Cannabis and Beer

[disoriented]

I'm currently brewing a fairly high alcohol content, american style, IPA. I've become obsessed with trying to somehow incorporate THC into the brew. From the research I've been doing it seems like the most efficient method would be to introduce a high quality cannabis and Everclear, or green dragon, mixture prior to the bottling stage(I don't want to ruin the beers flavor, though it will be very hoppy and bitter). If done at around 1-2 ml per bottle(using Master Wu's method) do you think this should work and produce pronounced effects? Will it ruin the flavor of the beer, or worse, the batch itself? I know this is a kind of an off the wall idea, but it's been an idea of mine for quite some time. Any input would be appreciated.

 

[SundayVaper]

I'm assuming 2ml is like 2 droppers full...

2 droppers diluted in 12oz or a pint probably wouldn't have too much taste, maybe a little hint if weediness (but that taste actually appeals to me).

I wouldn't have a clue regarding the chemistry off beer, grain alchohol, and THC, but I love IPAd and this sounds delicious I guess if you had a tincture, try adding it to a pint?

 

[disoriented]

Unfortunately I don't have any tincture at the moment, and live in a state where Everclear is illegal(along with draconian marijuana laws). but I have a few more weeks before my brew will be done. I actually have never made tincture before but I've done quite a bit of research into the various methods, singling out Master Wu's method with Everclear as being the most efficient and least liable to affect the taste.

I really don't know the chemistry that well either, but I feel like it could really work and taste great in my beer. An American Imperial(Double) IPA that on it's own will be around 9-10% abv. mixed a dose of cannabis. That sir is what I call medicated.

 

[yourmomgoestocollege]

Three things:

First, cannabis and hops share a very rare terpenoid in common that gives a very distinct flavor, so the aroma imparted by the essentials in the cannabis will likely just taste like more hops. In an IPA with any decent level of IBU's, this will be completely masked.

Second, as I'm sure you'll know as a homebrewer, alcohol concentration can really kill your yeast. If you are gonna do this, I would suggest you use a champagne yeast or any strain that can handle high alcohol content. Otherwise, unless you are kegging, you are SOL. If you are kegging, killing the yeast would be fine if you are carbonating with CO2. Bottling is another story as the increased alcohol might kill the yeast, preventing secondary carbonation. Your beer will be psychoactive, but flat. Maybe if you were to reduce down to a super-potent tincture, the smaller amount of alcohol in a large batch would let you pull it off.

All that said, this a great idea. One that I have been meaning to try, for quite a while. Unfortunately, I have gotten out of the hobby lately and don't have any equipment any more. Let us know how things go though. I am really curious to find out how things go.

 

[tdavie]

About 12 years ago, fiancee brewed a marijuana beer. It was an Imperial Stout, about 11% ABV. She boiled the wort with an ounce of butter and an ounce of weed. Primary fermentation for about 2 weeks, and then a secondary fermentation with dry hopping and dry weeding (an ounce in a hop sack, weighed down with marbles). Secondary lasted for 2 weeks. For a third fermentation, champagne yeast was added, along with more hops and more weed.

SG was about 1.120, and FG was about 1.060

It tasted like garbage (fiancee thought it tasted like Sam Adams Triple Bock). I really can not compare it to any batch of beer that I have made. It truly was horrible stuff that made me gag. But...(48 16 oz beer from 3 oz weed, boiling and dry hopped) one beer had me lit up like an Xmas tree.

I wish I could give more specifics. But it tasted really bad

Tom

 

[Albert Hofmann]

As a homebrewer and pothead, I've given quite a bit of consideration to this notion of ganja infused beer. First off, I'll say scrap that idea of adding tincure to your finished beer. I think I've come up with a better way to proceed. haven't tried it yet, but it should work. Considering the fact that THC is not water soluble, but can be absorbed into solution quite easily via alchohol, I think the best course of action would be to dry-hop the brew with the variety of weed that you want to taste in your beer. This would be done by adding the buds directly to the secondary fermenter when you rack it, then just let em soak in there until it's time to bottle or keg. A fairly high alchohol content would best facilitate proper THC extraction, and the dry-hopping process should preserve the full aromatics of your delicious marijuana! Please don't do this with ABV, it would taste like shit. You want high grade, tasty greens for this! I would think an ounce should be sufficient for a 5 gallon batch.

 

[AGBeer]

So in other words - A really big BARLEYWINE that is going to take a very long time to get ready (so you have max MJ infusion time) is pretty much what it seems the consensus is here.

Id say dooooooooeeeeeeettttt (if you have the resources)
Your average 5 gal batch is ~ $50. Make it a barleywine and your grain bill goes ^^^. But you all know this already

 

[21j21]

I've often mused over what it would be like to use a late hopping process, but with weed instead of hops.

Or better yet, use weed exclusively as the bittering agent, no hops at all. They are so similar, why not?

I suppose this would have to be a fairly large undertaking, as I assume the average homebrewer is using a kit rather than starting with all the raw ingredients. Unfortunately, I know too little about brewing to attempt this myself at this time.

 

[AGBeer]

I dont think this would work entirely because one of the reasons hops are used is because they are a natural antiseptic to your beer and add a different level of bitterness with their oils. Not to mention, it would take a significant amount of herb to accomplish what you are trying to get to.
The average batch of beer is 5 gallons. The average hop schedule is 1oz (at a minimum) up to 7-8oz for a bigger IPA. Some people scale back their recipes to ~3 gallons - anything less is almost not worth it because you lose so much to trub.

On top of that, adding hops to different points of the boil achieve different results in the final product. (i.e. bitterness, aroma etc)


One thing that I might be able to see as a possibility is a very high ABV (Alcohol By Volume ABV) beverage that has some buds dropped in at bottling time. This way the extraction can take place slowly as the beverage ages and comes to being ready. Of course this would totally fuck with the flavor profile of the beverage but... Its in the name of science.

Good luck!

 

[disoriented]

I'm actually doing a 12 gallon brew with 420 grams of a mixture of Simcoe, Cascade , Centennial, and Amarillo hops. It was a Dead Poets Imperial IPA(strictly simcoe) that was changed to add some more complexity to the taste. It was supposed to yield 8.5% ABV and 100+ IBUS before it was changed. With the addition of some Caramel, biscuit, and melanoidin to the mash I feel like it should be upwards of 10% ABV. I bottle in 1 week now. I didn't want to compromise the taste of the entire 12 gallons which is why I've decided to hold off on the dry-weeding(perhaps on the next brew). Still I wouldn't mind trying to infuse THC somehow into a few of the bottles, probably a case. I'm still leaning towards a very potent, evaporated down, alcohol tincture at bottling. Any more ideas would be great, and thanks so far!

 

[AGBeer]

I remember seeing an experiment done with this guy doing a chocolate mead experiment with many different choco mediums (semisweet, nestles cocoa, hersheys candy etc) He had like a total of 10-12 different 1 gallon jugs for the sake of this experiment. In a case like this, I would HIGHLY suggest you make a very small batch (experimental) for your herb infused brews. 12 gallons is quite a bit to mess with especially if it goes awry. But damn, with a hop schedule like that.... I wish I still drank! Id beg you for a bottle!

 

[Nuphile]

I don't know much about the brewing process, but couldn't you just add honey hash oil at a certain point? Maybe during the boiling process?

You wouldn't have the wonderful cannabis taste, but it should get you medicated, right?

Edit: Now that I have actually made honey hash oil myself, I realize this method would probably not work. The oil would most likely not get broken down by the brewing process.

 

[brandonkerk]

but i don't think the alcohol content in the beer at 10% is going to me enough to throughly extract the thc for the " dry hoping" method. i don't know this i think it.

i like the idea of super evaporated alcohol tincture in general but haven't heard any solid evidence of what happens when you cook all the alcohol. but would be real interested to have something at the ml concentration that i could put in anything.

i am planing on lighting a fire under man home brew buds to get this going definitely i love super hopy beers and i am considering incorporating at multiple time for flavor and potency

and i am willing to try different things and new ideas lets get this thread going

 

[Progress]

If you add a tincture at the beginning of the boil, wouldn't most if not all of the alcohol boil off?

If you do get your hands on some grain alcohol, also make some hop extract to add to the bottom of a pint/growler.

 

[tdavie]

I'm at the point where I'm going to be brewing within 4 weeks, and I'm soliciting opinions as to what I should brew. Personally I'm leaning towards an Eisbock and a Barleywine, but then fiancee will drink neither, so maybe a double IPA and a nice double bock?

As for getting MJ into the beer, I was thinking along the lines of a port type infusion. I've been guzzling some ports lately, and think this might work.

Briefly, for those who don't know, a port is a young, incompletely fermented wine that has had it's fermentation stopped by the addition of a specific amount of brandy (usually sufficient to bring the alcohol to 20% abv). The resulting ports are then aged, usually in various wooden barrels, but sometimes in huge glass vessels. A port is usually sweet with varying degrees of complexity depending on what type of wooden barrel it is aged in.


Soo...I was thinking about brewing 5 gallons at a target of 5%, but the initial starting gravity would be in the barleywine or eisbock level. I've got access to 100% anhydrous ethanol so solubilizing the THC/goodies shouldn't be a problem.

If I shock the fermentation with enough of a THC infused alcohol solution, I'd hope it would be soluble, or is this going to separate?

Anyone have any idea what sorts of chemicals some of the THC soda companies use? (to keep it in solution). Any chance that carbonation could play a part in this (C02 has increased solubility the colder an aqueous solution gets and I'm familar with C02 extracted hash oil as a technique)?

Brewers or chemists please feel free to chip in. I'd LOVE to be able to drink a nice Czech Pilsener that had a good smack of Sativa in it.


thanks for reading my stoned rant.

Tom

 

[Nuphile]

i like the idea of super evaporated alcohol tincture in general but haven't heard any solid evidence of what happens when you cook all the alcohol.

When you cook all the alcohol off, you are left with a resin that probably would not be broken up by the brewing process.

 

[Nuphile]

Anyone have any idea what sorts of chemicals some of the THC soda companies use? (to keep it in solution).

From what I hear, they make a glycerin tincture and just mix it with the other soda ingredients. But, you probably wouldn't want that flavor in your beer.

 

[Hogni]

Last post five years ago? Arent there any new experiences?

Aside from gardening I'm a homebrewer too since 14 years. Would like to brew a Romulan Ale with weed.

After my researches it seems to be problematically infusing beer stable with THC.

Fat as medium doesnt work cause of destroying foam.

Cold hopping works to ineffective, cause there ist to less active alc in the wort/green beer to dissolve most of the THC.

So higher concentrated alcohol seems to be the best way. High percentageethanol is working well. But what happens, when mixed with a low-alc watery solution like beer? As I have read it could happen that THC will precipitates - by the time. Therefor used beer has to have so much alc as possible. May be a Barley Wine/Russian Imperial Stout/Double IPA/Doppelbock or Quadrupel. Still there is danger of precipitation of THC.

Any suggestions?

 

[stsae]

Last post five years ago? Arent there any new experiences?

Aside from gardening I'm a homebrewer too since 14 years. Would like to brew a Romulan Ale with weed.

After my researches it seems to be problematically infusing beer stable with THC.

Fat as medium doesnt work cause of destroying foam.

Cold hopping works to ineffective, cause there ist to less active alc in the wort/green beer to dissolve most of the THC.

So higher concentrated alcohol seems to be the best way. High percentageethanol is working well. But what happens, when mixed with a low-alc watery solution like beer? As I have read it could happen that THC will precipitates - by the time. Therefor used beer has to have so much alc as possible. May be a Barley Wine/Russian Imperial Stout/Double IPA/Doppelbock or Quadrupel. Still there is danger of precipitation of THC.

Any suggestions?

Mate I have done 2 brews using AVB, 20 G in a Ruby Porter and 40 G in a IPA.

I boiled the AVB in 2 litres of water for about 2 hours, added hops as I normally would to boiled water and strained into cheesecloth. I then added all liquid and flowers to the wort.

The result was perfect, Very little aftertaste of AVB.

And everyones reported getting a very good sleep that night.

More than one is being greedy.

And me greedy.

Give it a lash, nothing to lose except a bit of AVB.

I too am now looking at a straight herb method. If you find more please post, as will I.

 

[Hogni]

Thanks a lot!

Method seems not to be very effective cause THC isnt hydrophile. Wondering if it should work - a bit!?

 

[IamBenito]

tincture is needed for punch if you want that in the brew. it takes some math for dosage. highest proof about 2-4 oz of booze with oil in it. drop it in the fv before cold crashing. dont worry about the ring of oil left over, it is all wax and fat. the actives are all in the alch and dispersed.
dry hopping for flavor.
one done a bit ago used 2oz rosin chips in the boil for ibu and then 2oz fresh flower for dry hop. amazing beer.
its great to see the face when drinker breathes out and figures out what it is.

 

[tx93budsmane]

So in other words - A really big BARLEYWINE that is going to take a very long time to get ready (so you have max MJ infusion time) is pretty much what it seems the consensus is here.

Id say dooooooooeeeeeeettttt (if you have the resources)
Your average 5 gal batch is ~ $50. Make it a barleywine and your grain bill goes ^^^. But you all know this already

That sounds amazing! hog heaven is my all time favorite and if it had weed in it Ohhhhhhh