Brewing with Cannabis: Using THC and CBD in Beer (Volume 1)
- Written by the creator of Blue Moon and CERIA Brewing
- Covers cannabis chemistry, history, law, and real recipes
- Suited for homebrewers and professional craft brewers alike
If you have ever wondered what happens when two of the most talked-about plant-based industries collide, this book gives you a front-row seat. Author Keith Villa holds a Ph.D. and is the brewmaster and co-founder of CERIA Brewing in Arvada, Colorado, where he has been pioneering the non-alcoholic cannabis-infused beer market. He also spent 32 years at MillerCoors as the founder and head brewmaster of Blue Moon Brewing Company. In other words, this is not someone guessing from the sidelines. Villa knows brewing at every level, from a basement homebrew setup to a national brand, and that experience shows throughout the book.
The book traces the history of how cannabis became federally illegal, examines current and historical laws around decriminalization and legalization in the United States, and explores the biology of the cannabis plant, including how closely related it actually is to hops. From there, readers dig into the active compounds in cannabis and learn how they interact with beer, how to convert THC-A into its psychoactive form, and how cannabinoids and terpenes are produced by the plant and can be worked into actual beer recipes. Both homebrewers and professional brewers will find a range of extract-based and all-grain recipes to work with or adapt.
Readers who pick this up tend to appreciate how much ground the book covers in one place. Reviewers have called it a comprehensive resource, praising the attention given to the safe use of cannabis alongside alcohol, the historical context, and the plant biology, plus the recipes that let you follow the process from start to finish. The final chapter looks ahead, giving readers a sense of where new cannabinoids and terpenes might take cannabis brewing in the future. Whether you are just getting curious or you are ready
