Abstrax Releases Free Hop Water Recipe to Quench Palate of Non-Alc Surge

In November, Abstrax released its Hop Water Guide, called How to Make Hop Water, which provides a hop water recipe and the process for making a five-gallon pilot batch using the company’s portfolio of products, including Quantum, Omni, and Skyfarm.

The open-source recipe and process are for any brewer and serve as a core template to innovate from. Hunsinger recommends using the guide as a launchpad for any brewery to kickstart its hop water line.

Based on his own testing and trials, Hunsinger developed what he calls an “open-ended” hop water recipe. The recipe is good to follow verbatim, but Hunsinger stresses, “We’re the conduit through which it flows. We stake our plan on doing things that are good for everybody.” Brewers can take the notes created by Abstrax and follow their own path to the finish line.

The Abstrax recipe is for a five-gallon pilot batch, which can be scaled up once you identify the version that best represents your brand. Chill five gallons of carbon-filtered water down to 0 to 4 degrees Celsius and add 1.8 grams of non-iodized brewing salt or Diamond Crystal kosher salt (per five gallons). Set the pH to 3.9-4.2 before dosing with hop products.

Once you achieve that, add any one of your favorite Abstrax Omni Hop Profiles or Quantum varietal extracts at 5 to 7 milliliters per five gallons. Set the CO2 to a target appropriate for a seltzer, about 2.7 to 3.1 volumes. One note: the total flavor ceiling for added flavors, including hops and any other layers, should not exceed 10 milliliters per 5 gallons. The company recommends probing sensitivity in a bench trial at 0.0065 ml/L and bracketing from there.

“There are thresholds to be aware of,” Hunsinger says. “But the framework is like a classic cocktail. Proportion and swap out.”

Photography courtesy of Abstrax

According to Hunsinger, the key to making a high-quality hop water and successfully reaching consumers who are sober or sober-curious is to maximize flavor.

“I think it’s common-sense knowledge and deductions. Not just newer generations either. We’re seeing more flavor-driven everything,” Hunsinger says. “Whether that’s because of people’s vernacular exposure, internet, flavors that they would not have known, or just seeking an experience, flavor-driven everything is where we are going.”

He says that applies to beer and hop water, where the overall flavor, and not just the hop, is the main star of the show.

To achieve maximum flavor in a hop water, Hunsinger recommends using terpenes and advanced hop products instead of pellet hops to remove process variables.

“It’s super challenging to get utilization correct from traditional hops and even the other [companies’] advanced hop products,” Hunsinger says. “Generally, you see an absence of bitterness in the category. Aromatics and the rest of it being the main focus. That’s exactly what we do [at Abstrax].”

Hunsinger notes that making a quality hop water is all about creating “variety-specific amplifications of the product.”

“What you do with it and how you construct it is the brand,” Hunsinger says. “Abstrax is the only thing that is hyper nuanced and gonna get you there.”

For instance, Hunsinger’s recipe for hop water highlights how layering a hop water with Abstrax’s Skyfarm series, a collection of TTB-approved fruit flavors for brewing and other craft beverages, can “enhance the natural complexity of hops without overshadowing it.”

“The Skyfarm stuff is powerful tech as well,” Hunsinger says. “These are all meant to be tools to empower the maker. Where differentiation is key, these are tools to dial it in.”

Abstrax lives for flavor, providing different layered combinations in its Hop Water Guide.

“It’s everything we do, with new flavors, and concentration of flavors,” says Hunsinger.“I think tapping into really deep, primal stuff like sense memory is important and a better experience. Heavier-hitting aromatics and flavors are helping with that, and a lot of these things exist because they do.”

Abstrax hopes its comprehensive, open-source hop water guide will help breweries navigate the industry’s tumultuous times.

Hunsinger says, “with every ounce of humility,” that the Hop Water Guide was created to be a cornerstone for breweries looking to create a flavor-driven hop water.

“[The recipe is] pretty self-explanatory. I hope that us codifying that and standing by it, it’s that simple,” says Hunsinger, who clarifies the intent is to “give it to the people and let them express themselves. I want people to run with that.”

Hopefully, a high-quality hop water can be just another tool in a brewer’s toolbox, another resource and revenue stream to direct breweries through choppy waters. Especially considering the annual surge in non-alcoholic revenue that occurs during Dry January, which some analysts estimate at up to 40 percent!

“The seas are always stormy, so the best way to go is steady on,” Hunsinger says. “We want to be the lighthouse for [breweries]. We don’t know everything, but we know a good amount of what we do know, and we just want to help.”

Abstrax has created a recipe and a white paper on hop water that provide all the information you need to create a stellar offering using the company’s advanced hop products and terpenes.

Hunsinger says that if anyone has questions about the Hop Water Guide, the recipe, or any Abstrax products, they can complete a form on the Abstrax website’s contact page, call (562) 294-5805, or email [email protected].