Toronto-based company brews its first beers from cannabis

A company in Toronto is preparing to be the first to sell beer brewed from cannabis once legalized marijuana is implemented in Canada.

CEO and co-founder of Province Brands of Canada, Dooma Wendschuh, told ABC News his team traveled around the world meeting with breweries to see how you can make beer with the cannabis plant.

“We had no idea how to do it,” Wendschuh told ABC.

When they visited the breweries, the thought of combining marijuana and beer was rejected immediately.

“We were told it was impossible,” he said.

But then, Wendschuh and his team got to thinking and developed a process that can take the cannabis plant and mash it to create sugar.

Unlike normal beer that includes only 6-carbon sugar, Province Brands will use both six and 5-carbon sugar.

Wendschuh also is using what is generally considered a waste stream in the marijuana industry, he said. They will use the stalks, stem and roots of the cannabis plant. And in his mind, they will be solving a major waste problem for the industry.

But don’t expect the beer to be on the shelves this coming October when legalized marijuana is implemented in Canada. They will have to wait until at least a year when all the regulations are set for other cannabis products, making October 2019 the earliest the beer will hit shelves, Wendschuh said.

Wendschuh is excited the beer will be much lower in calories than your standard non-alcoholic beer and it will be gluten free.

He added much of the beer has been made already because their license allows them to legally create it. However, in order to do tastings they need to be in a legal marketplace or jurisdiction, he said.

The company announced the beer line in June.

“Province Brands of Canada…has announced it will launch a line of beer brewed from barley and infused with premium cannabis oil to complement its flagship products — the world’s first beers brewed from the cannabis plant instead of grains or barley,” the statement read.

“We pride ourselves on the craftsmanship, the ingredients, and the authenticity of our beer,” Wendschuh told ABC.