Producers of Joint Effort covered their label in references to marijuana and made their pull handles out of bongs.

Marijuana’s legalization in Colorado and Washington has led to a boom market of growers, sellers and investors seeking to cash in as the long-illicit drug goes legit. And then there’s the ancillary market. Cannabis swag has been flourishing in each state, with the leaf appearing on everything from throw pillows to key fobs.  So it should come as little surprise that breweries are riding the green wave.

 

As Washington processes its first applications for pot-related business licenses, local store shelves are being stocked with 22 oz. bottles of Joint Effort, a hemp beer crafted by two local breweries to evoke the aroma of weed. The name is a double entendre about their collaboration and the drug that was legalized there last November. It’s also part of the reason that the brew can be sold only in the Evergreen State.

 

Beer brewed with hemp, a botanical cousin to hops, can be (and has been) sold elsewhere in the U.S., so long as it tests negative for mind-altering THC. But a hemp brew’s label can’t contain any slang or graphics “implying or referencing the presence of … marijuana” if it’s going to be approved by the federal government for sales across state lines. Joint Effort, made by Redhook Ale Brewery and Hilliard’s Beer, is decorated with the tag line “a dubious collaboration between two buds.” And those puns, a company spokesman says, were enough for the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau to reject their label application. That left the brewers to sell their resiny ale at home, where the state liquor board approved.

 

The beer’s presence in bars makes the labels seem subtle by comparison. Pull handles that barkeeps yank to serve drafts of the brew are made out of actual bongs, purchased straight from local head shops. “We’re taking the whole passage of the law and celebrating the fact that we can do something legally that other states can’t,” says Matt Licklider, Redhook’s senior director of brewing and quality. Yes, they could sell their THC-free beer in other places if they toned down the look, but that would defeat the point, he says.

 

Joint Effort was first sold on tap in July 2013, with bottles following in late October. So far, it’s available at 85 locations, including stores such as Safeway and restaurants like Red Robin. Redhook brand manager Karmen Olson says they plan to sell it through March 2014 and may extend the run if there’s popular demand.

 

Though Redhook is now part of the larger Craft Brew Alliance, both that brewery and Hilliard’s were founded in Washington. The two companies were brainstorming on ways to collaborate soon after Initiative 502 passed in November 2012. Throwing ideas around over beers, they decided an ode to marijuana was in order. It certainly didn’t hurt to capitalize on the buzz of passing historic legislation either. The 22 oz. bottles are being sold at a price only novelty could justify: $3.99 to $5.99 a piece.

 

This isn’t the first time Redhook has run a campaign to “acknowledge that we live in a cool progressive state where stuff like this happens,” as Olson says. Last November, voters also passed a referendum that made gay marriage legal. The company, which sells a Long Hammer IPA, put out a celebratory ad with a giant equals sign. “Redhook supports equality,” it read. “Because two Long Hammers are better than one.”

Source: http://nation.time.com/2013/11/21/with-legal-weed-comes-hemp-beer/

The federal government shutdown could leave America’s craft brewers with a serious hangover.

 

Stores will still offer plenty of suds. But the shutdown has closed an obscure agency that quietly approves new breweries, recipes and labels, which could create huge delays throughout the rapidly growing craft industry, whose customers expect a constant supply of inventive and seasonal beers.

 

Mike Brenner is trying to open a craft brewery in Milwaukee by December. His application to include a tasting room is now on hold, as are his plans to file paperwork for four labels over the next few weeks. He expects to lose about $8,000 for every month his opening is delayed.

 

“My dream, this is six years in the making, is to open this brewery,” Brenner said. “I’ve been working so hard, and I find all these great investors. And now I can’t get started because people are fighting over this or that in Washington. … This is something people don’t mess around with. Even in a bad economy, people drink beer.”

 

The Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau, or TTB, is a little-known arm of the Treasury Department. The agency will continue to process taxes from existing permit holders, but applications for anything new are in limbo.

 

“One could think of this shutdown as basically stopping business indefinitely for anyone who didn’t have certain paperwork in place back in mid-August,” said Paul Gatza, director of the Brewers Association, which represents more than 1,900 U.S. breweries.

 

A woman who answered the phone Oct. 2 at TTB’s headquarters in Washington abruptly hung up after explaining that the government was shut down. Assistant Administrator Cheri Mitchell did not respond to telephone or email messages.

 

The shutdown began Oct. 1 after a group of House Republican lawmakers blocked a budget deal in a last-ditch effort to stop funding for President Barack Obama’s health care law.

 

The closing isn’t expected to have much effect on industry giants such as MillerCoors or Anheuser-Busch. They can continue to produce existing products as usual. But the shutdown poses a huge problem for craft brewers, who build their businesses by producing quirky, offbeat flavors and introducing new seasonal beers, sometimes as often as every quarter.

 

Craft brewers around the country say TTB was taking as long as 75 days to approve applications before the shutdown. Now they’re bracing for even longer waits. And tempers are flaring.

 

Tony Magee, owner of Lagunitas Brewing Co. in Petaluma, Calif., posted messages on his Twitter account this week ripping the shutdown.

 

“(Expletive) Feds are gonna shut down the already incompetent .Gov while hundreds of small breweries, including us, have labels pending. Nice.” That was followed with “Wanna regulate? Perform or get out of the way.”

 

Lagunitas Chief Operating Officer Todd Stevenson called the TTB shutdown a “headache.” He said the company was planning to submit an application to package its autumn seasonal Hairy Eyeball in 22-ounce bottles instead of 12-ounce bottles but can’t move forward.

 

“It’s just aggravating,” Stevenson said. “It is frustrating that government can’t do its job. Doing what they’re doing now is unprecedented.”

 

Bryan Simpson, a spokesman for New Belgium Brewing in Fort Collins, Colo., said his brewery has three recipes and five new labels awaiting approval. The company is especially worried that the release of its new spring label, Spring Blonde, could get pushed back. More delays might force New Belgium to shell out extra money to speed up the label printing and rush the beer to market, he said.

 

“Everybody is frustrated in general,” Simpson said. “The whole way this has played out has been disappointing for the entire country.”

 

Lakefront Brewery in Milwaukee has applications pending for new packaging of its IBA dark ale and for permission to offer a sour cherry dark lager called John, a brewery employee’s own concoction.

 

The brewery hopes to launch the IBA packaging in November and John in December, but nothing is certain now. If the shutdown causes delays, the brewery will probably have to rush the beers to market, said brewery spokesman Matt Krajnak.

 

“If we lose that first month, we lose out on a good chunk of money,” Krajnak said. “Right now, it’s only been a week so it’s not too bad. Two weeks, three weeks is when we’re really going to start sweating here.”

 

Brenner said politicians don’t seem to care how much damage they’re causing.

 

“For them it’s just another day,” he said. “They are still getting paid, but I’m losing $8,000 a month.”

Source: http://money.msn.com/