My most recent article for The Bulletin hits on hop water—the sparkling, non-alcoholic beverage that’s been growing in popularity in recent years. (And if you’ve been following this blog for awhile, you’re already aware of it!) Worthy Brewing just released its Hop Quencher, Central Oregon’s first sparkling hop water (which the brewery gave me samples of), so it was an opportunity to cover the topic a bit more in-depth.

Hop Quencher was inspired by examples such as Lagunitas Hoppy Refresher and the non-alcoholic products from Colorado-based HopLark such as HopTea.

“I’d say that they both played a key role in the main motivation as well as the development of the product itself,” said head brewer Brian Chapman via email. “In my opinion, the Lagunitas Hoppy Refresher does a great job to appeal to a larger audience with its more ‘soft drink’ characteristics and HopLark really showcases the hops in a way that us in the industry are more in tune with. We wanted to make sure that we could hit on both of those points.”

Hop Quencher is crafted with carbonated water, Strata hops, and lemon juice to balance the acidity. There’s no alcohol, and the nutritional information on the can lists zero grams of carbohydrates and one calorie per 12-ounce serving.

There are also details on the recipe formulation, the addition of xanthohumol, and of course—how it tastes.

A spoiler on the taste front: it’s pretty good, one of the better ones that I’ve had so far.