I have been aware of the growing trend of breweries adding hop water to taproom offerings as well as some well known breweries offering hop water, i.e., Lagunitas, Sierra Nevada, as well as my local go to brewery, DECA in Porter, TX. DECA doesn’t always have it on tap but I have sampled the Lagunitas as well as the Sierra Nevada offerings and……….I Like! So now the question is, can a home brewer make something drinkable? Below is my first attempt……..two reviews near the end of the blog post.

Doing a search for recipes I found mostly recommendations for 5 gallon batches. That could have been an option for me but, alas, my kegerator died suffering a compressor failure and an $ 800 repair estimate on a used refrigerator. I do have the desire to rebuild but with a brand new refrigerator costing less than the repair estimate……and potentially a long life. The kegerator comes into play as the hop water recipes all require carbonation. Alternative are the counter type Soda Stream devices or, lucky me, I have a 1 gallon Growler Werks growler that has a potential for me to carbonate my first attempt. Another plus of 1 gallon batches is that I don’t have to drink a 5 gallon batch or wait for my buddies to help.

A walk through my process and first attempt. Duh, I decided on a 1 gallon batch. Best guess from my reading online was 5 grams of hops, juice of one lemon and a dash of gypsum. I chose to heat the water to near boiling and as it cooled to 170 deg F, I steeped the hops for 20 minutes in a hop bag I use when dry hopping my brews. Once cool, I squeezed in the juice of one lemon, a Meyer Lemon……more on the later, a dash of gypsum and removed the hops bag taking care to not squeeze it. I placed the pot in the fridge for 24 hours then transferred the liquid through Malitta coffee filters. I had on hand a fairly large selection of hops acquired from a store going out of business stored in my freezer. I chose Amarillo for my hops….Hmmm more later.

From yakimavalleyhops.com the Amarillo is described as; ”Amarillo® offers solid bittering properties in the 9-11% Alpha Acid range and it packs one of the highest myrcene oil contents (60-70% of total oils) of any hop. This gives it a very sweet citrus flavor and aroma that is closer to oranges than grapefruit.“ See above…..I used the juice of a Meyer Lemon, which may not have been to best choice. The Meyer lemon fruit is very yellow and larger, rounder and juicier than a true lemon They are much sweeter and less acidic than the more common supermarket varieties. Most recipes called for getting the pH into the 3.5 range and the Meyer Lemon’s acid content may have come up short there. . The skin is fragrant and thin when ripe and makes an excellent jelly…..Yum.

So, with the sweetness and less acidic properties of the Meyer Lemons and the flavor profile of the Amarillo hops……the hops flavor may have been masked. After the growler was filled with the cold hop water, I added a CO2 cartridge, cranked the pressure up well past the 15 psi mark, shook the growler to help force carbonate and let it sit in the fridge for 24 hours. After 24 hours I pulled a sample and shared it with my good friend…..taste was very citrusy but no detectable hops, in either aroma or taste. That said, we both agreed that it was refreshing and is a good zero calorie beverage for a summer day……even if it is February in Houston…..at 75 deg F and humid. About 24 hours later I sampled it again and I could finally detect the hint of hops. The hop water is very slightly cloudy and by day 3 it had more evidence of sufficient carbonation.

Day 4, very pleasant and after nearly 4 pints of the available volume the CO2 pressure had begun to drop. The flavor is still improving and begs for another round of experimentation. What will I do differently? Use store bought lemons for sure! Monitor the pH, this will require a meter and steep longer to pull more of the hop’s attributes.. Maybe two experiments with steeping; 1. dry hop for 24 hours at cold temperature, or 2. begin steeping at 170 deg F and then allow to steep for 24 hours. Hop selection may change to something like Citra, Mosaic or Centennial. I have lots of hops so there may be multiple iterations and taking good notes, not one of my strong points, will be a must.

I think I am going to like my experimentation and what a great way to reduce my weekly calorie intake, read that as maybe………. fewer beers…….not really a bad thing as creep closer to my 73rd birthday in Early March.

Drink Local and Drink Responsibly

Bishop