This is an interesting development. I myself don't smoke, but I do drink beer and there are techniques for extracting hop oils for beer production.
Extracting the oils allows you to get fresh hop oil to the brewery faster than shipping whole fresh cones that will deteriorate during shipping. This is important for the prouction of IPAs.
I was wondering if some of the techniques that people use to extract hop oils could work for cannabis?
I can’t answer this with 100% certainty, but I would say that since hops and cannabis are so closely related, and the full spectrum extraction process being relatively similar to that of distilling any plant into an essential oil(which can be done without fractionalization at a much lower cost, as it doesn’t seem it would be necessary for hops.)
But I live in Eugene, Oregon. Beer City in the state that started the microbrewery movement. And hops is a cash crop in the Willamette Valley, so a lot of the like 20 microbreweries here actually do use fresh hops.
As far as using the rosin process to create hops oil for beer, my guess is that it’s done using traditional steam(CO2) distillation. It would hard to call it “natural,” or “organic” if there are remnants of butane in your beer, and a lot of brewers like those labels.
While all cannabis products that use solvent have some minimal(measured in parts per million) amount of it left over after purging, the amount allowed by the state is so low it can’t be tasted, hasn’t been proven to be harmful, and if a company manages to get tainted product into the stores, it can potentially destroy their reputations.
I just can’t see beer drinkers liking the idea of butane in their beer. Though I imagine that there are some pretty ugly additives in mass market beer as well.
The problem with using the rosin process to extract for hops is the whole 1oz to 1g of rosin produced ratio that I mentioned. That ratio isn’t high enough for people selling hops oil, I imagine by the barrel? Or at least by the pound?
You also just don’t need the same level of purity with hops. So while I wouldn’t be surprised if a microbrewery or a home brewer around here has made some oil using a rosin press, and maybe turned it into a special batch for friends that are interested, I just can’t see it being profitable.
There’s also the fact that flower that has been through a rosin press(called “rosin chips”) can be reused. You can blow solvents through it and still come out with a batch of trim-run quality oil that can still be sold at about $20/g.
So that softens the blow quite a bit to cannabis growers turned off by an extraction method that in theory only produces a gram of extremely high quality extract per ounce of high quality flower.
What you are saying makes a lot of sense. Hop oils aren't worth nearly as much as the oil from cannabis. Sierra Nevada does brew an IPA called "Hop Hunter" which uses hop oils, but I am not sure what process they use and how economical it is.
How did you become interested in extracting oils from cannabis?
Sierra Nevada, while not being Budweiser, is also kind of bottom of the barrel microbrewery wise. I’ll say the same thing about Deschutes, which is made in my own state.
I believe they got bought out buy a not so micro parent company early on, and they kinda mechanized the process. The first batch of Budweiser was a homebrew too lol. Both companies put out a decent beer, but there are breweries here in Eugene that make stuff I like more than anything from both.
And you’re right. Hops oil isn’t worth anywhere near the price of cannabis oil, and too much is needed to justify doing it in some kind of artisan manner. Cannabis oil in the right form can fetch the price of gold in some places at this point.
As far as how I became interested. I was born with spina bifida, and got a medical card at 18(I’m 33.) I moved into my first grow house not long after that, and from 18-25, I spent time in basically all aspects of the cannabis industry(that existed at the time) on one level or another.
Then I became homeless, and after 2 years of homelessness, I was diagnosed with cancer. I used RSO during my cancer treatment. My first real experience with extracts. Since then I’ve mostly been recovering from my 4 year illness and getting my life back in order, but I have a lot of friends with industry jobs, so I get to see the “inside” to a certain extent, though not quite like I used to.
I’ve since devoted my life to unlocking the most efficient way of using cannabis as a medicine, as it’s helped me cut my daily opiate intake in half. And I feel that extracts are the future of cannabis. Growing flower? They’ve got that down. So I’d much rather focus on the medical and extract sides of the industry. Though I would like to get into a living situation where I can grow again, just because I’m poor lol(I know I’m in Oregon. It’s complicated.)
Hang in there, I hope things work out better for you. You are smart to focus on the extract side of the business. The flower growing side is saturated.
You're right that Sierra Nevada isn't near the top of anybody's list anymore. In some ways, they help start the movement that would eventually leave them behind. They are a part of that first wave craft beer movement which might also include Pyramid, Widmer, and Anchor. They all got decently big and stop innovating.
I would definitely also include Deschutes on that list as well. I still like a Black Butte Porter, but mostly for nostalgia reasons. It’s not bad beer, but it’s not any better or cheaper than what I can get made in town.
Pyramid is harder to judge. For example, they own Lagunitas, who have managed to maintain my respect for 20 years. And a few other companies. But most of them do take a dive after Pyramid buys in.