Lagunitas Brewing Co. – Hoppy Refresher – Sparkling Hop Water

I used to joke that I finally found a gluten-free, non-alcoholic beer—then I’d put my glass under the water faucet. It seemed like a hopeless endeavor, and also one that no one would bother with nor be crazy enough to carry out. But suddenly, only 30 years after I quit drinking beer, I’ve seen several sparkling hops waters—and I finally tried this one, and it’s quite delicious—a little flowery, a little fruity, a little bitter, but just pretty irresistible for me—I could drink this every day. It’s from Lagunitas Brewing Company, in Petaluma, California. Apparently, they’re a… brewing company, as in beer. There was time when I knew all the breweries, from the old ones to the new ones, but anymore, could any one person keep up? I don’t think I could, even if I still drank beer. Anyway, this is a cute one—the can’s got a cartoon dog with a snorkel mask, whatever that means. The ingredients—besides water and natural flavors—are dried hops and nutritional brewer’s yeast—so that’s interesting. What does it taste like? The fact that it’s hard to describe is a good sign. It doesn’t really taste like beer—well, not at all—but it does have that bitter edge that some beer has—so that’s enough to remind me of beer. But it’s complex—that’s a good quality, too, when something tastes like several things at once—and you can’t really put your finger on any of them. I’m going to have to get more of this, sometime, and I’m going to have to try all the hop water, now.

3.9.23