Jerry Porter had gone gluten-free and couldn't drink beer anymore. It was a problem — his hobby for years was brewing beer. So he started experimenting with making hop water, a sparkling water infused with hops instead of a malted grain fermented with them. The result was alcohol-free, gluten-free, sugar-free, calorie-free, and somehow, still delicious.
Porter's son in law, Anthony Ward, had a different motivation. "I just wanted something that satiated the urge to drink beer without having a negative effect." He had decided to cut back on alcohol after drinking a few too many beers out of sheer boredom during the pandemic. He felt better physically, but bubbly water after bubbly water still left him feeling, well, bored.
Jerry's hop water proved so satisfying to both of them that they wanted other people to try it, so they created and began selling PNW Hop Water in 2022. The family business more than doubled its sales in 2023.
Things look promising for the young company, which is taking off at the same time as nonalcoholic adult beverages are becoming trendy across the country. According to consumer spending analyst NielsenIQ, nonalcoholic beverages sales grew to half a billion dollars in July 2023. The year before, hop water alone accounted for $5.5 million in sales, up by over 40% from the year before, while craft beer sales dropped 7%. NPR's Marketplace reported that while close to half of millennials drink regularly, only about a fifth of Gen Z drinks that often.
"It feels like we're reaching that tipping point where people are really starting to understand how bad alcohol can be for you," Ward says. "This is just a really well-timed product in terms of where we are going culturally."
Perfecting PNW Hop Water was done by Brian Porter, Jerry's son, who grew up brewing with his dad and ended up a culinary professional.
Now an instructor at Lewis and Clark High School, Brian used his restaurant experience to extract as much flavor as possible from Yakima-grown hops. He also created alternate flavors, preferring the way citrus pairs with the fresh hops. Along with the original "Hoppy" flavor, PNW Hop Water also comes in grapefruit, tangerine and yuzu, the latter being another trendy ingredient that's been a huge hit at farmers markets.
Hop water isn't nonalcoholic beer. It's not trying to mimic Budweiser. It's a completely natural, carbonated tea infused with sophisticated adult flavors.
"I always try to make a point to explain to people, most alcoholic beers are brewed as regular beer and then they process it afterwards to remove the alcohol," Brian says. "When they do that, they're changing it chemically. Whereas we're taking a product and building it from the ground up so we don't have to remove anything."
PNW Hop Water is also taking on a life of its own.
"We've found a lot of people are using it to make cocktails," Ward says. "They'll use it as a mixer for nonalcoholic cocktails as well as alcoholic cocktails. It's a nice base for a lot of citrus type drinks, or with gin or tequila or vodka."
Ward is realizing he doesn't miss the alcohol. He can still celebrate or relax or take part in any social ritual that usually includes a delicious drink in hand, but without a foggy memory or headache the next day.
"I've had some of my best times without alcohol," Ward says. "The best moments I spend with my family are always the little moments, just simple things. I don't feel like I can be as present if I'm drinking in those moments. No disrespect to drinking — I enjoy a good beer. But as I get older, the moments that are most important to me are generally the ones where I'm sober."
