Is CBD beer the solution to your festive hangovers?

With everything from coffee to mascara getting the CBD treatment, it’s no surprise that UK breweries are taking advantage of a market that’s predicted to be worth almost £1bn by 2025, according to The Centre for Medicinal Cannabis (CMC). After all, as UK brewery Hop & Hemp points out, hops and hemp are ‘old friends’.

One of several UK breweries that specialises in producing craft beers infused with cannabis oil extract, Hop & Hemp Brew Co partnered with CBD experts, The Drug Store, to launch their new range of vegan CBD beers back in August 2019. After over a year of development and months of tastings and trials, they gave us the golden pilsner-style Lowdown Lager and Easy Times, a full-on IPA with aromas of grapefruit and lemonade from the triple addition of American hops – both of which have an ABV of 0.5% and contain 8mg of CBD per 330ml bottle.

With the proportion of young people choosing to drink alcohol at its lowest on record – the ONS reports that 20% of UK adults also now don’t drink – and a rise in mindful drinking, Hop & Hemp wanted to create brews that were big on flavours but didn’t see you write off another Sunday. The result is the world’s first CBD-infused, low-alcohol range, which contains 0% THC (the psychoactive chemical component of the plant) and a viable alternative to regular ABV beers and hangovers this Christmas.