Hop water offers a different kind of canned refreshment. Here are 9 to try.

Over the past decade or so, the nonalcoholic beverage aisle has gone from sparsely populated to entirely overwhelming. Once the domain of sugary sweet sodas and meant-to-be-spiked mixers, the shelves are now populated with kombuchas, mocktails and adaptogen-enriched elixirs.

While the palatability of these new entries is often debatable, there’s one beverage category on the ascent: hop water — carbonated water flavored with hop extracts, the same ingredient that gives beer its bitterness and aroma.

For a category that barely existed five years ago, the growth numbers are impressive. NielsenIQ retail data shows hop water dollar sales climbing from roughly $6 million in 2022 to nearly $32 million by mid-2025. Sales have relaxed a bit since then, though that’s not unusual for a new beverage category that’s still working out where it belongs, literally, on the grocery shelf. Still, the future looks promising.

Though hops are mostly associated with beer, it’s important to know that hop water is not beer. It is flavored sparkling water — just flavored with hops instead of fruit. That distinction matters, because the people making it will tell you so emphatically. “Hop water is not a beer replacement,” says Adam Benesch of Union Craft Brewing in Baltimore, which launched its Hopwater Springs two years ago. “It’s an entirely different beverage for fans of seltzer water.”

For brewers, it presents an easy on-ramp to a nonalcoholic offering that requires considerably less effort than producing NA beer.

“Nonalcoholic beer requires a change in process and/or ingredients compared to regular beer,” Benesch said. “It may not be as easy for breweries to make compared to hop water.”

So what exactly are hops? They’re the cone-shaped flowers of the humulus lupulus plant, grown in cool climates across the Pacific Northwest, Europe, Australia and New Zealand. Brewers have used them for centuries as a bittering agent and a preservative in beer — they’re what keeps an IPA from tasting flat and sweet, and what gives it that piney, citrusy or floral kick depending on the variety.

“Hops are essentially the spice of beer,” says Will Golden of Austin Beer Works in Texas. And like any spice, where they’re grown shapes everything. Noble European varieties skew earthy, with notes of white pepper and clove. American and Australian hops go citrusy and fruit-forward, which is why your hazy IPA smells like a fruit stand.

In hop water, brewers use hop extracts — concentrated oils pulled from the plant — to flavor carbonated water the same way a soda maker might use fruit flavoring. The variety available to them is staggering. Distributors carry dozens of distinct extracts, each with its own character, and brewers blend them to build a flavor profile. Benesch uses high carbonation levels to amplify the effect: “A prickly feel that helps bring out the taste of the hops” — higher, he notes, than what they carbonate their beers at. No brewing, no fermentation, no alcohol. (And no carbs, sugar or calories, either.) Just water, bubbles and the most interesting spice in the beverage world.

The result is a category with a surprisingly wide range. Here are a few widely available options to try:

Partake Brewing Hop Twist is crisp and gently citrusy — a good entry point for the uninitiated.

Short’s Brewing Thirst Mutilator leans fruity and approachable, a smart gateway for the seltzer-loyal crowd.

Sierra Nevada Hop Splash delivers satisfying hoppiness in fruit-forward flavors.

HopWtr, widely available at major retailers, offers mild bitterness and clean refreshment in several flavors.

Austin Beerworks Hop Water brings a pop of bright fruity acidity to the front, finishing with just enough bitter bite to remind you this is more than your average soda water.

Lagunitas Hoppy Refresher, one of the originals in the category, remains a benchmark, particularly for IPA lovers looking for something in that neighborhood without the alcohol.

Fieldwork Brewing Hop Water, made with Nelson and Mosaic hops, is aromatic and lovely, proof that this category can reach genuine elegance.

Union Craft Hopwater Springs sits at the boldest end of the spectrum, with a hoppiness that makes everything else taste timid by comparison. If you’ve ever wished your sparkling water had something to say for itself, this is it.

Go Brewing Straight Outta Alcohol was my personal favorite of every brand I tasted. Distributed across 31 states, this hop water is balanced, complex and satisfying enough that I reached for a second can without thinking about it.

The category is still young enough that supermarkets don’t always know where to shelve it. Golden laughs about the problem: Grocers want to put it in the beer aisle, but it doesn’t belong there; it’s sparkling water, but getting space in that aisle is its own battle. The identity confusion is real, but it speaks to something true about where hop water sits right now — a young category finding its footing somewhere between the sparkling water aisle and the craft beer cooler, in a space that belongs entirely to itself.

As brewers continue to experiment, Benesch and Golden report that consumers — whether they’re sober, cutting back on alcohol consumption or just looking for something more interesting than plain seltzer — are responding warmly once they understand what they’re holding.

The only real problem is that most people still don’t know it exists. That won’t be true for much longer.