Luce Farm is an organic and sustainable farm located outside of Killington, Vermont, specializing in CBD hemp products. The farm partnered with Long Trail Brewing to create Vermont’s first CBD beer: Medicator, a “hybrid of an IPA and American pale ale brewed with dry-hopped Citra and Mosaic hops and finished with extracted terpenes which are types of flavoring and CBD oil from Luce Farm to deliver intense dank, hemp and weed flavors and aromas.”

For those not in the know, CBD is also known as cannabidiol, a marijuana-based compound. Per Leafly, “research has shown CBD to have analgesic, anti-inflammatory, and anti-anxiety properties without the psychoactive effects.” Hence the name Medicator.

At first blush, there’s nothing really 420ish about this beer at all. It drinks like a juicy/hazy IPA, heavy with citrus, slightly tropical at times, with a subtle earthiness that probably has only a little to do with the CBD (10mg total) in the mix. This earthiness — somewhere between tobacco leaf and fresh thyme — complements the fruit up front, leading to a more traditional, robustly piney conclusion. “Dank and intense” with weed flavors and aromas? I don’t really get that at all — no more so than the dankness of hops, anyway.

As for its “medicating” effect, it’s certainly a relaxing beer, and I can attest that my aching back felt a bit less so after finishing a 12 ounce can. True to its word, there aren’t any psychoactive effects here — at least from a single can — but you certainly have avenues to track that kind of thing down if it’s in your wheelhouse.

6% abv.

A- / $NA

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