Urban Chestnut Brewing Company’s first foray into non-alcoholic, craft beverage production has been released. Infused with American hops, UCBC Sparkling Hop Water is unsweetened and naturally free of both alcohol and calories.

“It’s been a fun challenge for us to create a refreshing beverage without using grain, sugar, or yeast,” The result is a sparkling, all-occasion beverage full of floral and piney hop flavor.” said Jon Shine, UCBC’s VP of sales.

While hops have been an essential component in beer-brewing for hundreds of years, they’ve also been known to have certain health benefits. Hops have been used for medicinal purposes since medieval times, and today many herbalists claim they can improve overall health and may even prevent certain diseases. Current research suggests hops have mild sedative properties, can improve blood circulation, and may one day lead to the development of cancer therapies.

The idea to produce hop water came about in the spring of 2018 when Urban Chestnut, who planned to have an activation tent at last year’s Loufest, wanted to provide a non-alcoholic beverage for attendees during the event.

“Once Loufest was cancelled, we were left with a good number of hop water kegs, so we put it on tap at our Grove Bierhall,” said Shine. “We were blown away by how well it was received and has been selling, so we’ve continued to produce it and keep it on tap ever since. Expanding availability by way of cans is a natural way for us to dip our toes into an adjacent craft beverage market, where we’ll also explore infusing different variants of UCBC Hop Water with other natural ingredients like Ginseng, CBD, etc.”

UCBC Sparkling Hop Water is expected to hit shelves by Summer of 2019. It will be available in four-packs of 16-ounce cans in stores where water and soda are sold.