Marijuana Business Magazine November-December 2019

AbsoluteXtracts (CannaCraft) and Lagunitas Brewing Co. CASE STUDY Silver said the product received a response positive enough to warrant it be sold on its own, without the cannabis addition. Then came the secondary challenge of how to infuse it. According to Silver, figuring out the chemistry of how to infuse hop water with emulsified oil as well as the correct container to sell it in all factored into the decisionmaking. The two companies spent much of 2018 stress- testing the product before it was fully launched. “In early 2018, before Hi-Fi Hops launched, CannaCraft worked to increase the shelf life of the product and maintain flavor consistency before going to market,” said Ned Fussell, co- founder and chief growth officer for CannaCraft. The next difficulty was deciding how to market the water. Ideally, the marketing would distinguish the product from nonalcoholic beers already on the market. Lagunitas was even struggling to decide where to put the non-infused beer on the supermarket shelves. Should it be next to the sparkling water or the beer? “You have to put it in the hands of consumers,” Silver said. KEEPING IT GOING A major juncture in product development came when Hi-Fi Hops was sold at the Outside Lands Music and Arts Festival in San Francisco, which drew a crowd of more than 200,000. “To me, that’s a game-changing moment in the history of cannabis,” Silver said. Fans seemed delighted with the product. To ease any hesitation that their mainstream partner might have about working with marijuana, AbsoluteXtracts personnel meet frequently with the folks from Lagunitas. “For people who don’t understand the plant, who’ve grown up with prohibition, working with cannabis can be scary,” Silver said. “We don’t want anyone coming to this from a position of fear; we want people coming to this from a position of curiosity and interest.” It worked, and Lagunitas has become more comfortable working with cannabis after “the sky didn’t fall” with the launch of Hi-Fi Hops. NEXT STEPS Today, Silver said, the partnership is thriving. Hi- Fi Hops is available in California and Colorado with plans to expand the product to more states. The next step for the collaboration is to continue expanding into states with legal cannabis programs. “We’re trying to get it out to the rest of the world,” Silver said. Hi-Fi Hops launched in Colorado in September. “Launching Hi-Fi Hops in Colorado is a major milestone for CannaCraft,” said Dennis Hunter, CEO and co-founder of CannaCraft. “Colorado is full of beer and cannabis enthusiasts,” Hunter said. “They’re going to like how we’ve combined the two.” Bottles of Hi-Fi Hops are packaged on the bottling line at CannaCraft in Santa Rosa, California. Photo by Bill Reitzel Marijuana Business Magazine | November-December 2019 66 Partnership PIONEERS