Hop Water: What It Is and How to List It

Hop water is sparkling water flavored with hops, and it isn't beer. List it in the Non-Alcoholic section, spell out Hop Water as the style, copy the maker's ABV or leave that box blank, and price the can from its landed cost, which puts a $1.20 can at $4. Below: what staff should say, what to read off the can, how the line should look, cans or draft, the price math, and how it works on TapDisplay.

What is hop water?

Hop water is carbonated water flavored with hops, made without malt and, in the usual recipe, without fermentation. The base recipe in a July 22, 2025 Craft Beer & Brewing article is water, hop oil or a hop aroma blend, a little salt and citric acid, then carbonation. The authors, who work for a hop supplier, list "No fermentation. No yeast." and describe their version as having no alcohol, no calories and no sugar.

Federal rules don't treat it as beer either. The Brewers Association's February 10, 2026 guide to hop water rules says hop water isn't defined as a malt beverage under the Federal Alcohol Administration Act, and that the FDA regulates it as a carbonated soft drink.

Brands use their own recipes, so what's in any one can is on its label.

How should staff explain hop water to a guest?

Staff should give one sentence they can say without looking anything up: "It's sparkling water flavored with hops, so it smells a bit like an IPA, but it isn't beer." If the guest asked whether it's a hard seltzer, add what the can says about alcohol, once someone has read it.

Leave out claims nobody has checked on your brand. "Zero calories," "no sugar" and "basically an NA IPA" all sound helpful. Any of them can be wrong for the can in your cooler, even if they're true of the recipe above.

Use the same two words, Hop Water, everywhere: on the board, on a printed menu if you have one, in the call to the bar, and at the table. If the board says Hop Water and the server says "a hoppy seltzer thing," the guest is back to guessing.

What should staff read off the can?

Staff should read the alcohol statement, the Nutrition Facts panel and the ingredient list, because the can answers the follow-up questions. The Brewers Association guide says hop water labels need a Nutrition Facts panel and a list of ingredients in descending order by weight, the same as other packaged soft drinks.

When a new brand comes in, the manager reads the can once and writes a note card for wherever staff already look up product details. Here is what to copy and where it goes:

A server who still isn't sure hands the guest the can. Reading the label at the table settles the question faster than any description.

What goes in the ABV box for hop water?

The ABV box gets the figure the maker prints, or nothing. Don't type 0.0 or 0% on your own when the can gives no number, because a guest avoiding alcohol entirely reads that box, and the figure there has to be the maker's.

The NA beer rules show why you can't fill the gap by habit. 27 CFR 7.65, as published by Cornell's Legal Information Institute, lets a malt beverage call itself non-alcoholic only with "contains less than 0.5 percent" next to it, and bars a 0.0% label unless the drink is also labeled alcohol free. Those rules are written for malt beverages, and hop water isn't one, so don't expect the can to use NA beer wording. Copy whatever it does say.

Keep letters out of the ABV box too. A board that adds a percent sign after the number can turn "NA" into "NA%", and the guest has to ask what that means. The guide to 0.0% and 0.5% on a non-alcoholic menu covers the wording for NA beer.

What should the style column say?

The style column should say Hop Water, spelled out. Skip Seltzer, Hoppy Seltzer, Sparkling and any staff shorthand. Brand and maker go on the line the way the can prints them.

The style column has to carry the meaning because the rest of the line points toward beer. A brewery name in the maker column and a 12 oz can in the pour column read like a beer line, and a guest who sees "seltzer" beside them fills in the word "hard." The words Hop Water leave nothing to fill in.

Here are 2 common mistakes and the fix, with placeholder names and an example price:

The fixed line leaves ABV blank because, in this example, the maker prints no figure. If your can states one, copy it there.

Which section does hop water belong in?

Hop water belongs in the Non-Alcoholic section, with the NA beers. Never put it under Cider and Hard Seltzer, where it would sit one line from drinks with alcohol and get read as one of them.

Mark it as non-alcoholic on its own line as well as under the header, the way you mark every NA line, because some guests read only the line a bartender points to. Building that section, from its name to its place on a list that spans 2 screens, is laid out in setting up a non-alcoholic section on a digital tap list. Where the NA section sits among cider, seltzer and wine is in where cider, seltzer, wine and NA go on a beer list.

Who orders hop water?

Hop water suits guests who want a cold drink that isn't beer and isn't soda. Some guests now ask for it by name, so ask your distributor rep what they carry. It tends to suit:

• The hop lover taking a round off who still wants the smell of an IPA.
• The driver who wants something cold from the cooler besides a soda.
• The guest pacing the night with a drink in hand between rounds.

Swapping drinks is common enough to plan for. In Gallup's August 20, 2026 poll on American drinking, 17% of US adults, including 20% of drinkers, said they had a nonalcoholic beer, wine or spirit in place of an alcoholic drink in the past year. The Craft Beer & Brewing article, citing NielsenIQ and Brewers Association data, puts the US hop water market at $2.3 million in 2020 and $5.5 million in 2022, still growing about 20% a year into late 2024.

Hop water doesn't replace an NA beer for a guest who wants beer flavor, so keep both if you can. The guide to how many NA options a bar should carry uses hop water as the non-beer slot in a starting set of 3. When you offer it, describe the drink and stop there. Don't sell it as a health choice, and don't ask anyone why they're ordering it.

Should hop water go in cans or on draft?

Start with cans. A case fits in the cooler, nothing needs a line, and the label is in the guest's hand when they ask what's in it. On the board, list it by can size with no tap number.

A keg is worth a look only if your supplier offers one and your line cleaning routine already covers it. Before ordering, ask the supplier 3 things and go by their answers for that product:

1. How should the keg be stored before it's tapped?
2. How long can it stay on the line once tapped?
3. How often should that line be cleaned?

If it goes on draft, give it the same treatment as an NA beer tap: its own line and a handle nobody mistakes for beer. NA draft line cleaning covers the routine, and NA beer on draft or in cans runs the volume math for deciding whether a handle pays.

How should you price a can of hop water?

Price a can of hop water at its landed cost times your can multiplier, rounded up to the whole dollar. Landed cost is the case price plus the case's share of delivery, divided by the cans in the case. Using example numbers:

24 x 12 oz hop water: ($27.60 case + $1.20 delivery share) / 24 cans = $1.20 a can
$1.20 x 3 = $3.60, rounded up to $4 on the board

Then check what that price returns at your pace. At an example 5 cans a week:

The 3 times multiplier matches the one used for NA cans in pricing NA beer and zero-proof drinks. Your own multiplier comes from whoever does your books, and the landed cost comes from each new invoice.

How long should hop water stay on the list?

Hop water should stay on the list all year. NA drinking isn't a January habit. IWSR's January 21, 2026 analysis of US no-alcohol sales found that as early as 2019, the third quarter was the strongest for US no-alcohol volume, at around 27% of the year, against 22% in the first quarter, which includes Dry January.

A guest who found hop water in March will look for it again in August. The plan for NA drinks in summer covers the busiest quarter, and the Dry January prep list covers the January push without treating NA as a promotion.

What should you do before the first case goes in the cooler?

Before the first case goes in the cooler, run this list once:

1. Read the can and write the note card: alcohol statement if any, calories, sugar, ingredients.
2. Enter the line with Hop Water as the style and the brand and maker as printed.
3. Type the maker's ABV, or leave the box blank if the can lists none.
4. Put the line in the Non-Alcoholic section and mark it non-alcoholic.
5. Have every server say the one sentence out loud: sparkling water flavored with hops, not a beer.
6. Settle cans or draft, and if draft, get the supplier's handling guidance in writing first.
7. Set the price from landed cost and put the can count on your next order sheet.

How do you list hop water on TapDisplay?

On TapDisplay, hop water is an item like any other. Each line shows its name, maker, style, the venue's own stats such as ABV, and a price per pour, with 2 pours by default and up to 4, so a can gets 1 pour: 12 oz can, $4. The TapDisplay board shows how a line looks.

Start typing a drink name and pick a match from the catalog, and it fills in the brewery, style and ABV you haven't entered yet. On a hop water line, check what it filled against the can, and make sure the style reads Hop Water. You can always type everything yourself.

Make a Non-Alcoholic section yourself, put the hop water line in it, and tag the line NON-ALC from the fixed badge list (cocktail menus use ZERO PROOF instead), so it reads as non-alcoholic even to a guest who skipped the section header. The ABV field shows exactly what you type, so a maker's 0.0 shows as 0.0%. Never type "NA" in that field, because the TV shows "NA%".

You change the board from a phone, a tablet or a computer. Each connected screen checks for changes every 30 seconds, so a new price shows within about 30 seconds on every screen carrying that line. Staff can add the item and change its price, and the activity log shows who changed what, with undo.

When the last can sells, the line stays on the board, struck through. The word comes from the business type: KICKED on keg menus such as a bar or brewery, and SOLD OUT on menus such as coffee or wine. On a beer bar's board, a sold out hop water reads KICKED like a keg.

One list can be split across several screens, or each screen can show its own sections, so a screen that shows only the Non-Alcoholic section is an option. Screens are unlimited. A location is $49 a month or $499 a year, 3 to 9 locations are $39 a month or $399 a year each, and 10 or more means talking to TapDisplay, as listed on the pricing page. There's one 14 day free trial per account, and it takes a card up front.

The bottom line

Hop water is sparkling water flavored with hops, so list it as Hop Water in the Non-Alcoholic section and let the can, not the staff, supply every number. Copy the maker's ABV or leave the box blank, and price the can from landed cost, which puts a $1.20 can at $4. Then keep it on the list all year.