Province Brands and Bell City Brewing to make cannabis beer

Province Brands of Canada has announced it will produce a line of craft cannabis beer for Ontario’s Bell City Brewing Company.

The agreement will allow Bell City Brewing to license Province Brands of Canada’s patent-pending technologies to create several product lines of non-alcoholic cannabis-brewed beer and beer infused with cannabis oil.

Province Brands said the process will take place at its 123,000-square-foot facility in Grimsby, Ontario, once the manufacture and sale of such products are legalised in Canada. It added that the beers will be gluten-free and low in calories and sugar as no barley will be used.

Bell City Brewing is currently working on beer style concepts with its master brewer Muthu Sakthivel as well as the Province Brands of Canada technical team and its master brewer Rob Kevwitch.

Dennis Marijan, co-owner of Bell City Brewing, said: “We enjoy pushing the boundaries of beer flavours, and we’re doing it again. Just like our pre-prohibition Eureka Cream Ale and our gold medal-winning Habanero Chill Pepper Lager. Partnering with Province Brands on a cannabis beer is truly a new horizon and we are excited to work with them.”

Dooma Wendschuh, CEO and co-founder of Province Brands, added: “Bell City Brewing has always been true to the craft beer culture. They’re experimental and aren’t afraid to be different, so it’s very fitting that we’ll come together to produce some of the world’s first cannabis-powered craft beers.”

In August, Province Brands secured CAD 11 million ($8.4 million) in a Series A funding round.

And earlier this month, the firm said it will release a hemp-based beer in Canada in the first half of 2019, which it claims will be the world’s first beer brewed from cannabis.

Cambridge Bay Imperial Pilsner is a 7% ABV beer made from a mash derived from the stalks, stems and roots of cannabis plants, which is then fermented in the presence of hops and brewer’s yeast to create an “authentically crafted cannabis beer”.

Cannabis became legal in Canada in October after the country voted to legalise its recreational use in June.