Flying Dog Brewery, located in Frederick, MD has plans to release a non-alcoholic beer infused with THC called Hop Chronic IPA. The brewery is teaming with Green Leaf Medical Cannabis to provide the necessary ingredients and the beer is intended to be an alternate delivery system of the medical compounds versus smoking or vaping.
The beer is currently subject to approval by the Maryland Medical Cannabis Commission before it can be distributed. Maryland currently does not allow cannabis edibles so it remains to be seen if a consumable drink will pass.
Flying Dog CEO Jim Caruso says, "For people who don't want to smoke, don't want to vape, there's not path of experiencing the therapeutic benefits. It feels good to be a part of creating a delicious IPA where people who want to experience the cannabis that way can do it."
He explained that Flying Dog will produce the beer and then send it to Green Leaf for them to infuse it with cannabis at their own facility. Caruso adds, "We're very familiar with how to get the hop character into a very low-alcohol beer. We're very confident that we can come up with a terrific base beer that will make a delicious infused product."
Flying Dog hopes to make Hop Chronic available as early as this summer.