Conroe Sparkling Hop Water ABV: N/A% IBUs: ? Packaging: 4 pack 12 ounce cans
I’ve been a bit under the weather for the last few weeks. I’m notoriously bad at listening to my body, and it usually takes 2-3 days of me feeling sluggish before I take my temp and realize I’ve been pushing through some sort of sickness. I hate that I do it, but I don’t know how to stop doing it.
Welp, that was me all last week. Pushing through. Not even realizing it until the end of the week.
Thursday, it clicked. I realized something was off, and I went ahead and took Friday off. I decided to stop at H‑E‑B and get myself some ingredients for a soul-warming lunch, but you know I can’t hit the grocery store without checking out the beer aisle for some new labels!
Let’s be honest, when I’m sick, the idea of beer does NOT sound appealing, but bubble water is one of my go-to’s. Seltzer water, sparkling water, club soda, etc. I’ve always called it bubble water.
Anyhow, I knew I probably wasn’t going to be in the mood for hop-flavored bubble water, but I grabbed some just cuz. Here I am a few days later, feeling much better, so I cracked one open, and OMG.
Look, it’s water. There’s not much to write about in terms of appearance. Clear liquid with bubbles. No head. No lacing. It’s water. Make sense?
Despite the lack of flowery adjectives to describe the liquid, the label for Southern Star Hoppy Elixir Hop Water is spretty slick. A light gray background houses an upside down turquoise arch filled with clean, minimal, white typography, and it’s all buttoned up with a few little decorative design elements, hops, and simple typography. It’s the type of cleanliness that this Houston market has been waiting for.
Having drank Hoplark, which is really more tea than water, I was kinda expecting something similar. But Southern Star Hoppy Elixir Hop Water is exactly as billed. Hop. Elixir. The smell is nothing like the herbal tea I expected. Instead, it smells kinda like a nondescript fruitiness like PEZ candy. It tastes almost the way Fruity Pebbles smells. The label mentions Mosaic hops, and the website mentions Citra, but I definitely smell and taste Mosaic. It lacks nothing in taste, but it intentionally lacks everything else. Zero calories, zero carbs, zero sugar, zero alcohol, and caffeine free.
This is the beer we’ve been waiting for. Hah!
Legitimately, for about 5 years, we’ve been making jokes on social media and posting our “clear IPA” and then ribbing commenters asking who made it. It was always just bubble water, or even regular old water, but now we legit got something that kinda is a clear IPA! The mouthfeel of Southern Star Hoppy Elixir Hop Water is key because that’s part of what makes it so refreshing. So bright, crisp, clean, light, and with a subtle hoppy fruitiness without any of the alcohol, carbs, etc.
As far as the Houston market is concerned, there’s not a comparison. Nationally, there are some other similar hop waters, but I haven’t had any of them because they’re usually stupid expensive. I need Southern Star to put this in 36 packs, drive the cost wayyy down, and fill my fridge with them. I’d drink this every day instead of the blood orange, pineapple, and whatever the heck else fruity flavors we grab from HEB.
If you want some Southern Star Hoppy Elixir Hop Water, you better take a drive up to Conroe, and grab it there, or grab it at HEB. The Wild West Brewfest is coming up soon in Katy, and although the full list has not been released, I expect to see the Southern Star team out there slangin’ real beer, and probably some of this as well. Get your tickets to one of America’s best rated beer fests now, and save with code “BEERCHRONICLE” at checkout.
Overall, Southern Star Hoppy Elixir Hop Water is absolutely delicious. For water, it’s still kinda expensive, but hopefully it begins to catch on, and we can see it sold in larger volume for lower cost per unit. I’d really like that. If Southern Star is looking for some “influencers” that like to drink good things and tell people about them, we know some nerds that might be just as interested in water as they are beer. Maybe. Bottom line, this stuff is fire.
Anthony's a Houston native, a Creative Strategist at https://ledgeloungers.com/, an adjunct instructor of Visual Communication at Lone Star College, and a UH Coog that loves good beer almost as much as he does his city. Anthony lives to help others and that's found a home helping some of the coolest breweries on earth with creative and marketing projects that can be seen on our Portfolio page. Fueled by hoppy lagers, sessionable IPAs, and gangster rap, he's ticked his way through H-Town, rocking the most unusual Nikes he can find. When he's not writing for us, he's with his family or very patiently rooting for the Rockets.
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