Industrial hemp is the male cannabis sativa plant, bred specifically for its long, strong fibers, rather than for THC content, which is the stuff in the buds of the female plant that gets people high. Hemp fiber is longer, stronger, more absorbent, more durable, and insulates better than cotton fiber. The bark of the hemp stalk contains what is called bast fibers which are among the Earth's longest natural soft fibers and are also rich in cellulose - the stuff that is used to make paper and thousands of other pulp products.

But American farmers are currently stuck in a legal gray zone that prohibits them from growing this useful, eco-friendly, and financially rewarding crop. Meanwhile, cotton-growing chemicals continue to be dumped into the environment and farmers of all kinds struggle to make a living.

Furthermore, hemp seed is supremely nutritious. It contains more essential fatty acids than any other known source, is second only to soybeans in complete protein (but is more digestible by humans), is high in B-vitamins, and is 35% dietary fiber – the stuff that helps keep you ‘regular.’

Hemp is not psychoactive and cannot be used as a drug. Hemp seeds contain barely traceable amounts of THC, the drug that provides the high from marijuana. The U.S. hemp industry has voluntarily regulated itself in order to ensure that these levels are below that which is detected by drug tests, so as to avoid causing a false positive. These self-imposed standards ensure that the level of TCH in hemp food products is so low that even if a person smoked a hemp joint the size of a telephone pole, the only affect would be a massive headache. Visit www.votehemp.com for details.

In the 1990’s American brewers began to experiment with brewing hemp-seed beer. These were otherwise ‘normal’ beers, brewed with barley malt and the usual kinds of hop additions, but also included varying amounts of hemp seed as a brewing adjunct to supplement the barley malt. Some of the more well known brands were Hempen Ale (a bronze medal winner in the 1997 World Beer Cup), Kentucky Hemp Beer, and Humboldt Hemp Ale. Of these three, though all rated high on taste tests (this author had the privilege of tasting all three), the first two failed to stand the test of time due to various legal and financial issues. Humboldt Hemp Ale is brewed today by Firestone Walker, a California company that was voted 2004 mid-size brewery of the year at the Great American Beer Festival and Champion Brewery at the 2004 World Beer Cup.

At least a handful of other hemp beers are being brewed in the U.S. today. Meanwhile European and British brewers boast a dozen or more popular hemp beers as well. Click through to read about the distinctive hemp beers brewed by C’est What? and Hanfblute. Or discover the Beer Activist Guide for a more complete list of hemp beers world wide.

Fermenting Revolution issue No. 5 featured a profile of George Washington as a brewer and instigator of America’s early native craft brewing movement. Washington, as well as many other founding fathers, were also hemp farmers. In fact, hemp farming remained an important part of America’s rural economy all the way up to World War II when the federal government launched the Hemp for Victory campaign to encourage farmers to grow more hemp for the war effort.

Alas, the Controlled Substances Act of 1970 effectively prevented farmers from ever growing hemp again. Although the Act specifically distinguished industrial hemp from marijuana and provided an exemption allowing for its continued cultivation, the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) has refused to honor that exemption. To the bafflement of many, the regulation of industrial hemp has continued to be under the purview of the DEA – an agency whose job is to ban drugs - rather than the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the appropriate body for regulating agricultural crops.

Despite this federal drug agency’s efforts to keep industrial hemp mired in murky legal waters, twenty states have already passed their own legislation pressuring the DEA to remove its ban on industrial hemp. Hawaii even passed a bill allowing trial plots to be grown and has since planted the first legal industrial hemp crop since the 1950s.

So if industrial hemp is illegal in the U.S. how can there be beers brewed with it? Perplexingly, though the growing of hemp is banned here, products containing it are perfectly legal. And, as mentioned above, a huge array of hemp products are indeed available in this country. In fact, as I type this article, my legs are fitted with hemp jeans and a hemp sweater keeps me warm. Other than beers, I have yet to taste any alcoholic hemp beverages, but I look forward to sipping a ChanVrin hemp wine, and have heard tell of a Hemp Cider and a Hemp Vodka as well.

At least thirty other countries legally grow hemp, including Canada, Germany, England, France, Spain, Australia, New Zealand, the Russian Federation, China, Thailand, Hungary and Romania.

In terms of taste, hemp seeds tend to lend noticeably nutty, earthy and creamy characteristics to beers. Hemp seeds have a protein content of nearly 33 percent, making hemp seed beers a rich source of protein.

Coincidentally, the hop plant (Humulus lupulus L.) is a dioecious plant of the family Cannabinaceae, to which hemp (Cannabis sativa L.) also belongs.

Beer and hemp both have an ancient history. According to the Columbia History of the World, the oldest relic of human industry is a piece of hemp fabric from approximately 8,000 BCE. Speaking of really ancient stuff, the oldest recorded recipe in the world was carved into stone tablets in Sumeria in 4,000 BCE. It was a recipe for beer. On another historical note, during Europe’s early Dark Ages, Germanic tribes were required to pay tribute to their feudal lords. Quantities of both hemp and beer were part of the required payments.

So although U.S.-based industrial hemp cultivation remains fraught with legal challenges, at least we can taste the pleasures of this versatile plant. Click on the Raise Hell button to learn how you can take a quick action to help hemp contribute to America’s agricultural economy again.