Keith Villa is an unlikely advocate for cannabis-infused non-alcoholic beer. The cerebral PhD with a molecular biology background spent more than three decades working for Coors, with two decades focused on creating and building the Blue Moon brand, and today he approaches the subject of cannabis beer with a scientist’s rigor and a marketer’s soul. In this conversation, he lays the groundwork for his current exploration, discussing the ins and outs of brewing Belgian-style witbiers (from grist composition to mash regimens that lock in stable haze and substantial head), the value of ritual and drama in beer service, and thinking beyond style strictures when envisioning beers. From there, he delves into the new opportunities that blending beer with cannabis provides—utilizing terpenes common to both hops and cannabis to promote certain physiological effects—before finishing with a primer in the process and technical concerns around de-alcoholizing beer.
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