Walk into any yurt in Mongolia, and you will most likely be presented with fermented mare’s milk, a traditional drink given as a form of hospitality. In the Philippines, they drink fermented sugarcane; Russia has a fermented rye drink called Kvass; and Ghanaian farmers have even started fermenting cassava root, their biggest cash crop, into beer.
An ancient culinary art that converts carbohydrates into alcohol, fermenting, along with hops, is what gives beer the bitter taste we all know and love.
Capitalizing on the bitter-taste trend and fermenting frenzy are two recently formed Cincinnati-based companies: Hopwater, a low-calorie, hop-infused soda-esque beverage, and Skinny Piggy Kombucha, a fermented probiotic tea brewed in Northern Kentucky. Both use either beer-brewing techniques or flavors to offer a tart, biting taste without the alcohol or heavy carbs.
Hopwater, which comes in ginger, lime, grapefruit and original flavors, is the brainchild of beverage-product and brand-development company 48th Parallel and began distribution at the beginning of May. Its tagline? “Because bitter is better.”
Named for the latitude at which hops grow especially well, 48th Parallel was formed by friends Brandon Dawson, Paul Smiley, Tony Moore, Mike Helm, David Wolfenberger and Scott Ryan to grow and develop a crazy idea that Moore had while working at Flavor Producers in Blue Ash: a hop-flavored soda. Moore, a flavor chemist, had seen the demand for bitter hop flavors outside of beer.
“The time is right for a drink like this,” says Dawson, 48th Parallel’s CEO.
Each 20-ounce bottle, which retails for $1.75 at more than 50 locations in the Cincinnati area, clocks in at 48 IBUs, or International Bitterness Units — a measurement used by the American Society of Brewing Chemists to quantify bitterness by hop content. For comparison, your regular, old can of Budweiser has 10 IBUs, and an IPA will normally fall anywhere between 40-60.
And though it might not be brewed like beer (a hop tincture is infused into carbonated water), Hopwater will still give you that same floral, hoppy taste that beer lovers crave.
“Through and through, this product is hops represented in a faithful way,” Dawson says.
You might recognize kombucha from its ubiquity on the single-beverage shelves at Whole Foods — it’s that stuff in the glass bottles with little floaty, gooey balls suspended inside. The balls, with a texture not unlike that of tapioca or boba, are a natural byproduct of the fermentation process. Skinny Piggy, however, tries to minimize the biofilm to give more of a smooth, fermented flavor that some compare to cider.
Algis Aukstuolis, the “Pig Man in Charge” of Skinny Piggy, describes his signature beverage as a low-calorie soft drink made from tea (oolong and black tea). He first started brewing it two years ago after 10 years of home brewing beer as a hobby.
“I just really enjoy the fermentation process,” he says.
Skinny Piggy is currently produced in the Northern Kentucky Incubator Kitchen, but within the next couple of months they’re going to start subleasing space from Northside’s Urban Artifact brewery, where you can also find their kombucha on draft. Retailers like Whole Foods and Jungle Jim’s have reached out about carrying Skinny Piggy, which means Aukstuolis is going to start ramping up production; besides moving into a bigger space, the company also has a Kickstarter campaign to raise money to buy bigger fermenting tanks.
“You can get this stuff at gas stations in places like Austin,” he says. “It’s time for kombucha to become popular in the Midwest.”
Touted for its probiotics that aid in digestion and other internal body processes, Aukstuolis says most people who drink one bottle of kombucha a day feel a noticeable difference in how their body acts. If, however, you’re not one for anything that could be perceived as health-conscious, Skinny Piggy has something for you, too: Their website offers up a variety of kombucha cocktails, like the “Fiery Booch,” a combination of Fireball, fresh orange juice and the fermented fizzy tea.
So whether you’re looking to improve your digestive health with a tasty tea or just want to be able to drink something that tastes like beer at all hours of the day without repercussions, the Cincinnati area has exactly what you’re looking for.
Learn more about
HOPWATER at
drinkhopwater.net and
SKINNY PIGGY at
skinnypiggykombucha.com .
This article appears in Jun 3-9, 2015.