GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — Fans of Michigan native Billy Strings are likely familiar with his song "Thirst Mutilator," which was featured on his 2016 EP. But what those fans may not realize is, there’s a drink from Short’s Brewing Company that’s named after the song, and the bluegrass superstar assisted with the development.
“It’s a hop water. This is genuinely just a sparkling water, so we're taking water and then adding hop oil to it,” said Kerry Lynch, Sales Director for Short’s Brewing. “We’re taking kind of the essence of hops, so you get those kind of citrusy notes and a little bit of kind of grassy notes, then adding some lemon and lime flavoring into it."
The gluten-free, sugar-free drink has no calories and no carbs, and Lynch said it's one of only two non-alcoholic drinks from Short’s Brewing.
“We have an NA beer on tap up at the pub in Bellaire, but this is the only thing that you can find outside of that,” she said.
Since the release of Thirst Mutilator in the summer of 2022, Lynch said the booze-free beverage has become the seventh best seller for Short’s Brewing, which is impressive considering the company is known for offering a huge variety of booze.
“We have almost 1,000 different recipes at this point in time for beer,” Lynch said. “In all the time that I’ve been working in beer, and it's been about 15 years now, nothing has been such a widespread hit. No matter who I give a Thirst Mutilator to, they're like ‘oh, that's really refreshing. That's really good!’”
She said it’s a drink anyone can enjoy, whether they’re pregnant or just cutting back.
“Even for those of us who enjoy alcohol, you can't just drink all the time,” Lynch said. “If you're having a northern Michigan boat day, and you get out on the boat at 10 a.m., the nice thing about something like this is it helps extend your day. You can kind of have your day be a little bit better. It makes things safer. You can have a responsible night out, if you include Thirst Mutilator in that."
As for Billy Strings, the Grammy Award winner who grew up in Ionia has been sober for a few years. When the crew from Short’s Brewing learned this, they wanted to collaborate.
“Billy's from Michigan, and he played at Short’s growing up and kind of coming up into the industry while we were also coming up into the industry for ourselves,” Lynch said. “We pitched the idea to Billy, he loved it, and that kind of got the ball rolling. So then we talked flavors.”
You won’t find Billy’s name on any of the packaging, which is intentional, but if you look closely at the artwork on the can, there’s no denying the partnership.
“Considering the kind of artist that he is and what he's doing, it felt like it would be doing him and Short’s a disservice, honestly, to just be like ‘presented by Billy Strings!' It just felt a little bit kind of fake, I guess,” Lynch said. “We wanted it to be something that people could kind of have this fun discovery to realize that this is a Billy song and then have us show up at a concert, and they're like ‘wait, these things go together? Oh my goodness!’ I don't want it to be like an ad campaign. I just want it to be something that feels authentic to people in their lives.”
Thanks to the success of Thirst Mutilator, Lynch said Short’s Brewing is working on another collaboration with Billy Strings. She’s staying pretty tight-lipped about the project, but she did give us a little taste of what they’re working on.
“I will say Billy really likes like sugary sodas, which is kind of how we ended up on lemon lime in the first place, because he likes Sprite, Mountain Dew, different things along those lines,” Lynch said. “So that's kind of where our head is. Where we're going is something along those lines, like a sugary soda spinoff.”
Thirst Mutilator is available in most Michigan grocery stores including Meijer, plus a variety or restaurants and bars.
►Make it easy to keep up to date with more stories like this. Download the 13 ON YOUR SIDE app now.
Have a news tip? Email news@13onyourside.com, visit our Facebook page or Twitter. Subscribe to our YouTube channel.