5 Beer Brands That Innovate with Terpenes

Discover five breweries that are changing the game by infusing beer with terpenes.

Beer may have been around for thousands of years, but it’s come a long way. While the actual brewing process is still relatively the same, innovative ingredients are creating new aromas, flavors, and even overhauling the dry-hopping process. And if you hadn’t already guessed it, we’re talking about terpenes!

That’s why we thought it was high time we talked about some of our favorite terpene-infused beers. From Sour Diesel infused wheats to Pineapple Express inspired IPAs, the following beer brands are pushing the boundaries of flavor with innovative water-soluble terpenes. 

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Wicked Weed Brewing

It’s been a wild wide since they opened their original brewpub location in 2012, but they’re not stopping anytime soon. This award winning brand was created out of a passion for beer innovation. The two founding families, the Dickingons and Guthys, were lifelong friends. After Ryan Guthy brewed his first batch of beer in his dorm room, the brewing bug just never let up.

Today, they have four locations in Asheville (three taprooms and even a fine dining restaurant), and they’re still constantly fine-tuning, experimenting, and tweaking various beers to create entirely unique experiences. Their Dr. Dank beers, for example, have garnered a cult following for their unique ingredients and flavors.

“Dr. Dank’s delectable botanicals offer the dankest of flavors to expand the mind, body, and palate. ”

They offer an IPA, a Hazy IPA with tangerine and passion fruit, a Pineapple Express IPA, and more. Make sure you take a peek at their website to find out where you can get a taste of these phenomenal beers!

Blue Point Brewing

Blue Point Brewing is no stranger to using terpenes to craft unique and positively delicious beers. They first started experimenting with terpenes in their double IPA, Peripheral Drift. They were inspired by the cannabis chemovar Mango Kush, so they decided to infuse it with Mango terpenes and created a surprisingly balanced beer.

Today, you can almost always expect a creative cannabis-inspired beer from Blue Point around 4/20. Previously, they released Gelato Drip that was brewed in collaboration with Los Angeles-based Sherbinskis. This Hazy Double IPA was infused with the Gelato terpene profile crafted from botanical terpenes. The double dry hopped process used three distinct hops (Mosaic Incognito, South Passion, and African Queen) to create a deliciously smooth, citrusy beer with elevated notes of pine and resin.

While that masterpiece is no longer available, their Legalize Wheat American Wheat Ale is another shining example of how terpenes can help craft mouthwatering beers. Sour Diesel terpenes help make this beverage dank, delicious, and easy to drink. Previous iterations of this beer used Pineapple Express terpenes, so we’re keeping an eye out for their next innovative creation.

When Adrian Hot, the Innovation Manager at Blue Point Brewing Company, was asked about using Abstrax Tech terpenes, he said, "Great collaborators and incredible execution on flavor and aroma at the highest standard. I never thought we would be able to bring to life certain concepts at the authenticity we have brought into our brands. Absolute game changers."

Parish Brewing Co

If you’ve ever found yourself wishing there were more breweries in your area, you’ll get along just fine with Parish Brewing owner Andrew Godley. After leaving his home state of Louisiana and then returning later on, he set out to create a thriving craft brewing industry. But he wanted to do things a little differently.

Andrew told us, “Innovative products are what we do and Terpenes from Abstrax Tech give us a whole new set of tools to push the envelope on new flavor and aroma in beer.” 

One of their newest offerings, Vermillionaire, is a juicy double IPA with tropical hop flavor. “A thick DIPA base of 8% ABV is dripping in heavy additions of Citra, Citra Spectrum, Strata CGX, and Citra Terpenes.” Is your mouth watering yet?

Fremont Brewing

Washington state is the second largest hop growing region in the entire world. So it makes sense that the area is home to many amazing breweries. Fremont Brewing, however, differentiates itself by focusing on the finest local ingredients and community engagement.

The two co-founders and co-owners actually left other careers to pursue their brewing dreams. Matt Lincecum was previously an attorney who specialized in beverage and hospitality law, and Sara Nelson had a career in public service as a policy advisor for the Seattle City Council. 

Today they use their backgrounds to nurture both their local and larger brewing community…and did we mention that their beers are positively beautiful?

Our favorite has to be their Terpene Station IPA. While it’s very limited and only available at their Urban Beer Garden™ in Seattle, it’s seriously worth the sojourn. This 2-row pale malt with Citra, Mosaic, and Citra Cryo hops uses a botanical terpene blend to craft something that they’ve described as “strong on the nose with a bitter finish…This beer makes you want to crack open a fresh, cold one and put on the 1977 Terrapin Station Grateful Dead album.”

Fair State Brewing

There’s a lot of cheesy beer marketing out there, but in all honesty…beer really does bring people together. And Fair State Brewing is a prime example of that. 

Founders Evan Sallee, Niko Tonks, and Matt Hauck first met on the rugby pitch while playing for rival teams. Eventually they became friends and bonded over homebrewing. This led to discussions about a cooperatively owned brewery and on September 6th of 2014, Fair State Co-op became the first cooperatively-owned brewery in Minnesota. 

Limited-edition brews like their Legalize Big Doinks are only available in their taproom, but boy are they worth it. This particular beer is infused with Louis XIII and Grapefruit Kush terpenes for something you just can’t get anywhere else. For a beer that’s a little easier to get your hands on, their Hack the Gibson is truly out of this world. We would describe it for you, but their description is a work of art…

“Hack the Gibson is a hazy IPA employing the latest in aroma technology. We’ve blended the choicest hand-selected Mosaic with hyper-potent Terpene blends to create a fully styled out masterpiece. Drinking this beer is a sensory experience akin to flying around inside a giant computer while wearing a super cool eye piece thing and being called a dickweed by the guy from Short Circuit. It’s got a 28.8 modem and an active matrix display with a million psychedelic colors, a killer refresh rate, and triple the speed of a Pentium. It’s cooler than Zero Cool himself. “

Honestly, you’ve just got to try it for yourself.

Terpenes Are The Next Big Thing in Beer

Whether a brewery wants to experiment with botanical terpene strain profiles or even with our Hop Profiles, we’ve got you covered. We can’t wait to talk to you about using terpenes in your next brew, so contact us today with questions. Plus, don’t forget to follow us on Instagram for all the latest updates and releases.

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