As many celebrate 420 this weekend, the THC industry continues to boom. Due to the Easter holiday, 420 is actually more of a 419 this year.
At Utepils, THC beverages have soared according to their Director of Taproom Operations, Addison Memmel.
"Non-alcoholic beverages, THC beverages, have taken over a bigger portion of our percentage of sales like our product mix," says Memmel. "I wouldn't say it's tipped the scales drastically, but enough where, you know, we're going through a few cases a weekend. It's probably getting close to about 3% at this point, which is significant for for that type of product."
It's primarily been the younger generation aiding the blitz.
"I think a lot of it is lifestyle, health and wellness, just having alternative options, especially with younger people we're seeing drink a lot less beer," Memmel adds.
Memmel says he sees the THC market continue to boom just like the craft beer world a few years back - mostly because it's starting to gain popularity among the older crowd too.
"We've actually seen a lot of the older crowd taking single cans to-go, to kind of go try it at home," Memmel explains. "That's kind of our recommendation is, if you're not a regular THC consumer, it's very subjective how it's gonna affect you. So recommending people take it home to kind of enjoy it there before trying to do it in a public space. But yeah, the age range is pretty, pretty wide and pretty varied on that."
The event at Utepils is called Munchy Market which includes a tie-dye station, bingo, music and other activities and goes from 12:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. on Saturday. That includes a live performance from The Orange Goodness Band from 5:00 to 7:00.
Utepils is located at 225 Thomas Ave N in Minneapolis.