cannabis pale ale

[MotaLeon22]

as a homebrewer and cannabis enthusiast for many years now i've done some expeirementing with making a cannabis ale. i've made several batches trying to achieve the best cannabis ale i could produce. both in flavor and strenghth. i suggest you know something about brewing before embarking on this recipe. i will put it in extract and all grain forms.

Extract: 1lbs caramel 20l malt, 3lbs extra light dry malt extract, 4lbs pale malt extract, 6 oz of your favorite hops(i suggest cascade of about 6.5-7%a.a., maybe an ounce of simcoe for bittering at 10-12%a.a), your choice of yeast, and depending on quality of cannabis 1-3oz. this is all for a five gallon batch.

All grain: 10lbs belgian pale malt, 1lbs belgian biscut, 1/2 lbs of caramel 20l. 1oz hops 10-12%a.a., 3oz of hops 4-6%a.a, wyeast 1056, and 1 oz of fine quality cannabis.

the perfect time to add the cannabis is when you tranfer the beer into the secondary fermenter. for this batch you will dry hop with an ounce of hops and put in the cannabis as well. let the beer finish conditioning for one to two weeks before bottling. i have made this exact recipe with up to 3oz of ak47 and after just one i was sleeping like a baby. i've also made batches using only an ounce of swag and after six beers i was feeling pretty messed up(perfect for concerts) i've also made exremely high gravity barley wine cannabis ales that were jam packed with flavor, alcohol, and thc. unfortunatly the flavor was too strong for the average beer drinker, so i developed a more crowd appealing recipe that still has plenty of hop flavor to compliment the earthy undertones of the cannabis all balanced by the crisp malt flavor that can still be detected through all the cannabis and hops. if you really really want to try to make a cannabis ale, but have no prior brewing knowledge i suggest you buy one of those little mr.beer brewing kits and follow all the instructions. then while your beer is aging you can add the cannabis.( the key is adding the cannabis after most of the sugars have be converted into alcohol.)

 

[Jack_Baybeh]

Good read MotaLeon. Sounds delicious. Throwing back a few brews with you would be a hell of a different experience for most I would imagine. LOL. I've thought about wanting to try this myself for years. Have no experience with brewing though so no confidence that I would come up with anything other than a mess. I know Ed put out a book on how to make "high brew". And I've read about the legendary "brain death". That's what got me thinking about giving it a go, but I think I should leave it to those more knowledgeable and capable in the art of brewing. LOL Hopefully, I'll get a chance to taste some good cannabeer one of these days.

 

[MotaLeon22]

i found a supposid recipe for brain death at my local brew shop which also happens to be the local hydroponic shop as well. their brew guy gave me a copy of a recipe for a very strong, extremely hoppy barley wine that was to have an ounce of sensi added between primary fermentation and bottling. i tinkered with it for a couple of years, and finally came up with this which i enjoy to the fullest. hops being the nearest relative to cannabis a hoppier beer really compliments the complexities of the cannabis. i would truely love to share a beer with you jack, but the recipe is the best i can do.

 

[Pot Boy]

Thanks for the tutorial on that brew. I need to get back in brewing beer I have been a avid homebrewer for about 13 years in the last few year all the supplys have go through the roof with it becoming popular and all.

 

[MotaLeon22]

that and the global hop shotage. i actually homegrow all my own hops every summer, and that cuts my brew costs down drastically. recently i've been able to pop out five gallon batches for about 20 bucks. all grain is key for cutting cost as well.

 

[Jack_Baybeh]

Hey ML22, how hard is it to grow hops? Just curious.
Do they pretty much grow themselves or is it something you really have to stay on top of??

 

[MotaLeon22]

growing hops is as easy as it gets. the only thing you really need to worry about when growing hops is good drainage, lots of sun, plenty of nutrients, and lots and lots of space. (they can reach up to 30 feet high) very easy to manage and i don't even find growing cannabis to be as fun as growing hops. the only problem with hop bines is that without weekly pruning and maintence they will get unruly and take over everything after a couple years. they are one of the fastest growing plants on the planet and can grow up to a foot a day. also do some research into varieties that will do well in your climate. i found the best hop variety i found for my homegrowing is " zues" they yeild like crazy, grow like crazy, and most importantly they are extemly pest and disease resistant. other varieties like mt.hood for instance are very suseptible to mildew and insects. i had a mt.hood growing about five feet away from my zues and the mt.hood was covered with mildew and japenese bettles while the zues was a picture perfect hop bine. bugs wouldn't even go near the thing is was so potent. and with rhizomes only costing about 6 dollars there is no reason no to grow hops even if you don't brew. there are numerous medicinal properties behind hops. you can make hops tea that will calm your nerves, help you sleep, and aid in digestion. hops are easily just as special as cannabis. i really hope you decide to grow some becuase they are wonderful looking, and in my eyes a truely magical plant. give me a few days and i'll post some pics up here with some pics of last years harvest.

 

[MotaLeon22]

just dont grow them where your dogs(if you have any) would have access to the hops themselves. the hop is incredibly poisinois to dogs, and if even the dog just licks a hop cone the chance of survival is very slim. i'm pretty sure i lost a dog becuase of my hops. he was 15 and he died only 3 days after i harvested my hops. theres no way of knowing if it was the hops or just his time, but just having that question in my head causes me much distress. i almost desrtroyed everyone of my bines after he died, so please grow with caution. no plant is worth your best friends life.

 

[Radio Flyer]

I'm so glad I found this thread. My buddy brews and I'd love to help him with a batch!

 

[foolsgold]

hell ya. i've made several cannabis ales of my own. good to see theres other beer lovers on this site. goos read.

 

[foolsgold]

nothing goes better with a bong than a good beer. make it a cannabis ale and your really talking.

 

[nirtana]

medical ale

Thanks for posting this recipe. I have my first batch in secondary fermentation, but i was a bit nervous about dry fermenting with buds, so i opted to add a cup of purple haze tincture for the secondary. one beer should be enough! the tincture is glycerin based, and it has cured for about a year, giving it clarity and a flavor that is very floral. i am going for taste and medical effect here. if it works, then i will try bud next time. i imagine different strains would yield different flavor/effect. i just don't want to waste any properties of the medicine though.

 

[ogwww]

what where you thinking
3oz hahahah

 

[brewmaster]

Done it. Great for the avid enthusiast of both hobbies! I would suggest going with a barley wine though and dry hopping it with the trim/bud. I had a 13% English Style Barley wine that I dry hopped with around 14 grams of trim. As a professional brewer I will tell you that this is a very difficult beer to brew as the beer has to be spot on because of what you are adding. Despite what you may think its not that pleasant of a flavor in the beer and is actually kind of hard to swallow once down to the last drops. THC is alcohol soluble meaning that the more alcohol there is the easier it is to extract THC and the more that you can extract, hence the reason for a barley wine. The other thing about adding pot to beer post fermentation is the fact that the oils contained within the plant matter actually DESTROY head retention. I did a 10 gallon batch of this barley wine, even with flaked barley for better head retention, split the batch into two 5 gallon kegs and spiked one with the herb and left the other one alone. The unspike keg produced the best head I have ever seen, the spiked one didn't even show a head. All I am trying to say is make sure you are not going to end up pitching this batch after the stuff has been added because thats a major loss. I might even suggest adding in some aggressive hop with the pothop/dryhop to help mend the flavor with the beer.

Cheers and happy brewing

 

[medicalgrowman]

How about this?

I love LOVE microbrewed Pale Ales!
But I want to get away from alcohol.
So how about brewing up a batch of non-alcoholic Pale Ale
with the buzz coming from Budz instead of alcohol?

 

[pierre]

Great thread! Thanks for starting this ML22. I've done a couple of batches of homebrew myself and am looking forward to giving this a shot.

I'd like to use a combination of super aggressive hops, per brewmaster's suggestion, and then let the beer vintage for 18 months.

The first IPA I made was suuuuper hoppy. A six pack was unintentionally left in my uncles basement for a year and a half...came back...cracked open a bottle, and it was amazing! The taste had transformed significantly. The bite of the hops had been replaced with a much smoother flavour. I looked it up, and quickly saw that vintaging beer has been a practice for sometime.

brewmaster, have you ever used cannabis in a tripel?

...i wonder how a lambic would turn out?

time for sum experimenting...

 

[homebrew420]

Bump. I am gonna do this soon, thinkin next week.

 

[homebrew420]

Here's what we did.

 

[neverbreak]

i love the fact u use a whiteboard bro! lol

let us know how it turned out. very much interested in hearin how ya go. any idea how strong a beer's worth would be in terms of gettin stoned?

neverbreak

 

[homebrew420]

Chilling in the freezer to pitch the yeast