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A yeast used for eons to brew alcoholic drinks has now been engineered to produce low-cost high quality cannabinoids, both the mind-altering THC and the non-psychoactive CBD compounds found in the cannabis plant.
According to Nature, scientists at the University of California/Berkeley have developed a method of brewing genetically-modified cannabis using beer yeast, opening a door that will never be closed, to a cheaper and more environmentally-friendly method of producing the cannabinoids for both medical and recreational applications.
The future?
Talk about better living through chemistry…This is a mind-boggling development that’s destined to shake up both the commercial cannabis industry as well as the drinks biz.
According to Jay Keasling, a UC Berkeley chemical and biomolecular engineering professor and a faculty scientist at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory it all starts with genetically modified brewer’s yeast…
“Turning yeast into chemical factories involves co-opting their metabolism so that, instead of turning sugar into alcohol the yeast convert sugar into other chemicals that are then modified by added enzymes to produce a new product, such as THC.”
“For the consumer, the benefits are high-quality, low-cost CBD and THC: you get exactly what you want from yeast.”
It’s too early to know how this new development will impact the beverage industry…but we promise you it will.
In the US, 10 states have already legalized the use of cannabis, including Michigan, Oklahoma, Vermont, Alaska, California, Colorado, Maine, Massachusetts, and Washington DC, and it’s on track to become a multibillion-dollar business.
And North American brewers are already making moves on the cannabis drinks market.
In 2017 Constellation Brands acquired a 9.9% share in Canopy Growth, Canada’s biggest traded cannabis firm. And in 2018 the Victor, NY-based drinks giant upped its stake to around 38% in a $4 billion deal.
Meanwhile, Coca-Cola is in talks with Canadian cannabis producer Aurora to develop drinks infused with CBD, and UK-based Diageo is said to be talking to three different Canadian cannabis producers to develop its own line of cannabis drinks.
Molson Coors has entered into on a joint venture with Quebec’s HEXO to develop its own range of cannabis drinks in Canada. And Heineken-owned Lagunitas label has already created non-alcoholic drinks infused with THC, marijuana’s psychoactive compound…
In Euromonitor’s “Here Comes Cannabis” report, Spiros Malandrakis, Euromonitor’s alcoholic drinks’ analyst spoke to cannabis as an industry disrupter…and advised beverage professionals to be prepared…
“Cannabis will ultimately culminate a global paradigm shift that will radically disrupt traditionalist industries such as alcoholic drinks.”
“Reshaping millennia-old drinking rituals and providing an alternative to social lubrication occasions, cannabis should be either embraced as a symbiotic opportunity or faced as a potentially detrimental antagonist for an alcohol industry already on the defensive.”
And now that scientist have developed a method of brewing genetically-modified cannabis in a lab, the cannabis drinks industry just moved into light speed.
