Budweiser partners with medical cannabis company to research weed-infused drinks

Beer or buds? If you’re forced to choose, you might find yourself disappointed. After all, both have their pros and their cons and what you get from one you might not get from the other. Until now…In what could well be, linguistically at least, the perfect match, Budweiser’s parent company will invest $50 Million into Cannabis-based non-alcoholic beers. Yeah, it seems that Anheuser-Busch InBev is partnering up with medical marijuana company Tilray Inc to research cannabis-infused drinks in Canada.

We spoke to you blokes and blokettes earlier in the year about Canada’s forays into cannabis beer, and since then, Canada’s legalization of the sticky-icky has seen them become a world leader in the cannabis industry. Yeah, nah, they’ve surged to the top of the orchy bottle faster than a bong bubble.

Credit: Associated Press

Anheuser-Busch InBev, a Belgium based company, is the owner of more than 500 beer brands, including Budweiser and Stella ‘wifebeater’ Artois. It’ll be investing in the joint project through its subsidiary Labatt Breweries of Canada.

Kyle Norrington, the company’s president said, “Labatt is committed to staying ahead of emerging consumer trends.” And that right there gives you a bit of a clue as to what’s driving this. F**ken money. Over the next ten years, annual spending on legal cannabis in North America is expected to f**ken balloon. Arcview Market Research, a cannabis-focused investment firm, reckon it’ll go from being worth less than ten billion a year to almost fifty billion.

Credit: Denver Post via Getty Images

You might remember that one of the blokes we quoted in that last article about cannabis beer, Dooma Wendschuh said his beer, “is brewed from the stalks, stem and roots of the cannabis plant,” and that it, “Hits you very quickly, which is not common for a marijuana edible.”

That was more of a craft beer experiment. Now the big boys, like Coors and Budweiser, are getting involved, it’ll be interesting to see how it plays out.

Dooma Wendschuh, who’s been doing this weed beer thing for a while. Credit: Hamilton Spectator

Final thought: As Ozzies and beer-lovers, we’re not sure how to feel about this. Within the range of beers, there’s a massive scope for flavour and taste, so whether these actually taste any good, or they’re just a canned equivalent of billy-water will definitely be a bit of a litmus test. Let us know what you think in the comments, ya bloody stoners. Would you get behind this?

Anyway, here’s a video about Coors’ involvement.

Just in case you missed it, here’s one of Ozzy’s latest commentary videos…Ozzy Man Reviews: Mega Compilation 8

H/T: Daily Mail.