If you’ve been following this blog for the past couple of years, you’ve been witnessing the rising prominence of non-alcoholic and lifestyle alt-beer/malt beverages along with me as I’ve explored them. The latest trend seems to be hop water—essentially, zero calorie hop-infused water, often sparkling. Think La Croix with hops. And the newest entrant into the space comes from Bend’s Worthy Brewing, with its new Hop Quencher.

Hop Quencher is a Strata-hop infused sparkling water that is “boosted with xanthohumol,” a compound found in hops that purport to have anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties, among others. I don’t enough about it to know if this is true or not, but it’s an interesting marketing point at least.

There’s no sugar and no calories in Hop Quencher, and aside from water and hops, there’s citric acid to help balance the pH.

Worthy provided me with samples to try, which will be worked into an upcoming article for the paper, so there’s more to come!