San Francisco’s Black Hammer Brewing was ordered by the TTB to cease production of all of its CBD beers. The TTB requires special approval for any non-standard beer ingredients, which the brewery did not receive. Plenty of materials that are food-safe aren’t on that list, so breweries will often apply for special approval of their formula when they want to use one. Hemp is not on the list. Nor are terpenes, the compounds that Black Hammer uses to imbue beers with that cannabis flavor. The hemp-derived CBD does not have any flavor on its own. Black Hammer intends on complying with the TTB regulations, and has already begun the process of applying for approval for hemp so that it can resume CBD brewing. In the meantime, the brewery can sell the CBD infused beers that it has already produced.
https://www.sfchronicle.com/