Cannabis

For this special episode, we’ve partnered with our friends at Abstrax to bring you a panel discussion on using terpenes, extracts, and more, featuring Tyler Thurman of Highland Park, Jude LaRose of Hop Butcher for the World, and Ross Hunsinger of Abstrax.

Single Hill cofounder and head brewer Zach Turner explains how collaborators, farmers, and pick windows all play a role in shaping a fresh-hopped beer on any given day during harvest season in the Yakima Valley.

There is more to cannabis than the flowers. Ross Koenigs, founder and brewer at Second Dawn in Aurora, Colorado, explains why earthy, nutty hemp seeds can work beautifully in beer when used as a cereal adjunct.

Ross Koenigs, founder and brewer at Second Dawn in Aurora, Colorado, explains the basics of decarboxylation, why that step is necessary to activate THC, and why a tincture is the the most prudent route for homebrewers to take.

Ross Koenigs explains why homebrewers may want to consider cannabis as a flavorful ingredient—even if they’re not trying to extract THC—and how to evaluate its aroma for beer.

Ross Koenigs, founder and brewmaster at Second Dawn in Aurora, Colorado, explains the science and practicalities of making beer at home with hemp and marijuana.

From books on Brussels beer and brewing with hemp to a handmade bottle-pouring cradle, here are a few recent editors’ picks that could also work as gift ideas.

Legal hurdles aside, there are also technical obstacles to getting the main psychoactive component of cannabis into beverages in a stable, predictable way. John M. Verive explains the challenge, the science, the gear—and why it’s coming to a brewery near you.

Commercial brewers are in the earliest days of figuring out how to legally get CBD into beer (and keep it there). For homebrewers, it presents an open—if legally vague—field of play and experimentation.

Biotransformation is not just real, it’s measurable, says New Belgium's hops-focused innovation brewer in this deep dive into the mechanics of hops aroma and flavor.

Keith Villa may be best known for creating and growing Coors’ Blue Moon brand of Belgian-style witbier, but his second act—developing non-alcoholic beer infused with cannabinoids—may be his most daring challenge yet.

The close relationship between cannabis and hops plants is well-known, but getting effective and repeatable results from a cannabis infusion in finished beer is still an emerging science.

Keith Villa is the creator of Blue Moon Belgian White and an advocate for the intersection of craft beer and cannabis. Here, he walks us through the challenges, and the possibilities, of a future where alcohol isn’t the only mood enhancer in your beer.