Waterloo Brewing
Brick Brewing to start producing cannabis-infused non-alcoholic beers, teas and flavoured waters. Credit: Rick Proctor on Unsplash.

Waterloo Brewing has announced that it will start producing cannabis-infused beverages (CIB) such as non-alcoholic beer, tea and flavoured water in the US by October next year, when the legal retail market is expected to open.

To support its production plan, the company has partnered with consulting firm Cannabis Compliance to secure research and standard processing licences for CIBs from Health Canada.

Waterloo Brewing’s president and CEO George Croft said: “The cannabis market has garnered a great deal of investor interest and after an in-depth review of our strategic options, the company is positioning itself to be a major producer of CIBs and to take advantage of this new and developing beverage category.

“We will be one of the few beverage production facilities ready for the upcoming October 2019 legalisation date.”

“We plan to develop and grow our own brands and be the production partner of choice for any cannabis company wanting to be ready for the cannabis-infused beverage market by October 2019.”

Croft further explained that the cannabis-infused beer has the potential to be valued up to C$10bn ($7.5bn), while the non-alcoholic CIB segment could reach C$1.5bn ($1.1bn).

Waterloo Brewing’s chief operating officer (COO) Russell Tabata said: “We believe that, due to technical infrastructure issues related to the licensing and commercial production of cannabis-infused beverages, we will be one of the few beverage production facilities ready for the upcoming October 2019 legalisation date.

“We have the equipment, the scale, the technical know-how and the speed to be able to pull this off in this extremely tight timeframe.”

Last month, Waterloo Brewing revealed plans to expand its facility in Kitchener, Ontario, with an investment of C$9.6m ($7.2m).