The mostly Minnesotan story behind Sauna Water, a collaboration born of steam and ice

When water hits hot river rocks in a sauna, crackling into instant steam, the sound mimics cracking open a can of a cold, carbonated beverage.

A wave of humid heat washes over those inside, coaxing out sweat and slow, deep breaths. The release of stepping outside, where the cold air kisses the skin and the sound of water lapping at a shoreline surrounds, is a pleasure plenty of Minnesotans know. Then comes the shock of submerging into the cold water, and surfacing to inhale air seasoned with the woods nearby. If someone wanted to synthesize that flavor, what would it taste like?

Jeff Vondenkamp and Justin Juntunen asked themselves that very question. Their answer: Sauna Water, an intriguing nonalcoholic beverage from a brewer and a sauna maker with a flavor that decidedly says up north.

But this story starts in South Korea, where Vondenkamp discovered the ritual of jjimjilbang.

"I was traveling in Asia for like seven months," Vondenkamp said. He'd left his successful tech job at Lyft, gathered his life savings and went in search of new horizons. His best friend is South Korean, so that seemed like a good place to start.

After late-night adventures in food and soju, they went to sweat it all out. "It was the first bathhouse hot-cold therapy that I had," he said. It's a common form of recovery, and the steam and sweat followed by cold plunge was invigorating.

His travels continued, but Vondenkamp remembers getting a phone call from his dad while in Nepal. "He just asked, 'What are you going to do when you get home?'" The family had a cabin near Walker, Minn., and his parents were planning to relocate there. His dad had an idea about opening a craft brewery.

"I don't want to oversimplify, but it's only listening to curiosity," said Vondenkamp. "Travel led to the brewery which led to everything. The key is to stay open. It's much easier to close those doors."

He could have hewed to the path ahead of him in the Bay Area, what he calls "The Path of What I Know I Should be Doing." Taking the path of creativity might be more interesting, he said, "but it's not always an easy or wealthy life. You're always starting over or following new things. You don't always fit into the wheel. But that's the only way that I know how to do these things."

Instead, the passionate home brewer made his way stateside and began shadowing other brewers and soaking up knowledge. In 2017, Portage Brewing Co. opened a stone's throw from Leech Lake.

Vondenkamp's curiosity is woven into all aspects of the business: design that leans into a streamlined modern Scandinavian blend of simplicity, utility and beauty. The beer varieties are creative; he even experiments with harvesting wild yeast strains.

So, when he thought about creating a Dry January beverage, the idea of an NA beer wasn't even on the table. "I'm always drawn more to starting from scratch," he said.

He picked up the phone and cold-called someone whose business he admired, but had nothing to do with brewing beer.

Back to the sauna

The experience of that South Korean bathhouse stuck with Vondenkamp. When he came back to Minnesota, he added a sauna to their cabin. Using it has become a part of his life.

The ritual of sitting in a small room heated to 140 to 180 degrees and sweating out all the ills of human experience before jumping into a snowbank, or racing down a dock to leap into a lake is an experience familiar to a lot of Minnesotans, including Justin Juntunen.

Juntunen grew up in Esko, and remembers joining his family in the sauna as a small child. "For me, sauna was one of those things that whenever we gathered as a family, the sauna was warm," said Juntunen. "The sauna was second to the kitchen table as a gathering point."

He went off to college, but eventually moved to Duluth, not far from where he grew up. In 2019, Jununen left his full-time job to build Cedar + Stone Nordic Sauna with business partner Joel Vikre. The company builds high-end saunas (ranging from $50,000 to $80,000); offers guided sauna experiences atop the Four Seasons hotel in downtown Minneapolis, near Bayfront Park in Duluth and floating on Lake Superior near the Aerial Lift Bridge; and sells sauna-related products — like Sauna Water, its collaboration with Portage Brewing Co.

Juntunen remembers the out-of-the-blue phone call from Vondenkamp. "He said, 'I like sauna. I like brewing.'" Juntunen laughed. "I thought this would be a one-off, fun product. Two weeks later, we sold out of our full first batch. Two years later, we haven't stopped."

The collaboration serves the sauna experience, providing a refreshing beverage for those looking for more out of NA products, and represents the experience of northwoods life.

"Jeff is the chef," said Juntunen. "I think the complexity of it is what endears me to it. In a world of NA beverages, there was carbonated waters like LaCroix, which in terms of flavor is just a one-note thing. This, for so many people who were trying to be sober, sober-curious, working through true sobriety or working through having one less drink: It's unique and complex. If they like good beer or good cocktails, this fulfills that flavor gap."

Vondenkamp was inspired to create Sauna Water's unique flavor profile on a winter camping trip with his cousin. "He also got me into foraging," said Vondenkamp. "He would bring spruce tips to make a kind of tea."

Spruce tips provide the base flavor of Sauna Water, but other aromatics come into play. "Juniper, cardamom and allspice were kind of inspired by pho — that spice blend is all over the world. Scandinavian countries use it in baking," he said. Acidity and fruit comes from lemon, rounding out the spice profile.

The result is a beverage reminiscent of gin, without any of that alcohol burn. The effervescence is refreshing, while the drink is more dry than sweet. And it's a crowd-pleaser, with everyone being able to have that adult drinking experience without the consequences and potential adverse health effects from alcohol.

For Juntunen and his sauna company, the beverage makes sense served alongside the sauna experience.

"I really love when you go through the bodily process of sauna," said Juntunen. "It's the ritual. And when you do that sweat and cold, your body gets rid of a lot of sodium. At the end of it, you need some nourishment. Food, briny things — they hit so hard after sauna. Scandinavian foods like pickled beets, pickled herring and gravlax all serve that purpose. Sauna Water sits really nicely in that place."

The experience brings Juntunen back home to those familial saunas and the big meals they would share. "It's cultural to sauna and to have food." But to create a beverage that slides into that niche, "It demands some creativity," he said.

Both men are really excited about the beverage and the future of their collaboration. Its reach goes beyond the Walker taproom at Portage Brewing Co. and at the Cedar + Stone sauna experiences in Duluth. While cans are available for purchase in both places, it's also stocked in liquor stores all over the state.

Demand continues to grow and productions sell out regularly. Vondenkamp says they're open to finding even more ways to expand its availability, but for now it's available only in Minnesota.

That kind of suits our nature as Minnesotans. Like trying to explain why we go back inside that hot box or gleefully dunk ourselves in lakes carrying a thin layer of ice, it only looks crazy from the outside.

But Sauna Water is catching on more and more, and that's just fine. There's always more room in the sauna and around the table.