GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — Founders Brewing Co. in Grand Rapids now has a nonalcoholic hop water on tap.
“Basically, it’s a light, refreshing, almost like sparkling water flavored with hops,” Founders Brewmaster Jeremy Kosmicki explained to FOX 17. “So, hops in beer do a couple different things. We use it for bittering, of course, but that’s not really appropriate in this hop water, right? Because there’s no sweetness to balance, it’s just water. But the other thing that hops do is they offer flavor and aroma.”
“Hungry & Sober” is the brewery’s first nonalcoholic hop water, which comes in at 0.0% ABV.
“It seems kind of like a no-brainer. We have great water. We have great hops, and we are kind of diversifying our drink assortment,” Kosmicki added. “Trying to get some different options out there for different palates and, especially of the nonalcoholic nature, it’s fun to have some options there besides just soda pop.”
Founders says, in recent years, its customer-base has been looking for more alcohol-free options.
“There’s people who want to drink less and people who don’t want to drink at all. There’s people that just, you know, they want to be refreshed, and I think this hop water is especially refreshing as far as that goes,” Kosmicki said. “People enjoy it. It’s different but it’s familiar. People associate that hop flavor with some of their favorite beers so it’s kind of a cool way, you know, as a brewery, we should be doing this kind of stuff, right?”
Founders is running a special on this new draft— guests can enjoy a pint for just three dollars.
“This summer’s gonna be great,” Kosmicki said. “We’re always making fun stuff just for our taproom, production releases out in the world, you know, we got the All Day Variety Packs right now. There’s gonna be another variety pack coming with some different brands.”
