Companies brew up profits by putting cannabis into cans
For more than two decades, SweetWater Brewing Co.’s best seller has been its floral 420 Extra Pale Ale, the numerals slyly nodding to the beer’s April 20 birthdate and the brewery’s fondness for marijuana: 420 is drug-subculture slang for cannabis.
“We’ve had to hide these things,” said Freddy Bensch, who helped found the Atlanta brewery in 1997.
In June, SweetWater removed the cloak by releasing 420 Strain G13 IPA. It mimics the dank pungency of the G13 variety of marijuana — minus the high — by blending hops, hemp flavor and terpenes, organic compounds that are responsible for the distinctive fragrances of plant products from oranges to pine trees to, yes, cannabis.
“There’s nothing better than watching a consumer pop a G13 cap, put it to his nose, take that first smell and see his eyes light up,” Bensch said. Within two months, G13 became SweetWater’s second-bestselling draft beer available year-round.
As state regulations on marijuana have relaxed and An IPA from SweetWater Brewing Company of Atlanta evokes the G13 variety of marijuana without the high by blending hops, hemp flavor and terpenes.
recreational use has become legal in several places (most recently Michigan and Canada), breweries have been looking for ways to use cannabis or its derivatives in beverages.
This fast-moving quest for a potential windfall is also a confusing one, because laws and enforcement can conflict and change. Federal law forbids mixtures of alcohol
and THC, marijuana’s psychoactive component; brewers are trying to get around that by putting THC into nonalcoholic drinks, and infusing alcoholic beers with other cannabis byproducts.
Breweries say they are willing to leap over legal hurdles, in part, because cannabis and its associated compounds can deliver
novel aromas, flavors and experiences.
“It’s like a whole new world of hops has opened up,” Bensch said.
That world is rooted in a familiar relationship: Marijuana and hops — the flowers that impart bitterness, aroma and flavor to beer — both belong to the Cannabaceae plant family. Many varieties of marijuana and hops share aromatic signatures, from citrusy to resinous.
“Craft brewing and marijuana have always been very closely connected,” said Tony Magee, founder and chairman of Lagunitas Brewing Co., in Petaluma, California. “There’s something about craft brewing that’s essentially part of the counterculture.”
Since California legalized recreational use of marijuana last January, Lagunitas has entered the cannabis marketplace with Hi-Fi Hops, which is a hopped sparkling water infused with THC and packaged in 12-ounce bottles.
Hi-Fi Hops is sold only in marijuana dispensaries, where cannabis drinks accounted for $58 million in nationwide sales last year. That may seem minuscule compared with overall U.S. beer sales — $111 billion last year, according to the Brewers Association — but Magee is playing the long game.
“There’s a generational change happening that’s taking the handcuffs off marijuana,” said Magee, who envisions a future in which beer and marijuana are sold on a level playing field.