Cannabis Infused Craft Beer Future Booming Industry

"This Bud's for you" will now take on a whole new meaning.  The next big step within the craft beer industry is going to be moving from barley and hops to cannabis.  Former Chief Marketing Officer for Anheuser Busch, Chris Burggraeve, joined an advising comity for GreenRush Group out of San Francisco California.  GreenRush Group says they want to become the "Amazon of weed".  Chris made a second investment co-founding Toast, which specializes in pre-rolled joints.  The cannabis industry is quickly growing with many investors as its backbone.  Constellation Brand Inc. which sells Corona in the U.S. just invest in Canopy Growth Corporation, a Canadian seller of medical marijuana.  Currently 64% of the United States population wants to lift the ban on cannabis.  In 1969 only 12% of the U.S. population were pro marijuana.  The fight toward legalization has come a long way.

Cannabis could disrupt large beer retailers in the same way small independent micro-breweries have.  Current cannabis is legal in eight states and twenty-nine states have legalized medical marijuana.  Unfortunately for cannabis companies there is large bump in the road to get by, and that is Attorney General Jeff Sessions as well as other GOP leaders. They have made a strong goal to fight marijuana's path to legality.  

Beer advocates are thinking that cannabis infused beer could be the new IPA of future generations.  

Hops and cannabis are apart of the same genus and have very closely related molecular structures.  Aurora Colorado based Dad & Dudes Breweria offered tasting of General Washington Secret Stash a cannabis infused craft beer.  

Another Brewer, Lagunitas an established brewer, has come out with their own limited edition called Supercritical.  Supercritical is an ale brewed with cannabis terpenes, an aromatic compound of fragrant oils from a cannabis plant.  This gives the brew very distinct flavors and aromatics.  

Neither of these two brews have any mind-altering THC. The mind-altering THC is stripped out before the brewing process.  The terpenes give the brew a different type of flavor. Supercritical by Lagunitas has a nice tangy taste while being a bold early ale that has strong grass and lemon notes according to reviews.

Currently Lagunitas has no plans to release their cannabis infused beer nationally.  They only released Supercritical on draft locally and to popular beer reviewers, but this brew will be available to all markets at some point. Karen Hamilton the director of communications at Lagunitas had this to say about the newly constructed brew "What I can tell you now is that we are planning to brew it again and we learn more as we move forward and there's a whole big country out there.  Right now we are going through some additional paperwork.  When that's complete, it will be determined when we are brewing it again."  Most breweries see this opportunity of blending cannabis with delicious brews as a chance to educate consumers about the two industries.  

Another brewery out of Oregon named Coalition make an IPA called Two Flowers IPA.  This is a west coast style IPA infused with hemp juice and CBD, which are non-hallucinogens.  Coalition Brewing has a series of different CBD beers.  They recently added a new brew to their repertoire named Herbs of a Feather, a lemon and basil sour CBD brew.  Coalition brews are currently available in local bars, but founders of Coalition Brewing say they would love to widen distribution of the product at some point.  

The biggest hurdle for all the companies looking to advance the craft beer industry toward cannabis infused beers is the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency.  As of last January, the DEA added two cannabis based products as a schedule 1 drug, CBD and hemp extracts.  This puts both CBD and hemp extracts in the same category as heroin, cocaine, meth, and more.  Previously to this new stipulation CBD was available to consumers via mail orders.  On a positive note, these changes are actively being challenged legally by cannabis advocacy groups.  

Luckily Coalition Brewing was not affected by the new changes in federal law.  Coalition is able to continue making their beer due to the industrial hemp and the CBD they use is an exception in the law.  Both ingredients come from a proprietary product which is not under the Controlled Substance Act.  

There was one brewer I mentioned earlier who was affected by the DEA's law change. Dad & Dude's Breweria, which produces the General Washington's Secret Stash, was about to be distributed and sold nationally.  They had received approval from Federal Alcohol Tax and Trade Bureau to continue forth with their product.  Once the DEA had made the reclassification this forced Dad & Dude's to immediately stop making the beer.  Although, they are taking the fight to court. 

As legalization and decriminalization increasingly spreads throughout other states it is only a matter

of time before this type of craft beer will begin to be widely accepted and available nationally.