A Toronto-based company has come up with a… cannabis-brewed beer. The drink is being prepared in anticipation of Canada’s legalization of marijuana this year.

As Canada is set to become the second country in the world to legalize the class-B drug for recreational use, Province Brands has figured a unique way of bringing cannabis-based products to the consumer market.

In fact, it has already raised CAN $15 million (US $ 11.4) for the world’s first cannabis brewery. Once built, it expects to invest a further CAN $50-100 mn (US $33-76).

Dooma Wendschuh, the co-founder and CEO of Province, told Ruptly: “We felt like brewing this beer was something that had to be done.

“For generations, alcohol has had a monopoly as the only psychoactive for social and leisure activities and, with the legalization of cannabis, there was an opportunity to create for the first time ever a safer and healthier alternative to alcohol and if you are going to that what better format than a beer?”

Wendschuh said making the cannabis beer is essentially free as it is made out of parts of the plant which would otherwise have to be paid for by farmers to be disposed of as waste.

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He said it is a win-win for both his production company and farmers, as the latter only harvest flowers at the top of the plant. The rest cannot be disposed of, as marijuana is a controlled substance; and it cannot be incinerated without the risk of people in the area getting high by inhaling it. It means that farmers would have to pay to get it removed.

“We use a part of the cannabis plant that has no commercial value, so there’s hundreds of millions of square foot of growth that is about to come online here in Canada as we approach recreational legalization,” Wendschuch said.

People will be free to legally make use of cannabis in Canada from October 17, 2018.

Edibles are expected to become legal a year later, meaning the company will only be able to start selling the product from then on.

As the company “mashes and ferments” the plant, it can produce “different styles” of beer, the CEO told Ruptly, including a “pilsner, an IPA, a stout and a bock.” Pilsner will be the first that they will seek to produce, as it is the most challenging, Wendschuch said.

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