Worcester Business Journal

wbjournal.com | October 29, 2018 | Worcester Business Journal 39 Each client's situa on is different and results may vary from those presented here CLIENT: METAL MANUFACTURER This employer froze its pension plan and wanted to con nue providing excep onal employee benefits, so it simultaneously increased its 401(k) match. Knowing this decision could upset some long-term employees, the plan sponsor turned to H&H for assistance. Get the full story at hhconsultants.com/success Put our knowledgeable professionals to work for your business. We offer a full range of comprehensive actuarial, investment advisory and re rement plan consul ng services designed to iden fy, achieve and exceed each client's specific need. RETIREMENT EDUCATION TO FORGE AHEAD Knowledge + Experience + Trusted Advice. It all adds up. Large enough to serve the needs of most businesses and individuals; small enough to offer the personal attention you expect and deserve. Greenberg, Rosenblatt, Kull & Bitsoli, PC Certified Public Accountants 306 Main Street, Suite 400 • Worcester, MA 01608 508.791.0901 • www.grkb.com tripled since legalization, but the beer industry is no slouch in the state. ere were 126 breweries in 2012. Now, that number is approaching 400, said Gil-Zaldana. "e two markets kind of exist side by side," he said. "ey don't syphon off customers from each other." However, less than five years of a sam- ple size out of Colorado is not enough to truly gauge the impact of weed on beer sales, said Jeff Nowicki on of Connecti- cut-based Bump Williams Consulting. Nowicki said consumers would drink less alcohol if they began smoking rec- reational marijuana, but any impact so far has been minimal and perhaps just a reflection of the beer industry already beginning a slowdown of growth. e real impact, Nowicki said, could be when cannabis finds its way into beer. Beer & weed together, in liquid form Colorado-based Ceria Beverages, founded by Blue Moon founder Keith Villa, is planning to launch a canna- bis-infused non-alcoholic beer, and California's Lagunitas Brewing Co. has a similar product on the market. Collaboration between the beer and cannabis industry is extremely limited, especially in Massachusetts, as the state Alcoholic Beverages Control Com- mission ruled in May brewers won't be allowed to brew a cannabis-infused beer as long as marijuana is federally illegal. However, the interest remains there. Down the Road Beer Co. in Everett attempted to do just that earlier this year, but that drove the ABCC to issue its guidance on the topic, effectively squashing any opportunity to make a pot-infused beer. Whenever laws become less restric- tive, Milford pot company Sira Naturals could be one of those companies looking to partner with a brewer. "Cannabis and cra beer cannot only coexist, but they can also complement each other," said Spencer Knowles, vice president of sales and business develop- ment for Sira. Knowles, a wine industry veteran, said both beer and cannabis have been en- joyed together for a long time regardless of legality. From a production standpoint, there are a ton of similarities between the industries, Knowles said. "I feel like the consumer would appre- ciate the amount of work and cra that occurs at a grow facility, much like when you tour a brewery and learn what cra brewers do to make a beer special or unique," he said. Consumers just aren't able to see it, as public tours of cultivation centers aren't currently allowed like they are for brew- eries, per Massachusetts regulations. Taking a page out of his wine back- ground, Knowles called cannabis a cross between cra beer and fine wine. He compared cannabis strains to the dif- ferent hops and grapes used to produce differently-flavored beers and wines. His goal, he said, is to elevate cannabis to the level of a fine cabernet. e beer and wine industries allow for storytelling between the producer and consumer, and the same could eventual- ly be true in the pot business. "We'll see more people being educat- ed about the different strains, effects, growing conditions and flavor profiles," Knowles said. "ose things are not unique to just wine and beer." W

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