If you are a beer lover, we have a good news for you. A cannabis company together with a Canadian university will be producing the world's first cannabis-infused beer. And guess what? They have financial backing from the government.
Ontario government awarded Toronto-based Province Brands Can$300,000 (US$233,000) to create a "highly intoxicating" brew, which will be safer than alcohol.
Canada's largest pot producer Canopy Growth and alcohol giant Constellation Brands, who is also a part of this venture, are betting this cannabis-infused beverage will become the most popular way of consuming the psychoactive drug after recreational pot becomes legalized in the country, reported Agence France-Presse.
The number of cigarette smokers is declining and even smoking pot has some of the similar ill effects. Thus people turn to other alternative ways to consume cannabis, like pot vaping and edibles. However, as the news agency rightly points out, these activities are not in line with existing social behavior.
Thus the companies are coming together to infuse their product into existing social behaviors like sharing a drink after a hard day at work or over a conversation. After all, the most popular psychoactive products such as alcohol and caffeine are consumed as drinks.
Province Brands partnered with Loyalist College in Belleville, Ontario to develop the novel brewing technology. Chief executive of Province Brands Dooma Wendschuh said that coming up with a beer formula was challenging. "We consulted with several master brewers at the start and they just laughed at our idea of making beer from cannabis plants," he said according to the news agency.
Another problem the makers faced was the typically delayed and longer-lasting intoxication of pot edibles and beverages. Intoxication from the pot can happen late and can also stay way longer than the buss created by alcohol. Wendschuh didn't reveal how the issue was solved as he said that they were proprietary secrets.
