MINNEAPOLIS — Summertime at Indeed Brewing in Northeast Minneapolis means patio time in the newly rebranded Beer Yard alongside an active train track.
"It was just a parking lot and now it's an extended patio," Director of Experience Ryan Bandy said, surrounded by an impressive array of floral hanging baskets.
The company has been brewing craft beer for almost a decade and this summer for the first time, it'll offer a THC seltzer now that edibles and THC-infused beverages became legalized in Minnesota July 1 this year.
"The first one that we're going to go with is a 2-mg-THC, 2-mg-CBD beverage," Bandy said. "2 mg is considered a fairly low dose. It's certainly something we're thinking about a lot and talking about internally a lot right now is: how do we do this the most responsible way?"
He says, to start, the lavender-lemon-flavored drink called "Two Good" will not be available on tap at the brewery but rather it will be sold in cans to-go.
"We do that with our beer right now, too," Bandy said. "We have a bunch of growlers and stuff that you can't drink here so it's just the communication where when they're buying it. You need to make sure they know it's only to-go and, 'Hey how about I keep that behind the bar until you leave?'"
Most adults know how their body responds to a few beers. But a few THC Seltzers? We turned to Dr. Ann Philbrick from the University of Minnesota's College of Pharmacy. She has expertise in medical cannabis.
"If you're a first-time user of any THC or, you know, maybe even CBD beverage, I would definitely first say: moderation," Philbrick said. "You might have a problem with stacking, right? So if you have one THC-infused beverage you might think, 'That didn't affect me much at all,' and then a couple hours later you could be really in bad shape."
Philbrick emphasized that everyone reacts differently and said she applauded Indeed Brewing for introducing the beverage slowly. Meanwhile Bandy says he expects to get a mix of first-time consumers and cannabis users who may have already experienced THC seltzers in other states that have also legalized them.
"It will certainly be a thing where we'll have a lot of people trying it for the first time and we know that and we're excited to like be towards the front of that just like how we've had a lot of people try their first craft beer with us," Bandy said.
Bandy says August 1 is the tentative launch date and to look for updates online. Indeed Brewing will also be bringing back "Lull," its CBD-infused seltzer that does not include THC. Bandy explained that production started during a grey legal area and stopped in 2020 when the state informed the company it was against the law. He says sales are now legal again.
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