May 30, 2018

Feds Order California Brewery to Stop Making Cannabis Beer

May 30, 2018
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Black Hammer Brewing was told it had to stop producing all of its CBD beers.

Black Hammer Brewing premiered their Toke Back Mountain IPA on 4/20, which became wildly popular as California’s first cannabis beer, according to the San Francisco Chronicle.

Since then, the San Francisco bar has been selling lots of CBD-infused beer and released eight more similar brews. “They’ve been extremely well received,” said owner Jim Furman.

That was until the feds walked in and told Black Hammer to stop producing of all its CBD beers.

Why? The Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau requires special approval for any non-standard beer ingredients. Plenty of materials that are food-safe are not on that list, so breweries will often apply for special approval of their formula when they want to use one.

And Hemp is not on the list. Nor are terpenes, used to give the beer that dank cannabis flavor.

Furman told the San Francisco Chronicle that he intends to apply for approval to use both.

The problem for Furman and others like him, such as Lagunitas and Massachusetts’ Down the Road Beer Company, is that Congress recently failed to reclassify hemp under federal law as an agricultural commodity rather than a controlled substance.

 “We believe that future approval of our formula may be dependent on hemp reclassification by the federal government/DEA,” said Furman.

“Our guests love the CBD beers, and we’re pretty sad that we have to stop producing them.”

Fortunately, Black Hammer is allowed to sell the rest of the CBD beer it has already brewed.

Starting at 4:20 on May 24, the brewery starting selling the last of its Toke Back to the Future.

Each following Thursday at 4:20, they’ll break out another keg.

Furman said it should last about nine weeks before the entire supply of CBD beers is gone.

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