# Home-brewed Hemp leaf beer
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/home-brewed-hemp-leaf-beer/497299
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Tags:** beer
**Created:** [May 22, 2009, 3:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/home-brewed-hemp-leaf-beer/497299 "2009-05-22T15:40:20Z")
**Posts on this page:** 6
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Great\_Dave](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Great_Dave)
#### Post date: [May 22, 2009, 3:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/home-brewed-hemp-leaf-beer/497299/1 "2009-05-22T15:40:20Z")
Let’s hypothesize that you have a fair amount of trimmings from a medicinal operation. What kind of recipe would you use? I’m thinking a pale ale, with maybe a bit of cascade hops, to smooth out the flavors.
---
### Author:  [@butler1850](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/butler1850)
#### Post date: [May 22, 2009, 4:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/home-brewed-hemp-leaf-beer/497299/2 "2009-05-22T16:21:34Z")
Not that I’d know anything about this sort of thing, but it’s been discussed in the [homebrewtalk.com](http://homebrewtalk.com) forums once or twice.
You’re fairly on track… if one was planning to do something of that sort. 😃
---
### Author:  [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)
#### Post date: [May 22, 2009, 4:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/home-brewed-hemp-leaf-beer/497299/3 "2009-05-22T16:43:01Z")
The hop plant is a close cousin to hemp, and even contains some chemically related compounds to THC. These chemicals has a powerful sedative effect, and hop bract-petals stuffed in a small pillow and/or infused in a tea are an old folk remedy for insomnia.
So…I’m not sure I understand why you’d want to use hemp _and_ hop. It’s just a flavoring agent anyway.
---
### Author:  [@Troy\_McClure\_SF](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Troy_McClure_SF)
#### Post date: [May 22, 2009, 5:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/home-brewed-hemp-leaf-beer/497299/4 "2009-05-22T17:30:08Z")
FWIW, [Humboldt Hemp Ale](http://beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/485/1489) is fairly tasty. Makes sense, since MJ is related to hops. Maybe some dry “hopping” would be good.
(I remember reading that the brewing process did indeed involve hemp, but the brewer doesn’t seem to have a real website, so I can’t confirm.)
---
### Author:  [@Great\_Dave](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Great_Dave)
#### Post date: [May 22, 2009, 6:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/home-brewed-hemp-leaf-beer/497299/5 "2009-05-22T18:04:39Z")
Well, SoP, hypothetically I don’t want to use both, but I have the skills to do it, and a hypothetical friend who wants to put his trimmings to good use.
Hops and hemp are related, I have heard of grafting one on to the other- not sure why one would do that, though. Hops are used both for flavoring and as a preservative. I’d say any medicinal value they have is pretty light in beer, except maybe for Alpha King or some other such extremely- highly hopped beer. I was thinking that one would use both, and use a lightly flavored hop that would complement the hemp flavor and provide some degree of antisepticness.
eta: I guess if one is going to make a hemp beer, might as well just go for it. I think a lighter malt would work best, as opposed to making a proter with it.
---
### Author:  [@Ogre](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ogre)
#### Post date: [May 22, 2009, 7:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/home-brewed-hemp-leaf-beer/497299/6 "2009-05-22T19:02:08Z")
Yup. I’d go with a pale ale recipe, then dry hemp (not hump, you weirdos!) it, so to speak.