California-based Two Roots Brewing Co. is making the world’s first weed-infused craft beer.
“We’re putting our stake in the ground, claiming that we’re making the world’s first cannabis-infused beer,” said the company’s director of product development Kevin Love. “We’re brewing beer under a traditional format and from there, we’re removing the alcohol through a state-of-the-art dealcoholization plant that we acquired from Europe. It’s the first of its kind in the United States, and the great thing about it is the starting input is actually the same exact taste as the final output. So then what we do is we take that final output and we bring it to our licensed facility and infuse it with a water-soluble THC.”
Two Roots wants socially drinking their infusions to feel similar to socially drinking regular beer. So they infuse each can with just 2.5 mg of THC. Love also thinks weed-infused dealcoholized beer might be a safer way to drink because cannabis doesn’t have the same effects as alcohol.
“Instead of being an oil-based edible where it takes about an hour to kick in, this is a water-soluble based edible, so essentially you’re getting all of your absorption oral-mucosally and intestinally, so it’s not making a first pass through your liver, which ultimately allows it to be a rapid-onset and then a quicker dissipation…” he explained.
The THC-infused brews will be available on August 17, 2018 at state-legal dispensaries and CBD-infused versions will be distributed nationally. Â