How To Make Hop Water At Home: The Ultimate Zero-Proof Brewing Guide (2026 Edition)

Hop water is sparkling water infused with hop aroma—no fermentation, so it stays 0.0% ABV. To make it at home, steep 10–15 grams (roughly 0.35 to 0.5 ounces) of hop pellets in hot (not boiling) water for 10–20 minutes, strain, dilute with cold water, add a small splash of lemon juice or lactic acid for crispness, then carbonate and chill.

If you’ve been following our DIY beverage projects—like our recent guides for making strawberry syrups or that cloudy Finnish Sima—you know we rarely back down from a messy kitchen experiment. But let’s be real for a second. Sometimes you just crave the bitter snap of an IPA or the dry finish of a pilsner without dealing with alcohol, heavy malts, and the calories that come with them. Living right here in Vienna, I constantly find myself wanting the earthy, spicy bite of a local Styrian Golding or the tangerine punch of European Mandarina hops. Whipping up your own zero-proof hop water recipe is the perfect, low-effort fix for that exact craving.

A frosty glass of carbonated hop water garnished with a lemon twist resting on a wooden table next to fresh green hop cones

What is hop water?

Hop water is simply carbonated water flavored with hops, brewed entirely without fermentation so it stays strictly alcohol-free. If you’ve ever tried brewing non-alcoholic beer at home, you already know the massive headache involved: mashing sticky grains, pitching yeast, and anxiously trying to halt fermentation before it creates booze. Hop water skips all that nonsense. It guarantees a true 0.0% ABV result every single time you make it.

According to extraction data from the folks at Yakima Chief Hops, dropping the water temperature before adding your hops prevents harsh, astringent tannins from leaching into the liquid. The result? A deeply refreshing drink with virtually zero calories. Wondering how this actually stacks up against other NA options? Read our full breakdown: [Hop Tea vs Hop Water vs NA Beer].

What you need (equipment + ingredients)

Grab your basic kitchen gear and three core ingredients. You definitely don’t need a ridiculous, garage-filling commercial brewing setup to pull this off.

The Ingredients:

• Filtered Water: Since water makes up 99% of what’s in your glass, use the absolute best tasting filtered water you have. Tap water full of chlorine will ruin the batch.
• Hop Pellets: 10 to 15 grams (about 0.35 to 0.5 oz) of whatever variety smells best to you. We strongly recommend using compressed pellets over whole hop cones here, because pellets break apart and release their oils much faster.
• Acid: Lactic acid (which you can grab at any brew shop) or just squeeze some fresh lemon juice. This drops the pH.

The Equipment:

• A large kitchen pot for the hot steep.
• A fine-mesh strainer or a muslin brewing bag to catch all that green sludge.
• A large bowl or your kitchen sink, filled with ice water.
• A carbonation vessel (we’ll look at kegs and countertop soda makers down below).

Best hops for hop water (flavor picker)

Your choice of hops completely dictates how your drink tastes. Different varieties throw off wildly different smells and flavors. Since we’re based in Austria, we lean heavily toward regional European hops. They usually bring out incredible floral, spicy, and wine-like notes that work magic in sparkling water. Want to dig into the exact flavor compounds? Check out our dedicated guide: Best Hops for Hop Water.

Foolproof 5-liter recipe

To capture that beautiful hop aroma without sucking out the nasty bitterness, you have to steep the hops below boiling point and pull them out quickly. Here is our exact process for a standard 5-liter (roughly 1.3 gallons) batch.

1. The Boil: Pour 1 liter (just over 1 quart) of your filtered water into a clean pot and bring it to a rolling boil. Once it’s bubbling, turn the stove off completely.
2. The Steep: Wait a few minutes for the water to cool down to roughly 80°C (175°F). Toss in your 10–15 grams of hop pellets. Letting them sit in this sub-boiling water for exactly 15 minutes pulls out the aromatic oils without dragging the bitter alpha acids along with them.
3. The Acid Addition: Stir in 1/2 teaspoon (about 2.5 ml) of lactic acid or fresh lemon juice. Hop water sits at a higher pH than normal beer, which makes it taste dull. Dropping the pH adds a snappy, refreshing bite. If you want to nerd out on how salts and acids change the way a drink feels on your tongue, read: [Water Chemistry for Zero-Proof Drinks].
4. The Chill: When your 15-minute timer goes off, carefully move the hot pot into an ice bath in your sink. You want the temperature to plummet fast.
5. The Dilution: Pour that chilled, green hop tea through your strainer directly into a keg or a large serving jug. Leave the leftover hop trub in the strainer. Finally, top up the jug with your remaining 4 liters (about 1 gallon) of ice-cold filtered water.

Brewing a smaller batch? (1-Liter Scaling Box)

Just want enough to drink on the patio this afternoon? Scale it way down:

Heat 200 ml (about 7 oz) of water to 80°C (175°F). Toss in 2 to 3 grams of hops and steep for 15 minutes. Add a couple of drops of lemon juice. Chill it down, strain the sludge, and mix in 800 ml (about 27 oz) of cold water.

Carbonation options (keg + no-keg methods)

You have to carbonate this stuff heavily. Flat hop water is pretty gross. Bubbles are what recreate the aggressive bite of actual beer. Ready to upgrade your kitchen setup? Read our gear breakdown: [Carbonation at Home].

• The Keg Method: Got a Cornelius keg sitting around? Transfer the chilled, diluted batch into the keg, hook up the gas, and force carbonate at 30 to 35 PSI for a few days. Water doesn’t absorb CO2 as easily as beer does, so you have to crank the pressure higher than you normally would.
• The No-Keg Method (SodaStream): Just keep your flat hop water in a sealed pitcher in the fridge. Whenever you get thirsty, pour the cold liquid into your SodaStream bottle and hit the button right before you drink it. Pro tip: Make sure the liquid is nearly freezing before you pump the gas in. Cold water holds onto bubbles way better.

Troubleshooting (grassy / bitter / flat / weak aroma)

If your first batch tastes weird, it almost always comes down to water temperature, how long you let the hops sit, or getting the acid balance wrong. Still having trouble? We wrote a whole guide on [How to Reduce Bitterness in Hop Water].

• It tastes like bitter lawn clippings: You probably dumped the hops in while the water was still at a rolling boil, or you walked away and let them steep for half an hour. Next round, use a thermometer to make sure you hit 80°C (175°F) and pull them out at 15 minutes sharp.
• It tastes “flabby” or dull: Your pH didn’t drop enough. Real beer gets its tanginess from the yeast fermenting. Your hop water needs acid to fake that tang. Squeeze in a little more lemon juice.
• It barely smells like anything: Your hops are probably stale, or your steep water was too cold to melt the oils. Only buy hops that come in vacuum-sealed, nitrogen-flushed bags. Learn the best fridge tricks in our post: [How to Store Hops].

Flavor variations (citrus peel, cucumber, ginger, NA bitters optional)

Tinkering with this recipe is incredibly easy. Just throw fresh aromatics into the hot water along with your pellets. Try these out once you nail the base recipe:

• The Citrus Bomb: Toss a couple of thick strips of grapefruit or orange peel into the hot steep. It makes hops like Citra and Mandarina Bavaria explode with fruit flavor.
• The Spa Water: Drop fresh cucumber slices into the jug during the cold dilution step. It softens the drink and pairs up nicely with spicy Czech Saaz hops.
• The Spicy Ginger: Grate about a teaspoon of fresh ginger root into the hot water. It leaves a subtle, warming burn in the back of your throat.
• The Aperitivo (NA Bitters): Build a zero-proof mocktail by splashing non-alcoholic aromatic bitters into your glass before pouring the bubbly hop water over top.

Storage & serving

Keep the finished product in the fridge. Cold temperatures protect the delicate oils and stop the carbonation from going flat.

• Storage: A sealed keg or a tight-lidded pitcher will keep the drink fresh for about 2 to 3 weeks. Drink it before then, or the hop flavors will oxidize and taste like cardboard.
• Serving: Pour it colder than you would pour a craft ale. Drink it ice-cold out of a frosty glass—the extreme chill tricks your mouth into feeling that missing alcohol “bite.”

Common Questions About Hop Water (FAQ)

Where to buy supplies

Sourcing good ingredients depends on where you live. Here’s how to navigate the European market:

• Austria & Germany: You can buy incredibly fresh, locally grown hops and all the brewing gear you need from sites like Hobbybrauerversand or MashCamp.
• Italy: Hit up specialized homebrew shops like Pinta.it; they stock tons of international hop varieties.
• Online (Pan-European): If you’re hunting for hard-to-find American or New Zealand hops, massive shops like Brouwland ship pretty much anywhere in the EU.

The Final Verdict

We are miles past the era where “alcohol-free” meant drinking glorified, sugary grape juice. In 2026, brewing your own zero-proof drinks at home proves you can still enjoy the ritual, the bitter flavors, and the whole craft experience without waking up with a splitting headache.

What should we throw in the brew kettle next? Want us to break down how to make non-alcoholic cocktail bitters from scratch? Hit the contact form and tell us what you think!

Cheers!

The AlcoFree Brew Team