5 Local Beers For 5 Local Weed Strains: A Tasting Pairing Mini-Guide

May 18, 2015 By Fischer Campbell

If you are like me, then you prefer to enjoy a tasty grain with a tasty strain. Here are 5 local beers & 5 local recreational marijuana strains that will go well together (in this author’s opinion, of course):

(Oh yeah. This is just a pairing guide for tasting, NOT for drinking. And remember, consume responsibly. We are not responsible for your irresponsibility.)

Beer: Elysian Brewing Co. – Immortal IPA (6.3% ABV)

Strain: CannaSol Farms – Jack Herer

Let’s all forget that Elysian was just acquired by Anheuser Busch (capitolhillseattle.com has a wonderful write up and dialogue about it). Elysian Brewing makes a mean IPA, and this Immortal IPA has a refreshing hop flavor that isn’t overpowered. In our review for Jack Herer, we suggested enjoying the strain with a fragrant IPA – so here’s our choice!

Beer: Fremont Brewing Co. – 77 Select Spring Session IPA (4.0% ABV)

Strain: Dutch Brothers – Seattle Cough

One of my favorite breweries, the Fremont Brewing Company creates a vast amount of select delicious brews – made all the better from the tap at their humble Fremont location. Seattle Cough is a potent strain that will take the drivers seat when combined with this crisp 77 Session IPA – the herb is nitrogen purged to lock in flavors of vanilla, pine and grapefruit. Day = made.

Beer: Pike Brewing Co. – Kilt Lifter Scotch Style Ruby Ale (6.5% ABV)

Strain: High Altitude – Obama Kush

Ach lads, a good thick ale is just what Dr. Fischer ordered. This Kilt Lifter Ruby Ale is malty scrumptious, offering caramel thickness in a style I can only describe as “Scotchtoberfest” (yes, I went there). Such luxurious nature should be accompanied with a presidential nug, namely Obama Kush: a spicy funky specimen worthy of your vote.

Hales Ale Supergoose Avitas Agriculture Snoops Dream

Beer: Hale’s Ales Brewery – Supergoose IPA (7.0% ABV)

Strain: Avitas Agriculture – Snoop’s Dream

A classic Northwest brewery, Hale’s Ales has been around since the 1980’s and is located in Fremont. Supergoose is a balanced borderline-imperial IPA. The hoppy flavor will lend itself to Snoop’s Dream’s duality of sweet and spice. Meerkat! With a cape!

Bellevue Brewing Company Torch NW UFO Flower

Beer: Bellevue Brewing Co. – 425 Pale Ale (4.8% ABV)

Strain: Torch NW – UFO Flower

Pale ale’s are usually light on taste, but this 425 packs a punch of crisp malty love. This author can only recommend sampling generously, preferably from a tap. The flavorful 425 really made me want some UFO Flower, a ludicrously good tasting strain. Picture a white mystery flavored Airhead, smack it some skunk-funk and you’ve got this tasty bud.

(Again. This is just a pairing guide for tasting, NOT for drinking. And remember, consume responsibly. We are not responsible for your irresponsibility.)

The Art of Naming and Renaming Marijuana Strains

April 21, 2015 By Manic Conrad

Green crack.

Yep, that’s not gonna fly. Now that we are all professionals now.

I was watching a short documentary titled: Stoned Moms: The Marijuana Industry’s Greatest Untapped Market. In short, the documentary focuses on the importance of mothers to the recreational marijuana industry. In other words, if you want this industry to go big, you need to sell the moms on legal pot.

During the documentary, Jessica Roake, a mother living in a Washington D.C suburbs, travelled to Colorado to take a look at the legal cannabis industry up close. During her visit, she was shown a strain of marijuana known as Green Crack. Without any hesitation she says, “Green Crack…that’s a real branding problem…you want to get rid of this stigma for moms.”

She’s right. But, it’s a branding problem for not just moms. It’s a problem for others who find that name a little too illicit. This may have been okay when the industry was underground, but now that it’s out in the open, some things will need to change.

We first learned of conscious naming and renaming practices last year when we visited with manager Adam Smith and chief grower Jason Smit of Avitas Agriculture, a Washington State marijuana producer. Even though they are aware of our newfound industry and the wrinkles that need to be ironed out, their naming practice comes from a place deeper within.

For example, the popular marijuana strain known as Durbin Poison, they simply call Durbin. They don’t want to use a word such as ‘poison‘ in the name because of the strong negative connotation. In addition, the strain of weed known as Girl Scout Cookies, they simply call GSC. Again, they don’t want the term ‘girl scout‘ to be part of the name.

What about marijuana strains such as Beastmode OG, produced by local producer Zion Gardens? There are no negative connotations associated with these names, just blue and green fanfare. And we love these names! Heck, let’s just go ahead and name a strain after every player on our beloved Seahawks!

Let’s play devil’s advocate. Even though Marshawn Lynch holds the rights to his nickname, he may see it as an honor to have a strain of weed named after him and not really care too much about it. But what if it was someone else? It could be another member of the Seahawks team, a musician, or even a celebrity. Maybe they wouldn’t see it as such an honor? If so, this could lead to problems such as litigation.

During our High Five interview with Ian Eisenberg, one of the owners of Uncle Ike’s Pot Shop, he mentioned that a lot of the ‘names are lost with his customers (probably 40-50 years old) and it will be interesting to see how the names evolve.’ We at HAS are interested as well and will continue to follow this.

What do you think of the names for marijuana strains? Are there names of strains you feel need to be changed? Let us know in the comments below.

Marijuana Review: Snoop’s Dream by Avitas Agriculture

December 18, 2014 By Fischer Campbell

It was the week before Christmas that I tried some great herb, it was Avitas‘ Snoop’s Dream and the taste was superb. Before you lies our careful critique, of the bud we picked up from Green-Theory marijuana boutique.

We’ve touched on Avitas as a producer before in previous reviews (see here, and here) – but basically, to describe them in a singular sentence: they are growing something special. Avitas is a values-first producer, specifically focusing on: Customers, Quality, Community, Environment, Genetics, & Cultivation. I’d recommend checking out their graceful website for more information on this kick ass marijuana producer.

Avitas packaging fits the holiday cheer, it’s almost like a deconstructed Christmas tree: we’ve got the tinsel and shininess of decorations, alongside the present-like presentation. Good folk of Seattle, this is the perfect stocking stuffer (for anyone 21 years old, of course).

One thing this author particularly enjoys about Avitas packaging is the abundance of information on the front of the baggie. We get the strain name, the sativa/indica percentage, and a description of the strain:

Smooth smoke with lots of Kush flavor. Relaxed body with a dreamy and euphoric headiness.

Damn, I was really hoping for Snoop tested, Snoop approved (ala Kix cereal) – oh well, we all can’t get what we want for Christmas… plus Avitas’ description is much better then mine in terms of clarity. Asides from all that information, we get a rustic yet complex mandala-like design wrapping around the sticker. I literally cannot praise Avitas enough (with such fantastic values and intuitive packaging), so I’m just going to leave it at that and move on to The Specifics:

Total THC – 18.66%
THC-A – 17.87%

(Check out the photo for a closer look)

Snoop’s Dream has a duality of sweet and spice when it comes to the smell. Churning up some nugs in my grinder, the fragrance is divine: a solid dryer sheet earthiness lingers on the nostrils, with a sensation from the spice.

The bud itself is a remarkable shade of white neon green, snowcapped from tip to stem with fresh powdah’ (sometimes the Northeastern accent in me comes out). Jump on the gondola and take a ride to the top with Snoop’s Dream.

The dryer sheet earthiness heavily carries over from smell to taste with this strain. Avitas describes this as “kush flavor”, and by jove – I think they’re on to something. Smoking out of my Hotbox vaporizer, Snoop’s Dream is an all around pleasure to indulge in with a strong flavor and seemingly soft smoke.

What did I do when I got stoned? We decorated our tree, actually. It was quite fitting: friends over to get high, and decorate a small tree in a small apartment. We got turnt up on that Charlie Brown Christmas album, y’know how it goes.

On a more specific note, the feeling was incredibly heady (as Avitas mentions in the description) – not heavy, mind you. There is a fantastic lightness to the high of Snoop’s Dream, a clean experience where you are fresh in and fresh out. This is what I’d consider a “treat yo’ self” strain, which is why it would make the perfect Christmas gift.

Kudos to Avitas for cranking another home-run, and indeed a happy holiday to all.

UPDATE: Check out the list of Seattle marijuana stores or read our weed reviews.

Avitas Agriculture: Tour of a Recreational Marijuana Farm

December 9, 2014 By Manic Conrad

Less than an hour North of Seattle, in a sleepy little rural town known as Arlington, is the farm and base of operations for recreational marijuana producer Avitas Agriculture. Upon arriving, if you have any doubts whatsoever of the correct address, just step outside and breathe in the air. If you are greeted with a pungent pleasant smell of cannabis, enough to practically knock you off your feet, then you’ve come to the right place.

Avitas is a Tier 2 Producer, which means it’ a medium sized farm, between 2,000 and 10,000 square feet featuring commercial greenhouse construction and supplies. Most all of their operations are in two warehouse styled buildings, excluding a house which is used as their employee lounge. The smaller building is where everything is trimmed, weighed, packaged, and readied for shipment. The larger building, which is divided into sections, is where the cannabis is grown from seed to adult. For indoor plant growth, Avitas will most likely need to make use of high-quality grow lights from the likes of Scynce LED to ensure efficient and more productive yields. For cannabis plants especially, it is very important to have all the right conditions in place so that the plants are supplied with adequate nutrition and thus are able to grow to their fullest.

When touring a farm such as Avitas, it becomes obvious that one doesn’t learn how to grow overnight, or over a year for that matter. It is something that is continually learned and crafted over time and enhanced through experience. Try talking with Jason Smit, the chief grower – or the manager Adam Smth – and you’ll be asking for ‘cliff notes’ or beg not to be tested at the end. Simply stated, there is a lot that goes into growing marijuana.

Did you know?

Avitas Agriculture resides on roughly 8.5 acres in a picturesque rural location
Jason Smit learned how to grow cannabis from ‘High Times’ magazine in his late teenage years and proudly continues to hone his craft
Avitas is especially conscious about their branding and naming of cannabis strains. ie., What is usually called ‘Durbin Poison,’ they call: Durbin (minus the Poison part of the name) or what is usually called ‘Girl Scout Cookies,; they call: GSC.

Looking out at surrounding areas.

Inside growing area.

Jason Smit, Head of Product (Chief Grower)

Adam Smith Avitas Agriculture Marijuana Producer

Adam Smith, Manager

Marijuana trimmer

Applying labels to marijuana packaging

Farm of the Month (November): Avitas Agriculture

December 2, 2014 By Manic Conrad

We walked into a recreational marijuana store the other day to check out the selection and to see what new producers have made their way into the industry recently. We walked away that day with a name that we have become quite familiar over the months.

Avitas Agriculture, the producers north of Seattle in the small farming community of Arlington, has set the bar for the industry in terms of overall quality according to the operations manager we spoke to. We didn’t take this praise lightly as the selection of cannabis on hand from competing farms was quite impressive.

This is not the first time we have heard a glowing endorsement of Avitas. Our own marijuana reviewer, Fischer Campbell, had this to write when reviewing a strain of their Plushberry: ‘It’s fair to say that Avitas has yet again hit a home run.’

Since then, we have toured the farm and checked out their base of operations, which has only reinforced what we had already learned. Sometime in the near future we will bring you this coverage. But for now, we award Avitas Agriculture the Farm of the Month for November!

Last Month: Check out the ‘Farm of the Month’ for October: Bang’s Cannabis Company.

UPDATE: Check out Avitas Agriculture at Seattle marijuana stores and on our weed reviews page.