Marijuana Business Magazine - May-June 2018

KNOCKING ON DOORS Hill eventually partnered with Key- stone Canna Products. Its hemp oil and food brand, Cannagenix, specializes in paper trails and lab testing, according to Follett, the owner. “There are a lot of hemp and CBD products but not a lot of quality docu- mentation,” he said, noting that growers and CBD companies that can’t produce a regulatory paper trail are likely to be shut out of the alcohol business. Labeling Semantics Hill said even though TVM’s wines contain CBD, they’re labeled as “hemp seed oil infused” because the TTB and DEA preferred the word “hemp” to “CBD.” But, like most cannabis law, this is a gray area.The determining factor appears to be where the beer, wine or spirits are sold. Even if alcohol doesn’t cross state lines, regulations vary from state to state, just as they do with cannabis. So far, Long Trail’s Medicator beer hasn’t run up against the TTB, even though the can says: “Vermont’s first CBD infused beer.” But the company has made only three small batches and has limited sales to the brewery’s pub. In California, Petaluma-based Lagu- nitas Brewing uses cannabis terpenes in its SuperCritical Ale. CannaCraft, a vertically integrated medical cannabis producer and distributor in Santa Rosa, California, extracted terpenes for the beer using a carbon dioxide process. “There is no THC in the beer, so we simply made the beer and did not ask for permission to do that which we do every day,” said Lagunitas founder and Executive Chairman Tony Magee. “However, the TTB became interested, and we are talking with them about it right now. I’m pretty confident they will understand what we intend to do, and we’re looking forward to making a whole lot more of it.” ◆ T here’s no formal system to connect cannabis and alcohol producers, but because hemp-, CBD- and terpene-infused alcohol is still a cottage industry, keeping it local is a good first step. There’s an important caveat, however. Because of federal alcohol regulations, booze manufacturers tend to avoid cannabis companies that can’t produce lab work showing the THC content of their hemp, CBD or terpene extracts. Producers that have the necessary lab work can start by registering with their state’s hemp, cannabis and alcohol associations to get their name out there. And cold-calling local brew- eries and distillers can be effective, too. That’s what Joe Pimen- tel, owner of Luce Farm in Stockbridge, Vermont, did. In 2017, Pimentel asked whether Long Trail Brewing in Bridgewater Corners, Vermont, would be interested in selling hemp products from his farm. The result? Long Trail’s CBD-infused Medicator beer. Increasingly, alcohol producers are realizing how much more they can charge for products that carry the hemp or CBD cachet. Medicator was so popular as a limited on-tap offering in the Long Trail pub that the brewery has decided to sell it in cans in the pub store. At $19.99 per four-pack, Medicator will retail at a price well above Long Trail’s non-CBD beers. “The demand is huge,” said Long Trail Marketing Director Jed Nelson. “There’s a great awareness of CBD and its therapeutic properties.” Meanwhile, a hemp oil-infused wine produced by Texas-based TVM Wine retails for $19.99 per bottle. “We had our first tasting in Weatherford, a Texas town of 30,000 people,” said Elease Hill, TVM co-owner and vice president of sales and marketing. “We sold 10 cases of wine in three hours, and within the first month we were in 40 locations in the Dallas-Fort Worth area.” – Vicky Uhland Joe Pimentel is a hemp grower and the owner of Luce Farm in Stockbridge, Vermont. His wife, Rebecca, is a business partner. Photo courtesy of Joe Pimentel 46 • Marijuana Business Magazine • May-June 2018