Being basically socially locked down and spending waaaay too much time at home, I am tiring of such things as videos of Hollywood celebrities singing John Lennon’s ‘Imagine’ to ‘entertain’ me, instead I have been brewing quite a bit and of course listening to music. This has started me daydreaming about brewing a beer with weed. My version of ‘Imagine’ I guess. HA!
As of March 2020, 11 states (including my home state of Illinois as the newest state on the roster) and the District of Columbia have laws on the books that allow legalized adult recreational use of marijuana. However, under Federal law it is still an illegal substance and because it is an illegal substance brewing beer with alcohol and THC is not commercially legal anywhere in the United States. This is because federal law supersedes state law.
Due to these legal hurdles, THC infused beer with alcohol can currently be made as home brew projects legally in these states only. Over the years I have tried a few of these attempts offered from some of my home brewing acquaintances. The beers were good but most missed getting the psycho active THC into the brew, what a tragic waste of good weed. This was not their fault, as the science of THC extraction was not available back then. Until the Feds get their act together we’re going to have to tackle this on our own! Hey, that’s what home brewers do...am I wrong?!
So the question some may ask, "Why brew a beer infused with THC?". Well as you probably know (or maybe you don't), marijuana is a cousin to the hop plant. That right there is a great reason to try it...experimental hops! (hell, where do you think the term dank came from?) How about the sheer sport of it? Call me a curious yellow (whew, dating myself here) or in this case a nice shade of marijuana green. Maybe smoking is not your thing; this could be a form of an edible, while slaking your thirst, win-win. Finally, how about the challenge of trying something new and pushing boundaries on brew day?
The first hurdle is securing enough weed. This is based on how much THC infused beer you want to make and I’ll leave that decision up to you. The next question – what style? The first style that comes to mind is an IPA. Double IPA, Hazy, traditional IPA; all would pair well with the aroma and taste of some dank weed. The problem with hoppy beers is that the flavor and aroma of the hops fades fairly quickly so it needs to be drunk fairly fresh. This is ok if you were to make a small batch but 5 gallons would be challenging to drink it all before the freshness diminished, I guess this would not be an issue if we’re still sheltering-in-place (fuck that term irritates me) in the near future. Cooped up at home drunk and stoned, yeah that’s never happened to me. HA HA HA! I have some other style ideas I will float by ya but for now let’s get to the process.
THC is alcohol soluble at a level of 8 percent ABV or higher, so if you want to use a dry hop method stick with a double IPA—the higher the alcohol content, the better the THC extraction. Extraction efficiency is a concern based on the high (pun intended) cost of weed from a legal dispensary. A possibility is if you live in a state like Illinois where a marijuana medical card holder can legally grow up to 5 plants at a time, and you know one of these individuals, to keep costs low you could co-brew a weed beer? I mean it is still illegal to sell weed if you are not a dispensary but you’re helping out a person in need, right?
Cannabis strain selection is the next thing to figure out. Sativa strains for the most part have uplifting and mental focus characteristics, a good match to offset the alcohol in my opinion. Indica strains have the more relaxing & mellow and possibly couch lock effects. There are many sources available that will help you find a cannabis strain that’s right for you. A source I have found helpful is leafly.com
Now hold on, don’t just go throwing that precious weed into the secondary! There are some things we need to do to get all that THC goodness into our brew. So let’s review these.
Water curing is the process of removing the chlorophyll (grassy flavors) from the green plant material. It also removes the nutrient salts without removing the THC, remember THC and the resin glands are only dissolvable in alcohol or fats. That is why THC stays in our system so long; it binds with the fat cells in our bodies until they are flushed over a period of time.
Decarboxylation is the process of heating or aging cannabis to activate THC, the component of cannabis that produces a “high.” Without this process, the cannabis won’t have any psychoactive property thus you will get only flavor from its use. Sadly, the down fall of my home brewing acquaintances as I stated previously.
Ok now that we have some weed ready for our beer, there are a few ways to get it into the beer.
Dry Hop method is similar to selecting hops for a normal beer recipe. Fruity, bright, melon hops work well for the dry hop method such as Citra. Others that would tend to complement the flavors of dry hopped cannabis are Lemondrop, Motueka, Ekuanot, and Amarillo. Try to avoid dank, catty and grassy types such as Simcoe, CTZ, Crystal, Fuggle.
Try two separate dry-hop doses will help minimize the grassy/weed flavors, just like hops. There are many dry hop to weed formulas along with suggested amounts of weed to use based on your weed’s THC strength and desired buzz level, so I’ll let you do the research on that.
THC tincture Tinctures are made with high percentage alcohol, they usually come in glass bottles with droppers. As a result, the cannabis tincture is one of the best methods of consumption for precise dosing. By using a tincture, you can custom dose each bottle with the precise amount of THC you want. Maybe the bulk of your bottles are a mild dose so you can share a couple without getting wasted. Then dose a few bottles (or more, it’s up to you) with a higher amount of tincture for those special occasions. You can see how to make a tincture at home by going to THC tincture. Reminder: since tinctures are edibles, the cannabis used must be decarboxylated to ensure all the ingredients are active. This would be my preferred method as I could dose a scotch ale, robust porter or stout all of which have a much longer shelf life than a highly hopped beer.
Follow standard packaging practices with kegging or bottling. Cannabis beer tends to maintain freshness longer (from many months) and the hops/cannabis flavors stay vibrant for much longer even in the bottle. Use good packaging practices and minimize oxygen as usual in your process to get the best results.
If you decide to make a THC infused beer, drop us a message here at Home Brew Rock Stars and let us know how it went and the results. Hey maybe send us a bottle for us to sample on one of our podcasts. Good brewing to all and PLEASE… Like us, rate us and follow us!
Prost! #drinkitup