Nov. 30, 2012
On Nov. 6, residents of Colorado passed Amendment 64, legalizing the commercial sale of marijuana. The state Legislature has yet to draft laws that will regulate this new industry, and the federal government has the power to step in at any time and pull the plug on the whole thing, but in the meantime, a handful of industries are abuzz with ways to cash in on the cannabis crop.
Recently, a reporter at the Fort Collins Coloradoan headed
into the brewing world to see if any nearby brewers were entertaining the idea
of reuniting a pair of biological cousins, hops and marijuana. Commercial
brewing recipes are regulated by the federal government, which precludes the
pros from cranking out dank dunkels and skunked stouts, but the Coloradoan found
that brewing with bud was an already existing phenomenon in the intrepid world
of home brewing.
Weed beer is a bit off the wall, and marijuana is a
potentially expensive and, until now, illegal ingredient to be working with. I
was able to find one book on the topic, a 53-page tome called “Marijuana Beer:
How to Make Your Own Hi-Brew Beer,” by Ed Rosenthal, which is out of print and
going for more than $125 per copy on Amazon. That’s definitely out of my price
range, so I tried a different route and hunted down a friendly brewer who was
willing to share the secrets of success when attempting a marijuana brew.
There are two ways to isomerize the cannabanoids in
marijuana, he said, using alcohol or using heat. For more than 100 years,
people have been using various forms of ethanol to create tinctures, or
extracts, with marijuana. They soak the flowers and trimmed leaves in the
booze, and the alcohol rearranges the atoms in the cannabanoids to create the
compound that produces a high, THC. Heating cured marijuana buds in oil or
another substrate has the same isomerizing effect, thus creating THC-infused
bases for cooking or baking. The trick is not to heat the marijuana above about
370 degrees, as the THC vaporizes at that point, effectively ruining your weed,
my brewer friend said.
Because of the low vaporization point of THC, marijuana
cannot be used in the boil when making beer or the extended heat will render it
useless. This brewer recommended weed as a dry-hopping ingredient, added after
primary fermentation when the beer is moved from one carboy to another and
taken off the yeast. The marijuana buds can be tied up in a mesh bag or
cheesecloth or thrown straight into the carboy and strained out when the beer
is bottled.
Here’s the kicker: It takes a fairly high level of alcohol
to isomerize the THC, which means you’re brewing a pretty heavy beer, and to
keep that high alcohol level from overpowering the effects of the weed, you
have to use a lot of marijuana in your beer. We’re talking around an ounce of
pot per gallon of beer brewed — not a cheap prospect unless you’re growing and
curing your own cannabis.
The taste profile of the final product depends on which
strain of marijuana you use and the style of beer you’re brewing, my brewing
friend said. The flavor will parallel the aroma of the pot strain, so the beer
should be built around the strain you have on hand. Take a big whiff of your
reefer, and ponder which style of beer you think would pair best with it. For
instance, he said, New York City Diesel went really well in an imperial porter,
whereas Shiskaberry was a better match with a barleywine.
And when you’re cranking out a 9 percent alcohol by volume
brew, you may have a bit of a hard time evaluating the final buzz. With one
beer, you’ll probably get a mellow body high, but with two or more, the effects
of the alcohol will start drowning out the buzz from the THC, he said.
So why even bother stewing this greenish swill? It’s simply
another medium for your high. As my brewer friend said, “A man should be in
charge of his own buzz,” and if you have the time and resources, it’s a fun
ingredient to play around with.
Because it’s federally illegal, you won’t be finding
marijuana beer on a tap pole anywhere anytime soon, but if you know a few
brewers or aspire to brew your own concoctions, you might be able to get your
hands on a bottle.
>> Birds of Prey
On a completely drug-free note, for the first time this
year, three local breweries, Crazy Mountain, Bonfire and Gore Range, have
banded together to show their support for the many volunteers on the Talons
Crew who commit time to making sure Beaver Creek’s Birds of Prey World Cup ski races
run smoothly.
Each brewery is donating two kegs to the cause, and
volunteers will enjoy frosty local brews at The Dusty Boot each evening
following their shifts on the mountain. Andy Jessen, master of minutiae at
Bonfire, said these “rejuvenation camps” are a place where these hard workers can
unwind and celebrate a job well done.
If you are a member of the Talons Crew, look forward to
Crazy Mountain’s Horseshoes & Hand Grenades ESB and Lava Lake Wit, Gore
Range’s Fly Fisher Red Ale and Birds of Prey IPA and Bonfire’s Demshitz Brown
Ale and Seven Bachelors pale ale. The newest beer on the list, Seven Bachelors,
was created to celebrate the 10th anniversary of The Ritz-Carlton,
Bachelor Gulch and was brewed with seven different kinds of hops added at seven
different points in the boil, Jessen said.
The brainchild of Jessica Greene, general manager at Gore
Range Brewery, sousing the Talons Crew is just another way for these local
businesses to participate in events that resonate with local customers and are
important to the community.
“It is our way of saying ‘thank you’ to the volunteers for
all they do to make this race possible,” said Marisa Selvy, of Crazy Mountain.
Krista Driscoll
Hophead
Vail Daily Weekly
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