aging it in cans, introducing a third flavor: Cascadia Field Blend, which uses Chinook, Mosaic and Ekuanot hops. (Aurora Elixirs, the CBD-infused beverage, is a separate line with different branding.) Pustynsky says that the adult non–alcoholic beverage space went from nonexistent to being a giant category in the space of a few years. It’s gotten more competitive, she says, and consumers have grown more sophisticated. “I think the consumers’ understanding is changing,” she says. To that end, Pustynsky says that though Lolo Hops contains hops, she wouldn’t call it a hop water, per se. “Ours is slightly sweet and has a very different taste profile,” she says. “It’s not just straight hops.” In addition to having a little sugar, Lolo Hops is also sparkling. When she describes it to consumers or journalists, she calls it a botanical soft drink. “I think it’s closer to a Casamara Club—or what they call a leisure soda,” she says. (Casamara Club is an amaro-infused NA beverage made in Detroit.) Locally, Lolo Hops is sold at New Seasons, Market of Choice and Wellspent Market. It’s also on tap at Bauman’s on Oak and occasionally at Loyal Legion and other bars around town. Though it doesn’t have the budget for marketing, Lolo Hops has been served at most of the bars at Pickathon for years, and this is how many Portlanders first encounter the beverage. Some online customers order 10 cases a month, says Pustynsky. “Once people try it, they love it,” she says. “We have a lot of opportunity with the Lolo brand,” she says. “And I’m leaning into the Pacific Northwest provenance. This area is the hops heartland.” A Flavor-Packed NA Beer Marla Hoban at Roaming Nobles eventually found a partner with Steeplejack Brewing Co., based in Hillsboro. She reached out to Steeplejack because she liked that it had a female lead brewer, Anna Buxton. She was further impressed when co-owner Brody Day returned her message within half an hour. “Brody and Anna were both so supportive,” says Hoban. “They saw the vision of where we were going early on.” As Roaming Nobles grew, the initial recipe that came out of the Food Innovation Center had to be tweaked, which is often the case as businesses scale. Anna has continuously evolved the Pilsner. And Hoban tapped brewer Sean Burke — formerly of the Commons and Von Ebert, and co-founder of ForeLand — to update the recipe for Roaming Nobles’ flagship IPA. (He suggested adding Mosaic hops.) The new version will be in stores by fall. Burke was also behind the brand’s recent seasonal launch: a West Coast IPA with notes of guava and stone fruit. (It contains CTZ, Citra, Krush and Strata Indie hops.) The West Coast IPA sold out, so Hoban has made it part of the company’s year-round line of flagship beers. One thing that distinguishes Roaming Nobles from most large national NA breweries is that they brew the beer in a traditional manner and then halt fermentation before the alcohol gets above .5%. (By law, NA beverages must contain less than .5% alcohol.) Many national NA breweries make an alcoholic beer and then de-alcoholize it — either using a spinning machine or boiling it off in a vacuum. (Others, like Athletic, do neither of these things and tightly guard their process.) Without revealing Roaming Nobles’ exact process, Hoban says, “I would say that time and temperature are everything.” She acknowledges that hundreds of batches need to be thrown out until you dial in the perfect time and temperature. “You almost have to think of it as part of your innovation costs,” she says. Hoban is also committed to sustainability: The brand uses digitally printed cans (easier to recycle) and compostable toppers that can be tossed in the green compost bin. Hoban, whose dad was a microbiologist, makes sure to pasteurize her beer so that it remains shelf stable. (With the presence of yeast and sugars but no alcohol, you have to or it could quickly spoil.) This adds to the cost Victoria Pustynsky PHOTOS BY JASON E. KAPLAN 18
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