Later this year, some Americans in states with legal marijuana might ditch their favorite IPAs for a little THC.
The maker of Blue Moon beer, Keith Villa, is planning three weed-based beverages, containing marijuana formulas intended to give consumers a buzz without containing alcohol, USA Today recently reported.
The weed-beer hybrid will debut in late 2018 in Colorado, the first state to legalize recreational marijuana. Villa plans to bring it to other pot-friendly states, including California, soon after, according to ABC7.
The new drinks won’t be released through Blue Moon, but through Villa’s new company called CERIA.
Villa won’t be the first major brewer to introduce marijuana elements to traditionally alcoholic drinks. Lagunitas launched SuperCritical Ale, which contains essential cannabis oils, near the end of 2017. It was available in California, but according to the company website, is currently “all tapped out.”
What distinguishes Villa’s new creations is that they’ll contain marijuana’s psychoactive ingredient, THC. By federal law, brewers can’t put marijuana in beers, part of the reason CERIA’s beverages will be nonalcoholic. For what it’s worth, though, marijuana is still illegal at the federal level.
Weed-based, alcohol-free beers come with the promise of reducing, if not eliminating, hangovers.
“You can almost dial in the sensations that you want,” Villa told Forbes. He told USA Today that the drinks are designed to impact consumers at the same pace as alcohol kicks in for regular beer drinkers.
Cannabis-alcohol crossovers are a popular concept — popular enough that they were discussed in a seminar at last year’s California Craft Beer Summit in Sacramento, in preparation for the state’s legalization of recreational weed on Jan. 1.
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