The original CBD alternative!

Hops!? When we think about these little buds we pop our craft beer caps on and dream of big beers. IPAs, DIPAs, hoppy pale ales and all of the amazing aromas that came out of the American craft beer boom.? People love hops, we get addicted to the flavour too but there is so much more to love about them than just their aroma and the piny and addictive bitterness.

Most beer lovers have heard of the likes of Citra, Mosaic, Simcoe from America as well as a lot of the traditional European hops such as East Kent Goldings, Saaz and Fuggles.? What a lot of people don’t know about hops is that they have SO MANY amazing medicinal qualities. CBD oil gets a lot of the headlines now from the cannabis family, but the noble hop (some say the sister of the hemp plant) gives the same, if not better, benefits as the cannabis based chemical.??

Here is a good little article on the relation of hops and cannabis

We too love hops, but approaching a beer from the angle of health and satisfying our cravings for a big hit of citra-like aromas threw up a few challenges.

So, when we designed LUPHO, we had a fair bit to work through and here is the distilled list of red lines we wouldn’t cross in our end product.

We decided Lupho needed to be -?

1, a big flavoursome fizzy drink that appeals to the craftiest of hop heads

2, a beer replacement that aids in gut health

3, a drink to have after a workout to replace the lost fluids as well as aid recovery?

4, a calming drink to aid with relaxing and sleep cycles.

So, the first thing I did was demand that we use CBD in this drink.? I have known and used CBD for a long time now personally and know that it has so many of the properties that we wanted to aid with relaxation and anxiety, but the issue is that the flavour was rather overpowering and distracted from the beautiful hops that we have put in the drinks.? From this point It was a battle of flavour that we weren’t going to compromise on.

I didn’t want to be swayed by any current product that was on the market so I built this from the ground up without trying any other hop waters that are on the shelves right now.? I started with an ambitious taste profile and then I got to work with the health side of things… and the more I delved into the world of hops outside of the alcohol world the more amazed and obsessed I have become with this plant.

The hop plant was mainly seen as a weed for a long long time, but people knew it had many great holistic qualities.? I wanted to make a drink that fitted in a modern beer drinkers healthier lifestyle, and potentially a dawn of a new social beverage.?

Hops help you relax, and help you feel sociable.

Simple as that, but there is so much more to it and the benefits of this relaxation can have life altering effects on the busy mind of the modern human being.? This is something that I have experienced in a great way.? I live in a world of herbs as Bethany is a back garden herbalist and we first try and cure any ailment our family have from our herb garden before hitting the chemist - to great success!? For years we have grown lavender and chamomile and packed our kids pillows in an attempt to help them sleep past 5am each morning - to mixed levels of success!? The great thing about hops v these sleepytime tea staples are that they stimulate GABA production - more of this later - which helps you be free of mind and sociable rather than just hitting dreamland.

So why not just have a beer?? After a few beers I’m always feeling a bit sleepy right?!

Well, this was the true start of Lupho for us.? Emma and myself talked a lot about creating a drink that could regulate your blood alcohol levels, so keep us feeling that kinda ‘one-pinty’ feeling that breaks down stress and makes us feel happy.? So we jumped into the science of it. What is the ultimate amount of alcohol that is safe for us to have in our body to give us the happy feeling without compromising our mental state and physical output? - Please don’t make me fall over, slur my words and still be able to drive.

So how long does alcohol stay in your body?? We know your liver and kidneys affect our ability to digest alcohol, and abuse can badly damage these organs, but how long does it take a healthy body to remove alcohol from your system.? I remember hearing that on a full stomach a healthy male can deal with 1 pint of 4% beer an hour - looking back I think this was optimistic.

• Blood test - up to 6 hours after last alcoholic drink
• Urine test - 12-14 hours after last alcoholic drink
• Breath test - 12-14 hours after last alcoholic drink
• Saliva test - 12-14 hours after last alcoholic drink
• Hair test - up to 90 hours after last alcoholic drink

The above shows that alcohol sticks around way longer than 1 hour and steady drinking has a compound affect on how drunk we feel.? Also it depends on a lot of variables.? Your gender, your usual average intake (your tolerance), how healthy you are, your body weight, how much exercise you do and the type of alcohol you ingest.

There are benefits of just drinking 1 beer though..

• More nutrients in beer than other drinks, containing antioxidants. Also contains iron, calcium, phosphates and fibre.
• Moderate consumption of any alcohol is associated with lower rates of cardiovascular disease.?
• Prevent kidney stones.
• Soluble fibre in beer can reduce LDL (bad cholesterol), but as alcohol interferes with the body's ability to absorb vitamins and minerals, it can lessen the ability to burn stored fats.?
• Beer has high levels of silicon, which can be important for growth and development of bone and connective tissue. Also rescues the risk of osteoporosis.?
• Can reduce work related stress, as long as you are not routinely turning to alcohol to help cope with stress.?
• Beer may improve memory. Hops contain xanthohumol, which can help cognitive function.?

So there is a shout for being able to regulate your intake of beer to enable a healthy lifestyle.? But it doesn’t look like we can nail this with a single new drink.? The more we looked into alcohol intake, the more truths came up that showed that the negative sides of more than just a half of beer totally outweigh the benefits listed above.? The big one is sleep.

SLEEP….

Sleep is so important, in modern day life its value is totally overlooked.? We are living in a world of stress, pressure and screens.? We are bombarded every minute with the latest disaster that we should all worry about.? Just stick the term ‘how worried should we be’ into google and you’ll get unlimited news stories from all of the major networks insinuating we MUST be worried about the latest thing.? And we all know that if we think something enough then it generally manifests itself in our lives. So if you have a magic formula of watching the news before you go to sleep on a flashy screen which amazingly stops the formulation of melatonin which is a hormone that regulates your sleep patterns, you are buggered..

When we are awake we spend much of our time in two types of brain waves.? You know you have electrical impulses going on in the head all of the time?? These waves change with different cycles and external pressures.

The awake waves → Gamma and Beta and the evil High Beta…

Gamma is the stage you are in when you are in intense concentration and learning.? This is your conscious mind at its best, you learn new things here that take a lot of thinking about and concentration.

Beta is the problem-solving and engaging wave length.? Beta is where you are present when talking to people and working together on a focused event.

High Beta this is around the 18-40 hz mark, and this is where you are talking to someone at work about a problem and you can’t really hear them anymore because you are stressing about the possible implications of what they are saying.? This is where a lot of modern life is spent - anxiety, paranoia, high energy and high arousal (ADHD).? This High Beta is addictive, and linked with the dopamine hits that we get from constantly scrolling on instagram.? Spending a long time in High Beta is a big precursor to bad sleeps and actual nightmares.?

The sleepy waves → Alpha, Theta and Delta…

Alpha

From the age of 0-6 years old we spend most of our lives in Alpha and Theta wave lengths rather than Gamma and Beta (and pretty much never in high beta - this is a grown up problem).? Alpha is where we download things directly into our subconscious, and crazy things come from this that we spend a lot of time trying to weed out of our lives when we are older.? So we all have that mate who is scared of balloons, or coins, or polystyrene or toothbrushes or spiders.? They all know that these fears are irrational but they still can’t be near wrapping paper without a big hit or cortisol hitting their central nervous system.? These things can be leadback directly to the times that we spend in alpha, and majorly in our first 6 years of life.? The classic thing is a fear of balloons, and what probably happened was that when they were 3 they popped their older brother’s balloon and a big fight came about, your Mum lost her shit and you got your toys taken away - all because of a balloon which you didn’t pop on purpose.? The emotional link is that you see a balloon and you feel fear, because during the alpha brain wave state you download this into your brain and unless you rewrite this memory it is there for good!

We hit alpha state 3 times during the day in our grown up world. Just as we wake up and just before we go to sleep and also during meditation or steady aerobic exercise.? This state which is the middle ground between waking and sleeping, is also where your body (and mind) starts to recover.? Some people can do a power nap and feel amazing from it, that is because they have been able to drop into alpha pretty easily and the body starts to replenish itself and boom you are ready to go again.?

Meditate your way to happiness and success

Clicky Click - Footballers

Clicky Click - Business leaders

Clicky Click - Greatest sportsman of all time?

Alpha is the brain state where you can rewrite these pesky fear-inducing neurosis.? Many books have been written showing how to think yourself better, and this is the crux of it - get yourself into alpha and then you can do anything!? The more spiritual minded people will prophesied this state of mind as the best way to manifest the life you have always wanted, and now not just us hippies but quantum physicists too

<- A super simple book on the science on creating your future from within your noggin'

More Sciency Stuff <- Click here

Positive thinking never harmed anyone intentionally?!

But one thing you don’t want to do is to stay in alpha too long when going to sleep, as this is a first step to bad sleeping.. You need to move on to the next phases.

Theta

This is the lightest stage of actual sleep, but the deeper stages of meditation are the most insightful and creative (when you have that great idea in a dream - you are in theta).? Theta is also known as the ‘healing wave’.? This level can also be found when you are deep into a fiddly task, and when someone ‘invades’ this space it can cause you to be really pissed off!??

Theta is also known as ‘autopilot’ and can be reached by doing gentle rhythmic exercise like running and walking - this puts you into a meditative state, so don’t listen to your favourite crime podcast whilst running as you could be working out your mind and soul whilst pumping your lungs and heart..

One thing to think about is how you wake up… Don’t just pick up your phone!

Your brain swaps over from Delta (which we will talk about next) to your theta daydreamy mode and then moves to produce more alpha waves where you are relaxed but not really processing much info - perfect manifestation mode.? I try and spend as much time here as possible, it is a rich place for setting your mood for the day.? I spend 10 mins thinking about all of the things that I’m grateful for and also looking forward to in the day ahead.? It is total cheat mode - you wake up in a meditation, so you can also work on those stressful things that ruin our days.? Stay present in a good thought for 17 seconds or more and you feel the benefits massively.

Grabbing your phone first thing skips the theta and alpha states and thrusts you into beta, and probably fast-laning into High Beta due to the latest thing that your phone is telling you to be worried about.

Scientific American reports that "the ideation that can take place during the theta state is often free flow and occurs without censorship or guilt." This makes theta state an ideal time to tap into your subconscious mind to visualise what you want and help your brain drive your actions forward toward achieving your vision.

In skipping these states and checking your phone right after waking up you are priming your brain for distraction. Seeing or reading something negative first thing in the morning can trigger your stress response and put you on edge for the rest of the day. Similarly, if you see unanswered work emails, you may feel compelled to respond even while you’re still lying in bed. That's a problem because, as Julie Morgenstern, author of the book Never Check Email In the Morning, puts it, “Those requests and those interruptions and those unexpected surprises and those reminders and problems are endless … there is very little that cannot wait a minimum of 59 minutes.”

As for setting intentions, one way to do it is to repeat affirmations that fit with your beliefs and core values. Things like “I expect good things to happen” and “I am going to achieve my priority tasks today” are great statements to start with if you’ve never used affirmations before.

Delta - the hallowed place

Stage 3 - or Delta is deep-sleep which focuses on restoring your body.? This is where your body moves into restore mode, and a bunch of things start to happen.

• Your blood pressure drops
• The body promotes muscle growth and repair
• Blood flow increases to muscles
• Growth hormone is released
• Tissue growth and cell repair occurs
• Your brain flushes waste and exhibits long slow brain waves

Your body only truly recovers when you get to this stage of relaxation.? The main takeaway here is how do we get to Delta, and how do we stay there for at least 90 mins a night.? When I had a bad head injury and was stuck in a stressful part of my life, I’d sleep for 10-12 hours each night, but I’d never get to Delta.? I’d wake up shattered and my day would be full of yawning and annoying Bethany who only managed 2 hours sleep with our youngest.

Lack of sleep and gut health.

Sleep is a really important part of your overall health.? It not only influences your energy levels but regulates your other important body functions including your immune system, heart, brain and digestive systems.??

“Sleep and gut health are definitely interconnected,” says Ryan Barish, M.D., a functional lifestyle medicine physician with Henry Ford Health. “There’s still a lot we don’t know—we’re just scratching the surface, especially when it comes to how sleep influences our gut bacteria—but we do know that digestive health can play a role in how well someone sleeps, and sleep can affect how well the digestive system functions. It’s a two-way street.

1. Lack of sleep can increase stress, which affects the gut. When you don’t get enough sleep, your hormones can become unbalanced, and the stress hormone, cortisol, can rise. “Increased stress can cause intestinal permeability issues—or something known as leaky gut—where food and toxins are able to pass through the intestine and into the bloodstream. This can lead to a host of issues including bloating, inflammation, stomach pains, food sensitivities, and changes to the gut microbiome,” says Dr. Barish.
2. Lack of sleep can affect dietary choices. When you’re sleep deprived, certain hormones that control hunger can go a bit haywire, leading to an increased appetite. Not to mention the fact that when you’re tired, it’s more likely that you’ll turn to unhealthy food choices for quick energy boosts. (Think processed carbs, sugar and trans fats.) These foods can negatively impact your gut health and your overall health.
3. Lack of the sleep hormone, melatonin, may be related to GERD. Melatonin is a hormone that our bodies make more of in the nighttime, as it helps us fall asleep. But that’s not all it does: melatonin also helps regulate gastrointestinal mobility. When melatonin levels are thrown off, it can be difficult to sleep—and it could potentially lead to GERD, or gastroesophageal reflux disease. “While there are a lot of variables involved, there is a connection between a lack of melatonin and GERD,” says Dr. Barish. Some people who are diagnosed GERD take melatonin supplements to increase their levels, helping them sleep and reduce symptoms of GERD.
4. If you stay up too late, you might eat too close to bedtime, which can negatively impact your digestive health. “You shouldn’t eat within three hours of going to bed,” says Dr. Barish. “You don’t want the body to be burdened with digestion and absorption while you’re sleeping, because that’s when your body is supposed to be recuperating and doing housekeeping tasks. Plus, it could also keep you up and lead to restless sleep.

What can we do to sleep better??

Routine is important, our bodies love predictability, so a good nighttime schedule should be our first port of call.

1. Avoid screens and blue lights before bed - no netflix before you drop off!
2. Exercise, but not too much!? Moderate cardio is great for helping regulate your rhythms.? If you go too crazy you induce cortisol in your body which is the big stress hormone and a no-no for helping sleep.
3. Limit the intake of caffeine and alcohol.? Even a cup of tea late in the day is enough to screw your sleep cycles. 1pm seems to be the right time of day to stop caffeine intake, and we’ve covered the booze bits above.
4. Make your bedroom dark, cool, quiet and invest in a good mattress and bedding.? Because you spend 1/3 of your life in bed!
5. Set a consistent bedtime and wake time.? Your body likes routine!
6. Magnesium! It is involved with hundreds of bodily processes and helps regulate melatonin.
7. Hops!!!? Scientific research shows that hops, with its natural sedative effects, increase sleep time.? It increases the amount of time in Delta and also helps you go deeper into REM sleep.

So back to Lupho…. And why not just a weak beer?

When we looked at alcohol’s role within sleep we were amazed.? We have figured sleep is super important in the myriad of ways mentioned above, but we didn’t think it had this much effect on entering the Delta stage of sleep

Alcohol is a central nervous system depressant that causes brain activity to slow down. Alcohol has sedative effects that can induce feelings of relaxation and sleepiness, but the consumption of alcohol – especially in excess – has been linked to poor sleep quality and duration.

Low amounts of alcohol decreases sleep quality by 9.3%.

Moderate amounts of alcohol decreases sleep quality by 24%.

High amounts of alcohol decreases sleep quality by 39.2%.

After a person consumes alcohol, the substance is absorbed into their bloodstream from the stomach and small intestine. Enzymes in the liver eventually metabolise the alcohol, but because this is a fairly slow process, excess alcohol will continue to circulate throughout the body. As we have mentioned before, the effects of alcohol largely depend on the individual. Important factors include the amount of alcohol and how quickly it is consumed, as well as the person’s age, sex, body type, and physical shape.

Research has shown sleepers who drink large amounts of alcohol before going to bed are often prone to delayed sleep onset, meaning they need more time to fall asleep. As liver enzymes metabolise the alcohol during their night and the blood alcohol level decreases, these individuals are also more likely to experience sleep disruptions and decreases in sleep quality.

Drinking alcohol before bed can add to the suppression of REM sleep during the first two cycles.?

So for us this ruled out any use of alcohol in our new product! Lupho..

Why not an alcohol free beer?

We love our AF beers, they are great.? They have a lot of body and character that a lot of other AF beers don’t manage to pull off.? One of the things that our AF beers do have, is a decent amount of sugar - all natural sugar from the malts, but sugar nonetheless.? With it’s lack of alcohol, but with plenty of hops and a decent drop of sugar you can achieve a lot with an AF beer.? But the sugar isn’t great for you, especially when it comes to sleep.

Sugary foods and drinks have lots of simple sugars that your body metabolizes quickly and sends you blood sugar levels spiking which then crash when you are alseep.? A crash in blood sugar sets off the alarm bells to you adrenals that there is an emergency.? This, in turn, increases cortisol levels (the stress hormone) and wakes your body from slumber.? So a reminder to self - stop eating ice-cream in bed before you sleep and then moan that I didn’t get a good night’s kip!

But lots of AF beers go crazy about being low calorie and no sugar?!

Yeah they do, that is for sure, but they miss one big thing with this - they put this over flavour.? I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to drink a crappy AF beer, I’d rather just go without - or maybe try something else? (hello Lupho!)

What the heck is GABA!

Also known by the catchy name Gamma-Aminobutyric Acid, it is a naturally occuring substance within all of us that acts as a neurotransmitter in the brain and nervous system.? Gaba is magic, it inhibits certain brain signals and slows down activity in your nervous system - ultimately making us feel more calm, more sociable and reduces the feelings of anxiety, stress and fear. ← isn’t this what everyone wants?!? If you could bottle (or can) this up, you’d be worth a Nobel prize right?

Well.. Humulus Lupulus is the wonderful hop (see where we get Lupho from?), and to get even more sciency on you, it is a sedative plant whose pharmacological activity is due principally to its bitter resins, especially to the alpha-acid component 2-methyl-3-buten-2-ol. ← write this down it may help you in a pub quiz one day… The mechanism of action of the resin of the hop consists of increasing the activity of this neurotransmitter (GABA!) inhibiting the central nervous system.?

Basically it has been proven that hops help you to relax. As well as it’s effect on the nervous system it is also antimicrobial so great for bacterial infections.? (people used to chew hops to help with toothache).

If anything, watch this video below. Yarrow is a legend when it comes to herbalism, and he loves the hop as much as a wobbly-pop

Here is a quick list of benefits before I tell you how amazing hops are in aiding with deep sleep (delta waves) and recovery..

• Relaxes the whole body and eases pain
• Helps with insomnia
• Stimulates the digestive system
• Help with muscle and joint pain
• Useful for headaches
• Has been used to treat epilepsy
• Chronic fatigue syndrome?
• Research shows hops help with menopausal symptoms, arthritis and other inflammatory diseases
• Stimulates the liver and gallbladder - helping to balance out fats.
• Increases bile production aiding the basics of gut health?
• Its stimulation of GABA production helps from over thinking, anxiety, worry, restlessness, depression.
• Aids the development of a strong immune system?

Hops, and especially at the volumes that we have them concentrated in Lupho, help you sleep.? If you want to fully geek out, check this report out..

There are many research documents on hops and the substance xanthohumol which is contained in hops that support the fact that hops help you sleep.? But not only this, they help you stay in Delta for long periods of time ( nearly twice as long as without ).

Why not just take a sleeping pill?

‘Most sedative hypnotics used to treat insomnia target the GABAA receptor [27]. However, pharmacological treatments can cause undesirable side effects such as addiction, tolerance, and dependence. Therefore, with the aim of developing safe sleeping pills, research on hypnotic drugs based on the current GABAA receptors and positive effects of natural products on the treatment of sleep disorders have been reported [28]. It is known that xanthohumol contained in hops enhances sleep by increasing the GABA activity through the regulation of GABAA receptors [12]. Humulone, another active ingredient in hops, has sedative/hypnotic effects and acts as a positive allosteric modulator of the GABAA receptors. Xanthohumol and humulone therefore act on the GABAA receptors to exhibit sleep-promoting activity’

After all of this research and development we came up with Lupho.? How did we do with our 4 challenges?

1, a flavoursome appeal to the hop heads

We gained the right level of resin into the final product to give a balance bitterness whilst also promoting the citra hop aroma by incorporating natural apricot flavours

2, a beer replacement that aids in gut health

Good for gut stuff..

• No sugar at all
• The bitter hop resins stimulates the digestive system
• We add apple cider vinegar to boost the stomach acids and help your body become more alkaline and balancing your pH
• Promotes good sleep, decreases the stress hormones that wreck your gut

3, a drink to have after a workout to replace the lost fluids but aid recovery?

• The acetic acid in the ACV reduces muscle fatigue improving your body’s recovery process
• Lightly carbonated for easy drinking after a workout.
• The hops help you hit deep sleep, recovering your body faster and giving you more energy.
• A flavonoid in hops might help muscle atrophy and maintain muscle.

4, a calming drink to aid with relaxing and sleep cycles.

• Avoids all products that inhibit sleep such as caffeine, sugar and alcohol
• Perfect companion for mid-day meditations.

So we got to the end product Lupho.

We have balanced the right levels of hops and apple cider vinegar to give you the perfect hit of GABA inducing loveliness.? So A, it is freaking great for you, but mainly B, it tastes great.

If you don’t drink anymore but love that craft beer tang then this is the one for you.

If you want to aid you digestion, then why not Lupho before you eat?

If you want to recover from sport or any injury - Lupho

If you want to sleep well and feel great LUPHO!!!!!

We love it and hope you do to! Grab your sleepy supply below