Heineken’s Lagunitas Brewing Company Collaborates with Vape Cartridge Manufacturer to Create Cannabis-Infused IPA

Lagunitas Brewing, a brewery owned by Heineken and located in Pataluma, Calif.,  has teamed up with vape cartridge manufacturer CannaCraft and their AbsoluteXtracts line to create a limited-edition, cannabis-infused IPA called SuperCritical, which launched earlier this month, according to Fox News.

The beer is made with marijuana terpenes, fragrant oils that give each strain its unique aroma, Fox News reports, and Lagunitas chose a mix of Blue Dream and Girl Scout Cookies strains for their creation. The terpenes are brewed with Yakima hops to create the 6.6% alcohol by volume IPA.

Terpenes do not contain THC, so the consumer will experience no psychoactive effects, just the normal effects of alcohol.

“We extracted the terpenes only from the cannabis, so just the flavor and none of the other ‘stuff,’” said Karen Hamilton, director of communications at Lagunitas Brewing Company.

The terpenes give the beer its earthy taste, with hints of pine nuts and citrus, according to Fox News.

The IPA is available for a limited time in its home state of California, Fox News reports, and there are no foreseeable plans for a nationwide release. Only 120 kegs of SuperCritical have been produced, and they’ve all been distributed to bars mostly located in the San Francisco Bay area, per The News Tribune. 

“Consumer reception has been amazing!” said Hamilton. “We are planning on a second brew shortly for our friends in California. And then, who knows! There's a whole big country out there.”

In exchange for CannaCraft’s part in creating SuperCritical, Lagunitas assisted the company in developing new vaping products for its AbsoluteXtracts line, according to the Los Angeles Times. The brewery provided guidance on using terpenes derived from hops to help give AbsoluteXtracts a beer-like aroma, per the Los Angeles Times, and the new products should be available in about five weeks.

“Here at Lagunitas, we found a like-minded partner over at CannaCraft,” said Hamilton. “Very similar culture. For one, you walk into their offices and they have dogs roaming and playing while their owners are at work, just like at our brewery. There are other similarities.

“So when CannaCraft was interested in partnering with a local brewery, they thought we'd make a good pair. CannaCraft extracted terpenes from a couple of cannabis strains with which we brewed a beer, and we shared our hop recipe with them to use in their cartridges. The result? SuperCritical ale by Lagunitas and SuperCritical cartridges by CannaCraft.”