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The 5-Minute Guide to Cannabis and Craft Beer Flavor Pairings
Get in the Mood.
Photography courtesy of Mood
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You know that moment when you’re halfway through an old-school West Coast IPA and suddenly think, “Wow, this tastes kind of…weedy?” Turns out, you’re not imagining things. Cannabis and craft beer are more like long-lost cousins at a family reunion—different personalities, same funky DNA. One shows up with a six-pack, the other with a bag of gummies, but somehow they both end up on the same vibe.
Which is why we figured it was time for a pairing guide that’s a little more…elevated.
That’s where Mood comes in. The online dispensary making waves with its outcome-based cannabis is helping us craft an ultimate flavor wheel, matching some of the most popular characteristics of our favorite beer styles with their high-quality products.
Whether you’re a hophead chasing tropical hazies, a lager lover devoted to crispy bois, or a stout hoarder with more bottles in your basement than you’d like to admit, we’ve got some suggestions for which flowers, edibles, or vapes you might enjoy.
Ready to sync your taste buds and your buzz?
First, Remind Me: What Is Mood?
Photography courtesy of Mood
Founded by Jake Antifaev and David Charles, Mood was built on one radical idea: Your high should match your vibe. Whether you’re chasing better sleep, more focus, a good laugh, or just a mellow night in, Mood tailors every product to your specific intention.
No more rolling the dice with random strains. No more awkward dispensary visits. Mood makes finding cannabis online not only simple but smart. With an impressive range of high-quality flowers, gummies, edibles, drinks, and even cross joints (yes, really), Mood is redefining what it means to get high your way.
Meaning at Mood, it is literally your way and the high way.
“We make big changes in people’s lives,” says Bella Rice, flower production manager at Mood.
Rice points to the fact that a lot of people in many states can’t even go down the street to a dispensary to get their Delta-9 or THC products. But with Mood, if you’re in the thirty-seven states* they currently ship to, you’re flying high because you can get any one of their products shipped right to your door.
“Eventually, I think Mood has the potential to be like an Amazon for legal hemp,” says Rice.
But what sets Mood apart isn’t just the availability of its product; it’s the intention.
Mood likes to focus on what Antifaev calls “outcomes.”
Weed, like craft beer, falls on a spectrum. So whether you want better sleep, to feel happier, experience better sex, or celebrate with the ultimate high, Mood has you covered.
“The name Mood comes from our desire to make cannabis more outcome-focused,” explains Antifaev.
To hit those right high notes, Mood sources the highest quality.
“We’re world-class,” explains Rice. “We set our expectations and standards so high.”
No pun intended.
But in all seriousness, you won’t find any brown weed at your corner smoke shop here. At Mood, “we don’t accept anything less than the best,” says Rice, who would know best. Every day, her job as the flower production manager means she’s hands-on, packing the flower strains that come in to Mood’s facility in North Carolina.
Working with numerous small American farmers and manufacturers, Mood also follows a rigorous quality analysis process.
“You know exactly what you’re getting and how you should feel after consuming our products,” Antifaev assures.
At the end of the day, Mood isn’t just selling cannabis—it’s curating experiences with purpose. By combining accessibility, quality, and outcome-driven products, Mood is setting a new standard for how people connect with cannabis in their everyday lives.
Which isn’t altogether too different from your neighborhood taproom down the street.
*Editor’s Note: Mood currently ships to the following states: Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Delaware, District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, West Virginia, Wisconsin, and Wyoming.
Shared Roots, Shared Vibe
Photography courtesy of Mood
The craft beer and cannabis families share many similarities. As we mentioned, hops (aka Humulus lupulus) and cannabis (Cannabis sativa) are sort of like long-lost cousins.
Derived from the same taxonomic family—Cannabinaceae—but two distinct species, both contain terpenes, the compounds we can thank for giving both those incredible aromatic qualities.
Beyond their chemical compounds, craft beer and weed share a sense of community.
“What’s better than smoking a joint and going through the mountains?” says Rice, who feels the cannabis community is very adventurous, friendly, fun, and chill (sound familiar?). “Floating down the river with a beer in your hand, things like that are the same as with a joint; you can do whatever!”
In many ways, both worlds thrive on creativity and experimentation. Just as brewers are constantly pushing boundaries with new hop varieties, adjuncts, and brewing techniques, cannabis growers are innovating with new strains, crossbreeds, and consumption methods.
Both communities celebrate discovery—whether it’s stumbling upon a double dry-hopped IPA with New Zealand hops that explodes with tropical fruit or finding a hybrid strain that perfectly balances relaxation and focus. That spirit of innovation is what keeps enthusiasts coming back for more, eager to explore the next big thing.
The time could not be better to explore cannabis. To put it one way: “It’s booming,” says Rice.
And the gap between the buzz of beer and the high of weed isn’t too wide either.
“We have a lot of citrus strains and a lot of earthy strains,” explains Rice. “I definitely feel like you find a lot of those in craft beer, too.”
Which is why we wanted to dig a little deeper here, unearthing our top five favorite cannabis and craft beer flavor pairings.
But First, Two Things to Keep Top of Mind
“Start small,” says Rice, especially if you’re new to cannabis. “Take it extremely slow.”
She adds that since everyone’s tolerance is different, you really just need to experiment to find your sweet spot. But in the beginning, as Rice emphasizes, “moderation is key.”
Rice points out that one of the great things about Mood is that you’re not limited. With flowers, gummies, edibles, drinks, vapes, concentrates, and pre-rolls available, Mood has literally the kitchen sink when it comes to cannabis.
“You can definitely find something you would like,” says Rice.
While it can seem overwhelming, we’ve taken some of the guesswork out of it.
Like West Coast IPAs, we have a suggestion for something to try from Mood.
A bigger fan of stouts with all their earthy, chocolately, roasty goodness? We’ve got some ideas for you.
More of a #lagerforlife drinker with those bready, doughy, crackery qualities? As you might have guessed, we have some options for you.
No matter your taste or tolerance, Hop Culture, in collaboration with Mood, has created a short five-minute guide that makes it easy to translate your favorite craft beer flavors to your next cannabis craver.
Hop Culture x Mood’s 5 Favorite Cannabis and Craft Beer Flavor Pairings
We’ve identified five of the most common craft beer flavors and styles and tapped into Rice’s expertise to pair them with Mood products. This way, if you’re a craft beer enthusiast who is new to the space or a long-time cannabis dabbler, you can find your perfect match in minutes.
Editor’s Note: To be totally clear here: We’re not suggesting that you drink and consume cannabis in the same sitting. Instead, if there is a beer flavor profile below that you like, consider trying the cannabis pairing we provide on its own.
Piney or Floral
Photography courtesy of Mood
Purple Afghani Vape comes to mind.
“When you hit the vape, it tastes very earthy, very piney,” she explains. “When you exhale too, it just smells like something floral, like a grandmother’s perfume!”
If Sierra Nevada Pale Ale, Firestone Walker Union Jack, or Stone IPA are your go-tos, this might be right up your alley.
Citrusy
Photography courtesy of Mood
Probably one of the most common flavor descriptors for hoppy styles like single or double IPAs, hazy pale ales, wheat beers, witbiers, and even golden ales, citrusy often coincides with beers that use classic North American hops such as Citra, Amarillo, Cascade, Mosaic, and even some Continental European ones like Mandarina Bavaria.
For this popular flavor category, Rice recommends one of Mood’s flower strains, Tangie.
“It’s super citrus,” she explains. “As soon as you open the bag, it smacks you in the face with how sweet it is.”
On Mood’s website, they describe Tangie as “your go-to strain for a social, upbeat vibe, packed with sweet tangerine flavor that’ll have you chatting, laughing, and enjoying every moment!”
We imagine enjoying this strain is similar to drinking a few cans of Bell’s Two Hearted, New Belgium Voodoo Ranger, or Allagash White with friends.
If that sounds like your idea of a good time, try Tangie.
Tropical
Photography courtesy of Mood
Without a shadow of a doubt, tropical describes one of the most popular styles of beer in America—New England or hazy IPA.
The trendy, turbid beer style, popularized by New England breweries like The Alchemist, Tree House, Lawson’s, and others, is synonymous with fresh, explosive fruit flavors.
These cloudy, opaque, foggy, murky, blurry, misty beers you can hardly see through have us all in a hazed daze, if you get what we mean.
Much like Mood’s Super Goof flower strain, which is “very unique and tropical,” according to Rice. “It’s one of our favorite strains because it is freaking stunning.”
Hands-down one of the prettiest flower strains, adds Rice.
If you’re looking for a non-flower option, Rice suggests the THCa Lemon OG Disposable Vape, which is also super tropical with “uplifting effects combined with refreshing lemon diesel aromas in every moment.”
If Tree House Julius, The Alchemist Heady Topper, Firestone Walker Mind Haze, Parish Ghost in the Machine, or anything from Monkish, Fidens, or Other Half are always in your beer fridge, give this pairing a go.
Fruity
Photography courtesy of Mood
Switching gears from the hoppier styles, fruity notes immediately take us into sour or fruited sour territory. If you like a little pucker in your pint, Rice suggests either the Pluto or Super Buff Cherry. The former, she says, came to mind first because it has “such a fruity aroma,” while the latter comes off “very, very cherry fruity,” meaning it might be best for fans of kriek.
If you’re looking for options outside of flower, Rice recommends Blueberry Diesel Vape because “it’s super fruity when you taste it—like fruity, potent, and cushy.”
If you’re a Mortalis, Corporate Ladder, or even Cantillon or Drie Fonteinen faithful, try this pairing.
Bready or Doughy
Photography courtesy of Mood
For bready or doughy, we’re thinking along the lines of American lager, pilsner, or even a helles or kölsch. Essentially, if you’re more of a lager lover, we wanted to cover your bases, too.
We thought this would be the hardest pairing of them all, because cannabis strains are usually associated with flavors we’ve already covered, like piney, earthy, floral, citrusy, and tropical, but Rice had an immediate suggestion for us.
Something that just came into the warehouse, Dante’s Inferno has aroma notes of “diesel, citrus, and dough,” says Rice. “It smelled really doughy.”
For an edible option, Rice suggests Andy’s THC Marshmallow Treat because it has these crispy-chewy levels of elevation.
If you tend to reach for bottom-fermenting beers instead of top-fermenting ones, Dante’s Inferno should be your first port of call.
Roasty/Malty/Chocolatey
Photography courtesy of Mood
Last, but certainly not least, to round out our flavor wheel are roasty, malty, and chocolatey notes.
We’re imagining stouts, pastry stouts, porters, amber lagers, Czech dark lagers, Munich dunkels, and even Baltic porters could fall into this category.
Rice leans heavily into the edibles here, offering up Mood’s Delta-9 THC Butter Cream Caramels with 40 mg of THC in each serving.
“You can eat them whole or take them in halves,” she suggests. “You can melt them and turn them into caramel apples for the fall.”
However creative you get with them, Rice says these treats are “really chewy, rich, and sweet.”
Photography courtesy of Mood
For the more chocolatey side of things, Rice suggests the Delta-9 THC Chocolate Popcorn, whose new formula ensures an edible that’s “much more chocolatey and really crunchy.”
If you have a whole collection of pastry stout verticals currently in your cellar or garage, we recommend giving these two Mood products a shot. No aging required here!
How Can I Get Mood Shipped to My Door?
Easy!
Check out all their products here.
Not sure if they can legally ship to you?
At the bottom of each Mood product page, you’ll find a section titled “Where We Ship This Product.” If your state is included in the list, then you’re golden!
Editor’s Note: This piece was written in collaboration with our friends at Mood
About The Author
Grace Lee-Weitz
Currently Drinking:
Fort Point Beer Co. KSA
Grace is the Senior Content Editor for Hop Culture and Untappd. She also organizes and produces the largest weeklong women, femme-identifying, and non-binary folx in craft beer festival in the country, Beers With(out) Beards, and the first-ever festival celebrating the colorful, vibrant voices in the queer community in craft beer, Queer Beer. An avid craft beer nerd Grace always found a way to work with beer. After graduating with a journalism degree from Northwestern University, she attended culinary school before working in restaurant management. She moonlighted as a brand ambassador at 3 Sheeps Brewing Co. on the weekends before moving into the beer industry full-time as an account coordinator at 5 Rabbit Cerveceria. Grace holds her Masters degree in the Food Studies program at NYU.
