5 Ideas for Adding Hop Water to Your Menu

Need formulation inspiration? Discover 5 ideas for crafting the hop water people are thirsty for!

Hop water is in-demand, perfect for all-day drinking, and breweries that add hop water to their menus are benefiting BIG time. So, how do you hop on this massive opportunity?

Fortunately, these non-alcoholic beverages are relatively simple to brew. Compared to NA beer, hop water requires less time, equipment, and resources. It involves boiling water, lowering the temperature, adding hops (whole hops, pellets, or extracts), chilling, adding carbonation, and a bit of citric acid to make it shelf-stable.

Now, for the REAL question… how do you add a hop water to your menu that customers will LOVE? That’s what we’re covering today! 

Need inspiration? Read on for 5 ways to craft hop waters that excite current patrons, bring in new customers, and get people talking about your brand.

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1. Make Hop Waters with Trending Flavor Fusions

This is so obvious, we feel a bit silly saying it. Make hop waters with trending flavors! Obviously, offering your customers beverages in popular flavors makes sense. However, leveraging trending flavor FUSIONS is a way to make some of these classic flavors new and exciting.  

This can be a blend of different hop varieties, fruit fusions, or a combination of ALL of these. Some consumers find excitement through fusions of sweet & salty or sweet & spicy, while others want flavors that evoke a specific mood or state of mind. Whatever the case, consumers want an elevated flavor experience and hop waters are the perfect medium to create something innovative.

For example, fruit flavors like Watermelon and Strawberry can convey “girl next door vibes,” and next-gen citrus fruits like Pink Grapefruit, Blood Orange, or Key Lime add bold complexity and global appeal. 

Want to brew with in-demand fruit flavors? Check out 10 Trending Fruit Flavors.

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2. Craft Hop Waters That Highlight Regional Flavors  

Whether you’re a Georgia brewery leaning into Peach or a Washington brewery highlighting local hop varieties like Willamette or Cascade, making hop waters with regional flavors can have serious benefits.

First, regional flavors and aromas are a great way to appeal to local pride and authenticity. Local consumers can feel connected to products that reflect their traditions and cultures, and leveraging regional flavors can be a powerful tool in this regard.

Second, regional flavors provide an opportunity for unique marketing positioning through storytelling. In Mintel’s 2024 US Foodservice Alcohol Trends report, 61% of surveyed respondents were interested in ordering local alcohol brands and products, and 57% wanted to learn more about the drinks.¹ Compelling marketing messages that detail ingredient origins and traditional recipes can instill a sense of authenticity and appeal to consumers wanting to learn more.

Conversely, consumers who aren’t native to the area may approach beverages with regional flavors as an adventure or as a way to experience and learn about the area they’re visiting.

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3. Position Hop Water as a Better-For-You Beverage Option

As a calorie-free, sugar-free, and zero-ABV option, hop waters naturally align with the goals of consumers who want better-for-you (BFY) beverages. Considering the significant impact consumer wellness trends have on the beverage industry, this positioning is immensely valuable.

For sober-curious consumers looking to reduce or eliminate their alcohol consumption, NA beverages like hop water provide an alternative. Plus, non-alcoholic offerings will become even more important in the coming years. NCSolutions survey found that “Nearly half (49%) of Americans say they plan to drink less alcohol in 2025, a 44% increase since 2023…”²

However, better-for-you options aren’t just about consuming less alcohol. According to Mintel, 41% of surveyed beer drinkers in 2024 were attempting to improve their physical health, and 16% were attempting to improve their mental health.³ Overall, consumers today are less interested in “empty calories” and more interested in products that support their wellness goals.

On top of appealing to potential NEW customers, positioning a hop water as a BFY beverage can help breweries retain current customers with changing habits. Advanced hop products and terpene brewing solutions let brewers add in-demand flavors with no sugar, no calories, and NO alcohol. 

That way, instead of simply disappearing when current offerings no longer align with their values, patrons can switch to hop waters that still taste great. Consumers can practice mindful consumption by pacing themselves with hop water between beers or by ending the night with one.

4. Craft a Hop Water Version of Your Most Popular Beer

Speaking of retaining current customers, consider creating a hop water version of your most popular beer! While a hop water naturally won’t have the texture or haze of a traditional beer, expanding your product offerings with this strategy can still benefit your brewery in several ways.

First, like we mentioned above, it can help retain customers with changing habits who may disappear otherwise. Plus, people decide to reduce or eliminate alcohol for all kinds of reasons and it’s not always permanent. This includes customers participating in Dry January, those managing temporary health events, among others. Having a hop water version of a beverage they already like can keep them engaged.

Second, maintaining familiar flavors across beverage categories helps customers move from one category to another seamlessly. While some states have regulations about who can buy hop waters (despite their 0% ABV status), breweries that can serve hop waters to those under the age of 21 can help customers transition to traditional alcoholic beers if they choose to do so.

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5. Excite Customers with Seasonal and Limited-Edition Hop Water Flavors

Mintel says that growing demographics like to discover new and unique flavor combinations. Specifically, “33% of 22-34 year old beer consumers in the US say they like to buy seasonal and limited-edition offerings.”⁴ Considering the vast flavor options available for hop waters, this beverage category creates even more opportunities for seasonal and limited-edition flavors! 

Leveraging the additional hype around in-season fruits is a great way to offer hop waters with seasonal flavors. This could include summer melons like Honeydew and Watermelon, or a holiday vibe with spicy pine-forward Chinook elevated with Blood Orange. On the other hand, breweries can create entirely novel flavor options to keep customers on the edge of their seats.  

For example, gassy cannabis profiles create hop waters with entirely new depths of flavor. Hops and cannabis share many of the same aromatic nuances, which gives brewers a unique opportunity to experiment with unexpected flavors that create a sense of novelty for current customers and appeal to new consumers from other categories.

Just imagine it! You could brew a limited-edition Krush™ forward hop water infused with Grapefruit Kush and an unexpected hit of Kiwi. Or maybe an ultra dank hop water with Simcoe®, King Louie XIII, and a dash of tropical Pineapple. When it comes to hop waters, the flavor innovations are limitless.

Abstrax | Flavor Solutions for the Best-Tasting Hop Waters

At Abstrax, we provide novel solutions for beverage manufacturers of all sizes looking to streamline, innovate, and gain a competitive edge. With our knowledge, technology, and extensive resources, we’ve crafted our collections to provide recognizable flavors and aromas that consumers love.

Contact us today, and let’s create the best-tasting hop water the industry has ever tasted.

1. Foodservice Alcohol Trends – US – 2024 [Databook]. Mintel. (2024, November 30). https://data.mintel.com/databook/foodservice-alcohol-trends-us-2024/

2. Nearly Half of Americans Plan to Drink Less Alcohol in 2025 [PRESS RELEASE]. NCSolutions. (2025, January 27). https://ncsolutions.com/press-and-media/americans-plan-to-drink-less-alcohol-in-2025/

3. Leyden, Paige. (2024, November 30). Beer - US - 2024. [Market Report]. Mintel. https://www.mintel.com/

4. Kaczorowski, Mikolaj. (2024, February 16). A Year of Innovation in Beer and Cider, 2024. [Market Report]. Mintel. https://www.mintel.com/