Cannabis-brewed craft beer: Province Brands of Canada and Lost Craft Beer partner ahead of product launch
The agreement will allow Lost Craft Beer to license Province Brands’ patent-pending technologies (to mash and ferment cannabis for the brewing process) and brew non-alcoholic beers in Province Brands’ 123,000 square foot facility in Grimsby, Ontario: which is currently under construction.
Production will start once such products are legalized in Canada (following the legalisation of recreational cannabis last month, legalisation of edibles is expected to follow next year).
Patent-pending process
The companies are collaborating to launch non-alcoholic beer brewed from cannabis, which will ‘intoxicate’ using marijuana instead of alcohol. All beer brewed under the agreement will be marketed under the Lost Craft brand name.
'Cannabis brewed'
Cannabis-infused beers are brewed with barley and infused with marijuana oil.
Cannabis-brewed beers, however, are brewed with the stalks, stems and roots of the cannabis plant instead of barley.
Shehan De Silva, Founder of Lost Craft Beer, said: "Lost Craft is proud to partner with Province to develop approachable, non-alcoholic, cannabis-brewed craft beer.
“We chose to work with Province as a result of their significant expertise and are looking forward to expanding the breadth of our beer portfolio with products at the forefront of brewing innovation.”
Province Brands of Canada has been developing a patent-pending process for brewing a premium beer from the cannabis plant over the last two years. The first steps in the brewing process, milling and "mashing" (i.e. saccharifying or extracting fermentable sugars from the cannabis plant) requires specialized equipment and technology which most conventional brewers do not have.
Province says that its process uses parts of the cannabis plant that would otherwise have no commercial value - the stalks, stems and roots.
The dose-response curve is similar to that of alcohol, says the company.
Lost Craft will work closely with Province Brands' master brewer, Rob Kevwitch, to develop the beer. Since it will be brewed from cannabis, rather than barley, it will be naturally gluten-free and low in calories and sugar, say the companies.
Dooma Wendschuh, CEO and Co-Founder of Province Brands, said: "We look to form more of these partnerships as the market for cannabis-powered beer expands."
Province Brands was founded in 2016. Earlier this month, it announced its intention to launch its first commercially available beer - a hemp-based beer with alcohol called Cambridge Bay Imperial Pilsner - in Yukon next year.
