Let's Make Hop Water

No / Low-ABV drinks are becoming more and more mainstream lately. I personally like the movement to give non-drinkers or just folks who want a drink (but not the after effects) a suitable option. While some of these options are delicious, i.e., Hop Water we are discussing, the price can be a little outrageous, IMHO. Some options of hop water I have near me are more expensive than their alcoholic counterparts.

I recently came across a bunch of tutorials on how to make your own Hop water at home and having a penchant for chemistry, I decided to buy an extraction funnel & lab stand and try this out. Let's get started.

NOTE: Yes, I am using grain alcohol as my extraction solvent. Is this non-alcoholic in the true sense...No! However, this method will get you a "non-alcoholic" extract according to the US gov't. It'll actually be about 0.2% ABV for a 12 oz glass using the 65% grain alcohol. If you use straight 95%, your results will increase. Keep that in mind.

Some kind of apparatus to macerate your extract - I use a 500 mL extraction funnel ~30 USD

Lab stand - 30 USD

Hops

65% ABV Alcohol - I uses 151 Everclear but dilution details are below

Filtered water

Mixing bowls

Scale (preferably to the hundredths scale [0.00])

Bar Spoon or any long spoon

Scoop(s)

Spice grinder or mortar & pestle

Calculator

Beakers or mixing cups

Jars to store extract (preferably amber bottles to minimize light)

Tape / Labels

Carbon dioxide, Soda Stream, or some method to get carbonated water

Lab notebook (optional, but beneficial)

Dropper bottle is also highly recommended

If using some sort of funnel, you'll also need:

Cotton balls

Cotton swabs

Quartz sand (rinsed until water runs clear)

IF NOT, then some kind of filter like cheesecloth or a Chemex paper filter

Some folks may find laboratory gear daunting and I hear you. I am one of the few people who actually enjoyed chemistry class in school. But here are my initial thoughts:

1) I like chemistry and do a lot of DIY liquor, syrups, sodas, etc., so it was a no brainer to buy this setup. In the long run, it should pay for itself in terms of the amount of money saved Not buying commercial beverages.

2) This wasn't price prohibitive as, say...a new blender, air fryer, rice cooker, etc., so that is no excuse in my mind.

3) Kitchens are basically chemistry labs anyway (looking at you, Bakers)!

4) You don't need to buy lab equipment to make these extracts. I will mention some alternatives along the way.

OPTIONAL: If you use a filtering method like cheesecloth, nut milk bag, or coffee filter (Chemex), then you can do that at the end and skip this sand prep step.

We used sand for filtering in the chemistry lab at school and figured this is suitable for repeating at home, with some prep. I used a 5 pound bag of aquarium quartz sand and it was around $8 USD (and you get a LOT for what we are doing). But it needs some rinsing.

If you have ever rinsed rice prior to a meal, this is basically the exact same process. You only need enough to cover your funnel spout, but more on that later. For me, I just poured enough to the 20 mL line on a 100 mL beaker since it mimicked the size of my extraction funnel.

Then you just rinse the quartz sand until the water runs clear. For the chemistry geeks out there, you want to reduce your turbidity ;)

Set your sand aside for later.

Hops can be purchased at your local home brew store or online. There are tons of varieties but I chose Magnum, Citra, and Cascade for this experiment. Another thing to note is how you receive them; pellet or flower form. My flower example is shown in pic 1

Either can be crushed up in a mortar & pestle or a a spice grinder (pic 2-6) but the former will come out fine like powder and the latter will be more fluffy as you can see in pic 6 & 7.

I weighed out 1 oz or 30 grams (remember your weight number for later) of my hops in flower form and dumped them little by little in my spice grinder, a little bit at a time. The entire 1 ounce wouldn't fit in my grinder.

NOTE: We have two grinders in our house; 1 for coffee ONLY and the other for everything else. You'll see why in pic 8 & 9 as it is sticcccckkkkkkyy!

So, just keep grinding away until you get all of your hops ground down to fit in your vessel.

I can only find grain alcohol with a high enough ABV to be suitable for extraction (pic 1). All vodka in my region have too low of an alcohol percentage, ~40-45% ABV range. I have found grain alcohol in two percentages: 75.5% or 95%. Depending on your local laws will depend on what ABV or Proof you can get.

So why 65% and why not just use 75.5%? And the answer is you want your alcohol to be strong enough to extract the non-water soluble compounds so you don't lose those hoppy characteristics. However, you DO want enough water to also grab those water soluble compounds. This way, you get the best of both worlds. Darcy O'Neil highly recommends this ABV concentration and I trust their judgement.

Quick reference:

If you purchase 75.5% alcohol, then mix 200 mL of that with 32 mL water to get 65%.

If you purchase 95% alcohol, then mix 200 mL of that with 92 mL water to get 65%.

If you would like to know the formula:

Looking at pics 2 - 6, you will need the dilution formula which is basically, "What do I have and where do I need to be?" For me it is 75.5% diluted to 65% alcohol. If I start with 200 mL of 75.5%, I need to find what volume to get me to 65%, and that is what the math shows. Divided both sides by 65% (percent cancels out on the left side) to isolate X (your final volume) and multiply that figure by your known 200 mL of alcohol. I calculate ~232 mL so I take my 200 mL of 75.5% alcohol and mix 32 mL of water to get roughly 65% ABV. The math is the same if you have 95% grain alcohol only I calculate that your figure would be 1.4615 as opposed to the 1.1615 I got for 75.5%.

Makes sense? Good, moving on.

Pellet or flower form, your hops are going to absorb a LOT of liquid, which will reduce your yield, aka your end product. The point is to have an extraction collected at the end so we have to soak our hops. Generally, you will need to go 4:1, alcohol:hops.

Remember when I said to remember your hop weight? 30 grams x 4 = 120 mL of 65% ABV alcohol.

That is a maximum so if you wind up using 100 mL or 95 mL, that is perfectly okay. Your climate and area may affect absorption. The idea is that they absorb enough so that you don't have standing liquid (pic 3). When you are satisfied, or have used all the alcohol, cover, and let is absorb for about an hour.

We want to use the 4:1 ratio here for extraction, too. That is in addition to the 4:1 in the previous step! For that, I have 120 mL 65% ABV alcohol on standby.

You don't have to use an extraction funnel like me. If using a jar or similar apparatus, dump all of your wet hops in the jar, and do NOT pack the hops down. You want to have some room for all the hops to extract. Dump enough alcohol to cover. Let it soak for 24 hours and remember you may not use up all of your 120 mL. After the first 24 hours, strain, and repeat with the rest of your alcohol.

For the separation funnel setup:

Grab 1 cotton ball and spritz it with alcohol (pic 2), just enough to saturate but not dripping. Add it to the funnel (pic 3) and tamp it down (pic 4).

Add the cleaned quartz sand (pic 5) followed by the soaked hops (pic 6-7), followed by the first soak of 65% alcohol (pic 8-9). If you don't use all of it now, that is okay. Soak the hops for 24 hours.

Open the funnel after 24 hours and collect in a (preferably) amber bottle (pic 12-13). Close the funnel and place enough alcohol to cover your hops a 2nd time. If that is the rest that is fine. If you have alcohol left over, that is also fine. After the full 48 hours, when you drain for the second time, if you have any alcohol left, just pour it over and let it flow through and into your collection bottle. No additional extraction is necessary after the full 48 hours. Collect all of your extractions (pic 14-15) and now it is time for the fun part!

OPTIONAL (but highly recommended, pic 16) Keep lab notes with things that pertain to the senses. For example, I write all my weights, volumes used, when, times, LOT numbers of the material (just in case), visuals, smells, etc.

After you have collected all of your extraction (pic 1), it should be shelf stable as is, due to the amount of alcohol in it. My advice is to place it in the fridge, especially if you don't have an opaque bottle to store it in.

Prepare your carbonated water:

This could be canned from the store, kitchen equipment like a Soda Stream, or DIY. I use my own CO2 tank, a used (& cleaned) PET soda bottle which can be reused 100's of times, and a carbonator cap, which you can find online or at a homebrew store. (pic 2-8).You may have noticed that in pic 7, I am shaking the devil out of it and that may make you wonder, "I was always told to never shake up a carbonated beverage?!" Yes, that is true once it has be fully carbonated but here I am forcing the carbonation manually and in order to get that CO2 in solution, I shake it!

To Use:

Place 1 mL of hop extract to 12 oz of carbonated water over ice. I also like to use a squeeze of lime to add more refreshing-ness. You really want to use a dropper bottle to dial in your beverage since it will be so potent. If you don't have droppers, a graduated cylinder is fine.

NOTE: In a dropper, there are approximately 15-20 drops in one milliliter. That will help fine tune your drink to your specific tastes!

Also, play around with different hops! This is your experiment so have some fun. Part of the enjoyment, is to taste your creations and make them suit your taste or if you're with friends/family, their tastes. I did Citra, Magnum, and Cascade because my local brewery uses them and I really enjoy their beer. My plan was to try all three individually and then mess around with the ratio until I found a mixture that I enjoyed the most.

Cascade and Citra hops have a kind of tart, citrus flavor (go figure with a name like 'citra'), so I opted to dial down the amount of Citra used. On it's own, Cascade was my favorite with Magnum being overall muted. I am not sure why unless that is just how it is, a supporting actor? However, I don't dislike it ... it just wasn't my favorite.

After copious amounts of research, I landed on:

5 drops Magnum

5 drops Citra

10 drops Cascade

Or simply a 1:1:2 ratio and this was nice and balanced, slightly bitter, and full of that nice hoppy flavor I enjoy. I also really pushed the full milliliter because I am one of those people who enjoy bitter and hoppy flavors. Case in point, my favorite cocktail is the Negroni; so bitter & so delicious!

I tried all three by themselves, 50:50 mixes, swapping out the three different hops, a 1:1:1 ration and so forth. The 1:1:2 ratio mentioned was my favorite and I premixed a separate dropper bottle so now I just grab it from the fridge, give it a little shake, drop, and mix! Easy and refreshing!!

I tried it with and without the squeeze of lime and, while still yummy, I prefer with the citrus although, I wouldn't premix that since lime itself has a tendency to lose it's pop after a day (even in the fridge).

That's all my research here for your experimenting pleasure. I hope you give this a try and drop a comment if you do and which hops you used :)

Catch you on the next one and thanks for your time.