Big bucks with cannabis beer

Molson Coors CEO Mark Hunter has projected cannabis-infused non-alcoholic beverages will soon account for up to 30 percent of all cannabis sales. In anticipation of this, Molson Coors acquired a controlling stake last year in Canadian marijuana grower Hexo.

Anheuser-Busch Inbev Inc. invested $50 million in a joint venture with Canadian marijuana company Tilray. Constellation Brands took the biggest lead, acquiring a 38 percent stake Canada’s biggest pot producer Canopy Growth for $4 billion.

“If you’re a beverage company and you know how to make liquid and put it in cans and make it taste good, whether it’s an electrolyte beer or a THC beer, it’s a natural extension of your expertise,” Brandy Rand, COO for the Americas at IWSR Drinks Market Analytics, an alcohol industry market research firm, told Verge in a recent interview.

Michigan’s largest marijuana company signed a licensing agreement with Short’s Brewery Co. to produce a line of beer-inspired edibles and vaporizers, reports Crain’s Detroit Business.

Green Peak Innovations, announced the deal with Short’s at the Benzinga Cannabis Capital Conference held at the Westin Book Cadillac in Detroit.

The marijuana company will produce products that mimic the flavours of Short’s most popular brews, such as Soft Parade-flavoured gummies or Huma Lupa Licious-flavoured vape pens, CEO Jeff Radway said in a press release.

“THC and cannabis products have been part of our innovation development discussions for years,” Joe Short, president of Short’s, said in a press release. “We’re stoked to be working with the team at Green Peak so we can bring some of our next level products and concepts to the market.”

The two companies will also create a joint venture to produce marijuana-infused beverages. Short’s is developing a line of these infused drinks including cold-brew coffee, seltzers, teas and lemonades. Michigan law currently bans adding THC, the chemical that causes users to get high, to alcoholic products.

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