and try the hop water. Overall the event was confirmation that we are onto something.  It totally boosts my confidence as I work to convince skeptical distributors and retailers that hops can be enjoyed on more occasions than in craft beer.

Cheers!

Paul Tecker

Founder & Brewer H2OPS™ hop water

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

 

Zero alcohol?

So how can it be that h2ops hop water doesn’t have any alcohol? Well it helps to understand where alcohol comes from.  In beverages, the source of alcohol is from sugars, which are fermented by yeast, which in turn produces alcohol.  Our hop water may be loaded with hops, but there are no fermentable sugars or yeast and therefore no alcohol.

Interestingly, some non-alcoholic (NA) beers start out as alcoholic beers and through a process of high heat, most of the alcohol is removed…along with a lot of the flavor.  After this removal process, there is typically some alcohol remaining. 0.5% is the legal limit to be considered a NA beverage in the US. Despite being below the limit, regulations require a person to be 21 years or older to purchase NA beer. h2ops hop water is not a beer or even a NA beer by any definition. Our unique hop water is simply brewed hops and sparkling water and is an innovative new part of the flavored water category.

Cheers!

Paul Tecker

Founder & Brewer H2OPS™ hop water

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

h2ops hop water design

We have received many compliments on our hop drop graphic and  h2ops hop water label, so I thought it would be cool to give credit where it is due. Ross Buswell at Atmosphere Design is the artist who created the h2ops graphics and label. Ross has some pretty amazing craft beer brand work in his portfolio and was even featured in a new book called “cool beer labels.”  Although the craft beer work was impressive, he assured me that this innovative hop water work was in his wheelhouse.  I think you will agree that he did a phenomenal job. The distinctive water drop icon is a cross between a hop and a water drop and to me has just the right feel and is crazy creative.  Accordingly, we have taken steps to register the h2ops hop drop as an official trademark and plan to use it more and more in our packaging and logo merch.

Cheers!

Paul Tecker

Founder & Brewer H2OPS™ hop water

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

How do you pronounce h2ops?

How do you pronounce H2OPS? Is it H2-OPS, just H-2-O-P-S or some other arrangement 2.0? Clearly whoever named this doesn’t understand good branding.  To me, it’s an unconventional drink and an unconventional brand name. A wise person once said, “call me what you want, just don’t call me late to dinner.” H2OPS the brand is kind of like that.  We call it H2-OPS but hey, its up to you.  

Perhaps I am dreaming, but If there were ever two hop waters on the menu, someone might just ask for a “hop water.” The waiter would then ask which brand? I sincerely hope that “H2-OPS” will be the name you call out.   

Cheers!

Paul Tecker

Founder & Brewer H2OPS™ hop water

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

Hop water research

So I thought it would be interesting to post some more information on what is hop water and what others are doing with hops in beverages. To update my knowledge, I spent quite a few hours on Google and it seems that “hop water” is a long established generic term for hops and water and is sometimes used for various health reasons. The CVS Pharmacy website for instance discusses generic “hop water” and details studies outside the US on its possible health benefits. The FDA considers hops as generally recognized as safe, but marketable health claims have not yet been substantiated. Personally, I believe our hop water should be enjoyed simply as a refreshing zero alcohol, zero calorie, flavored water.

So what other hop water beverages are out there besides our h2ops?  Not many, but I can report that there are a few entrepreneurial hop flavored, sugar sweetened sodas, tonics and supplements using the generic term hop water. It’s great to see other fellow innovators who share our love of hops. At this point, what sets us  apart is that h2ops is simply brewed hops and water in ready to drink bottles and kegs.

It will be fascinating to see what happens in the years to come to this “hop water” category and what other new and innovative uses for hops are discovered.

Cheers,

Paul Tecker

Founder & Brewer H2OPS™ hop water

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

Genesis

So what is hop water and how did I come to discover it? It’s actually similar to the story you may have heard about the discovery of green tea. In the case of tea, the story goes that leaves blew off the tea plant into the emperor’s cup of water, he tasted it and it was good. Well I am not an emperor but inspiration came when I was brewing beer one day. I had picked all of the hop cones off my back yard hop bines (not a typo) and had quite a few left over. Perhaps it had something to do with the home brew I was drinking, but it seemed like a good idea to not waste the remaining hops. So I made up a sparkling hop water by brewing the hops with water and carbonated it in my kegerator. Like the emperor and his tea, it was actually good!   This started a 2 year effort (which is still going on today) to brew the perfect hop water. Brewers use many techniques to coax out the complex hop flavors and there are over 100 varieties of hops in commercial use; all with different flavor and bitterness characteristics. This has been no small journey! Currently I use a proprietary blend of northwest hops and some innovative brewing techniques, which seem to have good results.

Thanks for checking out my blog/news post chronicling the creation of h2ops and other ramblings about hops and beverages.

Cheers,

Paul Tecker

Founder & Brewer H2OPS™ hop water

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