Weed Beer: The Future of Cannabis Products
- What Is Cannabis Beer?
- Can Cannabis Replace Hops?
- The Best Cannabis Beer
- The Differences Between Beer And Cannabis Beer
- The Effects Of Cannabis Beer
- Do Cannabis Consumers Drink Alcohol?
- When Will Cannabis Beer Be Released In Australia
Cannabis companies are showcasing their dry herb, CBD and THC oil, and edible products, but is that all marijuana has to offer? Cannabis Beer and Cannabis-Infused Beer are the future of marijuana products
After doing some research for new cannabis products, I found that Corona is releasing a marijuana-infused beer. Cannabis beer comes in two formats: Cannabis Beer and Cannabis-Infused Beer. The Cannabis Beer is gluten-free and replaces barley with the cannabis plant’s stem and root. The Cannabis-Infused Beer is a malted barley beer infused with THC and CBD oils.
Table of Contents.
What Is Cannabis Beer?
Cannabis beer, pot beer, weed beer. Whatever you want to call it. What is this latest craze in cannabis-infused products that are sweeping the world?
Smoking marijuana is a thing of the past — the majority of Australian medicinal cannabis patients taking their CBD and THC medicines in food and oil drops. People are looking for new ways to consume cannabis and “drinking weed” is the latest method.
Is cannabis beer Beer or just a sparkling beverage? There are currently two types of weed beers: the Cannabis Beer and the Cannabis-Infused Beers.
How is Cannabis Beer Made?
A lot of people misunderstand the pure cannabis beer as being the same as a lager or any other traditional alcohol. These Cannabis Beers are, in fact, alcohol-free, gluten-free, low calorie and brewed with the marijuana plant.
Unlike oils that just use marijuana extracts from the flower (bud), Cannabis Beer is being brewed with the crushed stem and root of the plant. The marijuana plant replaces malted barley, the traditional brewing ingredient that gives beer its colour and a malty-sweet flavour.
Cannabis beer is only available in regions (Canada, California, etc.) where edible forms of marijuana (either recreationally or medically) are available.
How is Cannabis-Infused Beer Made?
Cannabis-Infused Beer is as it sounds: malted barley beer that has been infused with marijuana extracts that include Cannabidiol (CBD) and Tetrahydrocannabinol (THC).
Similarly to Cannabis Beer, Cannabis-Infused Beer can be alcoholic free and includes the CBD or THC effects commonly found in oils.
Cannabis-Infused Beer follows the traditional beer brewing process and at a later stage in its production is THC & CBD oils added to the beers.
Can Cannabis Replace Hops?
Hops and cannabis both come from the same family of plants: the Cannabaceae. Hops and cannabis both contain terpenes; they have similar flavours that act as bittering agents and may also look quite similar with the hop plants coming in “strains” identical to cannabis. The most used strains of hops for beer are the Cascade, Chinook and Centennial.
The Best Cannabis Beer
Cannabis beers aren’t available in Australia just yet, but they are being brewed and sold worldwide. With our Canadian expertise, we reviewed and created a list of the best cannabis beers. We used the judging criteria aroma, flavour and the experience to make the final decision.
| First Place: Hi-Fi Hops | |
|---|---|
| Aroma: | Fruity Guava, Pineapple and Passion Fruit |
| Flavour: | A dry fruity beer with minimal bitterness. Tastes like an experimental IPA you would get on tap. |
| CBD: | 0 milligrams |
| THC: | 10 milligrams |
| Alcohol: | 0 |
| Calories: | 0 |
| Where To Buy: | California and Colorado |
| Link To Product: | HiFiHops: 10MG |
| Second Place: High Style | |
|---|---|
| Aroma: | Hoppy |
| Flavour: | Super dry beer that’s perfect for summer. Tastes like a typical herbal and hoppy summer beer. |
| CBD: | 0 milligrams |
| THC: | 10 milligrams |
| Alcohol: | 0 |
| Calories: | 50 |
| Where To Buy: | California and Canada |
| Link To Product: | High Style: 10MG |
| Second Place: Two Roots Cannabis | |
|---|---|
| Aroma: | Malty Sweet With A Hint Of Apple |
| Flavour: | It tastes like its two steps away from being a cider, but its a lager. A nice citrus aftertaste. |
| CBD: | 0 milligrams |
| THC: | 5 milligrams |
| Alcohol: | 0.5% |
| Calories: | 100 |
| Where To Buy: | Nevada, California and Canada |
| Link To Product: | Two Roots Cannabis: 5MG |
The Differences Between Beer And Cannabis Beer
Everyone is asking about the tastes of Cannabis beer. Will cannabis-beer taste like Beer or more like kombucha?
Cannabis beer tastes less malty than the IPA and more nutty and maltier. Like any beer on the market today, you can find many flavours. Still, the initial cannabis flavours have been tailored to the malted barley beer-loving consumers — a light [citrus-flavour mixed with a dry nutty and malty taste .
A Toronto start-up called Province Brands has created the world’s first beer brewed from cannabis. The brewing process included crunching up the marijuana stem, flowers and root to be used instead of malted barley.
When asked about the flavour of weed beer, Dooma Wendschuh, CEO of Province Brands, said “There are already a lot of popular hemp beers on the market. People like that flavour. It’s nutty; it’s dry, it’s not nearly as sweet as most beers.” at Toronto Life.
He mentioned their first attempt at making cannabis beer “We made our first brew. We eventually found someone willing to try it (cannabis beer), but it tasted horrible - like rotten broccoli. It was completely undrinkable, but we overcame this with time and experience to deliver a delicious brew.”
The Effects Of Cannabis Beer
Cannabis beer includes either THC, CBD or both. Will you get high from drinking cannabis beer? Cannabis beer has the potential to make you high depending on the percentage of THC in Beer.
Cannabis beers with THC will have you feeling the effects within just 10 minutes of finishing a 350ml beer. The typical dose that will give moderate-high includes 10-25mg of THC. The effects are lighter than edibles as liquids are digested and go through our system faster.
How do you tell if the cannabis is potent? A standard beer is 4-5% alcohol, and cannabis beer is measured based on the THC content. Even though THC and CBD are included in the cannabis beer, the THC content is the intoxicating chemical component.
What’s most interesting about cannabis beer is that it may or may not get you high. If you order a cannabis beer that has a low level of THC, this is the same as having a light beer with 0.5% alcohol. So the effects will be minimal, and you will need to drink a lot to feel the effects.
Cannabis-infused beer is the new craze where alcohol malted barley beers are infused with alcohol. These are typically homebrews as the effects may be quite strong.
There is currently a debate going on about the combined effects of alcohol and marijuana, and how providing high THC and high alcohol content in beers may not be a great idea. But as edibles and alcohol are legal in some regions, these products will become available and its left to the market to decide.
As cannabis is legalised worldwide, a lot of people overlook the edible aspects of marijuana. Canada only started pushing legalised edible cannabis in 2019, years after the national legalising of recreational marijuana. So to have edible and consumable liquid cannabis legalised will open a whole new industry.
Do Cannabis Consumers Drink Alcohol?
Research has shown that legalisation of cannabis has drastically reduced the levels of alcohol consumption for adults between the age of 18-30. Binge drinking has dropped from 26-30% down to 13% per month after the legalisation of marijuana in American states.
The main reason is that young adults felt safer to spend their budgets on marijuana with a focus on relaxation over the traditional bar crawling.
As much as cannabis may affect the alcohol industry, it will never run the booze business out of town. The primary consumers for marijuana were ones who previously consumed alcohol but looked for an alternative.
Millennials prefer cannabis to booze, but we still enjoy the social habits of drinking. Drinking in bars and pubs have been around for almost 2,000 years. Starting in Europe, it was not just a place to drink beer, wine, cider. It was a focus of community, for workers and families to congregate.
Cannabis smokers will still look to Beer and wine during social events as it is closely aligned with social situations.
Alcohol consumption frequently occurs in social situations. For many, it can ease stress and increase pleasure. Breaking the ice and building relationships while drinking is a part of most social customs.
Younger adults are quickly moving to cannabis as an alternative due to the high rate of alcohol consumption and alcoholism seen in everyday life. Though marijuana can be addictive, alcohol is physically addictive, and marijuana is mentally addictive.
Marijuana can be smoked, and you can walk away from it. While alcohol, you need more and more and more. Marijuana affects the cardiovascular system, increasing heart rate and blood pressure, but a person can’t fatally overdose on pot like they can with alcohol.
When Will Cannabis Beer Be Released In Australia
With the Murdoch press and government pushing fears of edibles being consumed by children, thus should be illegal. Australia is far away from having cannabis beer being made available to the public.
CBD edibles are a potent way of consuming marijuana. When you smoke marijuana, the chemical compounds enter the body through the lungs. But when marijuana is eaten or drank with cannabis beer, the chemical compounds enter the body through the stomach and liver. Edible cannabis is safer and more effective than drinking beer.
What we want to see is the regulated and safe retail sale of cannabis, similarly to Canada and soon to be New Zealand. As seen in the past and the current war on drugs, marijuana is available through the black market and only boosts more illegal activity.
Safer and controlled distribution of the THC and CBD drugs through legal means is the best way forward. This will happen eventually with the push from labour and the greens party for the future legalisation of the recreational use of marijuana in Australia.
Edibles are available in Australia through illegal means, but what I look forward to is the ability to buy cannabis legally as an adult. After visiting the U.S.A. and Canada and seeing how the government allows each individual to choose what they can consume as an adult, it makes Australia behind the times.
In short, Australia’s recreational drug policies aren’t working, so we look to new methods of legalisation and regulation as a way to make cannabis safer for medical and recreational use in Australia.
James King
James is an experienced writer and legal cannabis advocate in Australia. He answers all the questions about business, legalisation and medicinal cannabis.
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