Hop water helps beer drinkers keep Dry January going all year long

Dry January has come to an end, but it’s left behind a new trend: non-alcoholic hop water. And as more people continue to cut back on their alcohol and gluten intake, some breweries plan to offer hop water — usually made with hops, water and a pinch of citric acid — all year round.

“At first I didn’t want to make it, but understanding Dry January is a thing — and we needed to make something NA [ non-alcoholic] as well as be all-inclusive — I figured if we were going to do it we wanted to do it right,” said Anthony Martuscello, the owner of Lakewood’s WestFax Brewing. “We did trials to figure out how to make it drinkable and not harsh.”

This was the first year Martuscello produced hop water at the brewery. To create the light and effervescent drink, he wanted ...