It’s happy hour at Logboat Brewing Company in Columbia, and bartender Mark Alexiou is doing what he’s done for the better part of 35 years — serving beer, seltzer, cider and cocktails to about two dozen thirsty patrons.
“I've had some people come in who know exactly what they're ordering, other people who are curious, and maybe actually a third group who are, like … secretive about it,” he said. “They're just like, yeah I heard you guys have that … that one drink.”
That one drink is Logboat’s newest product, Garden Club. Launched in January, it isn’t a beer and it doesn’t even contain alcohol. It’s a grape or orange-flavored soda infused with 10 milligrams of THC — the psychoactive compound found in cannabis.
Consumer behavior is changing in the beverage industry, and Alexiou said more of his customers want to unwind with an alcohol alternative.
“Especially this last year or two, I don't feel that people are maybe drinking as much as they were before, or even drinking beer like they were before and so they're looking for other options,” he said.
Missouri breweries are now getting into the THC business by creating hemp sodas and seltzers that can result in a marijuana-like high. But, due to a congressional ban, these products — and potentially the entire industry — now have an expiration date.
Loophole or opportunity
Hemp-THC beverages started hitting the market in 2022 after the 2018 farm bill removed a decadeslong ban on growing the plant, opening the door to a new industry of hemp-derived products. Unlike marijuana, hemp products that contain THC can be sold outside of dispensaries in places such as liquor stores, grocery stores, bars and breweries. This is often referred to as the hemp loophole.
“Some people like to call it a loophole. We like to call it an opportunity,” said Christopher Lackner, Hemp Beverage Alliance founder and president.
The organization of hemp entrepreneurs advocates for regulating hemp-derived THC beverages the same way alcohol is — with age restrictions, proper labeling, dosage limits and product testing.
But late last year, through the bill Congress passed to end the longest government shutdown ever, the hemp loophole was closed.
Unless Congress acts again, or state lawmakers get involved, all hemp-THC products will again become illegal this November. For Lackner, that started the clock.
“Most people took that as a call to action,” he said. “We have one year to create a regulatory framework that satisfies the concerns of the folks who voted in support of this ban.”
Rebuilding an industry
Since becoming legal in 2018, the hemp industry has slowly regrown — with ups and downs. It takes time for farmers to cultivate the reintroduced crop, for producers to create products from it and for consumers to get acquainted with new offerings.
Although hemp can be used in a wide variety of products, consumable hemp-THC has been among the quickest to make it to market after the ban was lifted.
Missouri lawmakers have expressed concerns over the proliferation of these products and the unregulated nature of the new industry — and how to keep hemp-THC out of reach of kids.
Former Gov. Mike Parson attempted to ban THC consumables from being sold outside dispensaries in Missouri. Local governments, including St. Louis, have also considered limiting the sale of hemp-THC products to marijuana dispensaries.
Instead of letting a ban on hemp go back into effect, hemp industry leaders want Congress and state lawmakers to set guidelines and standards for these products — something they’ve been asking for over several years.
“That’s what's wild about this space is that with the 2018 Farm Bill, it was made legal to make a hemp derived beverage, but there were no regulations. There were no guidelines,” said Tyson Hunt, Logboat Brewery co-founder and CEO.
Josh Rein is Logboat’s head brewer and is in charge of product development. The company has been working on developing a grape soda for a while. Once he got in touch with a producer of liquid hemp-derived THC, it took the soda recipe in a new direction, Rein said. Brewers were excited, despite the forthcoming federal ban.
“We definitely knew what was going on policy-wise and knew that it could not be a long-term thing,” Rein said. “But it wasn't stopping us from wanting to mess around with it.”
Without federal or state guidelines on how hemp-THC products should be made, tested or sold, Logboat set its own benchmarks and is following FDA soft drink standards voluntarily.
The hemp policy desert
The federal farm bill, generally passed every five years, is the massive piece of legislation that handles everything from crop insurance to conservation programs to food stamps. The 2018 bill legalized growing the hemp crop, but didn’t regulate any products that could be made from the plant.
Lackner said it's like saying getting the OK raise pigs but there’s no information about how the bacon should be served. So, he formed the Hemp Beverage Alliance in 2023 to help producers self-regulate and establish legitimacy in the industry, he said.
“Everybody was wandering the desert on their own,” he said of producers of hemp products.
Lackner now hosts a regular group phone call that brings producers together to discuss self-imposed best practices. He said it’ll take time to build guidelines for a new industry, but using regulations similar to those on alcohol products is a good place to start.
“When we came out of prohibition (in the 1920s), the laws that we had then are not the laws that we have now for alcohol, right? They change. They improve after testing, after we get to see what works and what doesn't,” he said.
Bills have been proposed in both Washington, D.C., and Jefferson City to create the type of regulations the Hemp Beverage Alliance is asking for or to delay the ban by two more years.
A new kind of happy hour
Last fall when local mortgage underwriter Maureen Harriman was prescribed a new medication to prevent migraines, it also meant that in order for the drug to be successful, she must abstain from alcohol.
“Anytime I want to socialize and just relax and mellow out, I don't have the option to drink alcohol anymore,” Harriman said. “So when Logboat came out with the THC soda, it was intriguing. I decided to try it.”
Harriman, a mom of two, drank a can of Garden Club at a neighborhood game night.
“I just kind of felt relaxed and mellowed out and it was a really fun night,” she said.
Lackner said the typical hemp beverage customer is not the typical marijuana consumer — they buy hemp products at grocery or liquor stores where they already shop and are often looking for a relatively lower dose of THC.
“They're picking up a pinot grigio, and they're picking up a hemp beverage,” he said. “They're not picking up a marijuana drink and a marijuana cigarette.”
Logboat strategically launched the product during “dry January” — a trend where adults limit or quit drinking alcohol after the new year.
Lackner believes as adults “recalibrate their relationship with alcohol,” banning these products outright or limiting them to dispensaries would wipe out a blooming industry.
Waiting for the wind down
Logboat completed a major expansion of its facilities in 2024. Since opening 12 years ago, the beer company has expanded into making seltzers, offering original cocktails in the taproom and started a sister cider company.
Rein said that commitment to innovation made creating a THC soda the natural next step.
“We are in the business of making beer, but we're also a beverage company as well,” Rein said. “If we can produce a beverage that people want to have, then it's worth it to look at that.”
Logboat is currently distributing its THC sodas throughout central Missouri and working to expand statewide — as long as it’s allowed.
“We're going to continue to make this until someone says that we can't,” Rein said.
Rein heard from the company’s distributors in the Lake of the Ozarks region that customers there are interested in a lower-dose THC option.
Now, the brewery plans to launch two more flavors of Garden Club — lemon lime and grapefruit — at the end of March with 10 and 5 milligrams of THC, respectively.
Hunt is monitoring the federal hemp legislation daily. He also spent a day at the Missouri State Capitol in early March trying to convince state lawmakers to step in.
“When I started the company, I didn't think I'd get into government affairs, but here we are,” he said.
It only takes Logboat brewers 48 hours to create a batch of Garden Club, a much shorter timeline than producing beer. Since the brewery launched the hemp product in January, Hunt said it’s been a one of the top three sellers in the taproom, with many customers buying packs to-go. He and Rein are hoping for guardrails to be put around these products’ sale and use, rather than bringing back the ban.
“We are asking for regulation. We need regulation in this space. We want to see this category grow,” Hunt said. “With regulation comes confidence and trust from the consumer.”
The company is currently brewing 60-barrel batches of its THC sodas. But if lawmakers don’t act soon, Hunt said he'll reconsider.
“We'll see, it might shrink down to 30 barrels if nothing's happening by mid-summer, and then if we don't have any movement by September, I think we'll wind it down,” Hunt said.
If a law doesn’t pass by November, the return of hemp will have been short-lived.
