Province Brands of Canada, Western University team up to develop innovative yeasts

Province Brands of Canada, developers of the world’s first and only beers brewed from the cannabis plant, will join with Western University (WU) to study and develop innovative yeasts in a $45,000 research grant awarded to WU. The grant is funded by the Ontario Center of Excellence’s (OCE) Voucher for Innovation and Productivity (VIP) program and by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada’s (NSERC) Engage program.

The yeast being developed in this collaboration is expected to be a revolutionary and time- saving technology that can be used in crafting beers made from hemp and cannabis, as well as in many other applications.

Over the past two years, Province Brands of Canada has developed a patent-pending process for brewing a premium beer from the cannabis plant. The first steps in the brewing process, milling and “mashing” (i.e. saccharifying or extracting fermentable sugars from the cannabis plant) requires specialized equipment and technology, which would not be found in existing breweries.