Photo via Indeed Brewing Co. - Facebook
Indeed Brewing Co. - THC Seltzers
Indeed Brewing Company's High Five and Double High Five THC seltzer beverages
Russ Klisch, cofounder with his brother Jim of Milwaukee’s Lakefont Brewery, remembers well December 2, 1987. That’s when the brothers sold their first barrel of Riverwest Stein Beer to the former Gordon Park Pub, the closest tavern within “rolling distance” of their small Riverwest brewing operation.
Photo via Lakefront Brewery - Facebook
Lakefront Brewery - High Jinx beverage
Lakefront Brewery's Riverwest Stein non-alcoholic beer and High Jinx THC beverage
Times change and Lakefront grew to one of the city’s pioneering craft brewers. But specific dates remain important to the brewer, including November 11, 2025, the day Lakefront launched High Jinx Lime Lemonade, its first hemp-derived THC beverage.
“That was also the day the federal government outlawed these kinds of beverages,” Klisch says with a blend of both irony and frustration. He’s referring to federal passage of H.R. 5542, the bill that brought an end to the recent government shutdown. It also contained a caveat to end all hemp-based THC businesses made possible by a loophole in the 2018 federal Farm Bill. Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) managed to sneak a rider into the new law at the 11th hour, an irony since he also helped pass the 2018 Farm Bill on behalf of his rural constituents in the first place.
The change in the law won’t become final until Nov. 26, 2026, and President Trump last week signed a bill changing cannabis from a Class 1 drug on par with heroin and LSD to Class 3 status, which makes it possible to do more medical research on cannabis’ capabilities and applications. It’s anyone’s guess how the final card will be played next year, leaving Klisch hopeful that his inaugural THC beverage won’t be his last.
“Just two weeks before the federal law was passed, our own state legislature debated a bill about legalizing marijuana in Wisconsin,” Klisch says. “Eventually, it will become legal – that’s my feeling, anyway. Between now and November 26 something will happen.”
Hemp-Driven Seltzers
In the meantime, Klisch, along with a growing number of other brewers, will continue to introduce sodas and seltzers laced with hemp-derived THC that meet standards specific to Wisconsin’s current laws. Like other Wisconsin producers, Lakefront purchases its THC from Perfectly Dosed, a Chicago cannabis production firm that matches the strength of its emulsion to the markets in which the firm sells them.
“The THC in our emulsion is always derived from hemp that has a THC level <0.3% on a dry weight basis,” explains Ricky Wojcik, revenue director for Perfectly Dosed. “This is tracked using a chain of custody (COC) system with every batch of emulsion we make.”
Lakefront also has every batch analyzed by Advanced Analytical Research, an independent Madison lab, to make sure its products operate within the confines of state law. Third-party validation helps keep Lakefront and other cannabis product producers on the right side of the fence, at least for now.
“I tell new drinkers to start low and go slow,” Klisch says. You want to try it carefully and determine your own tolerance, maybe sharing a can to start with, he says. Despite the product’s uniformity, he explains, each drinker has his or her own tolerance to the THC inside.
Indeed’s Candy Flavors
Photo via Indeed Brewing Co. - Facebook
Indeed Brewing Co. - Tropical Blast THC beverage
Indeed Brewing Company's Tropical Blast THC beverage
Another brewery that has recently introduced THC seltzer is Indeed Brewing Co., headquartered in Minneapolis but with a pilot brewery in Milwaukee’s Walker’s Point neighborhood.
“We’ve been operating in Minneapolis for 13 years but only began distributing our beer in Milwaukee in 2017, finally deciding to open a pilot brewery in 2019,” explains Ryan Bandy, the brewery’s chief business officer. “We needed a pilot brewing to test out our beers, and we like Milwaukee because it’s a lot like Minneapolis.”
Indeed has been experimenting with THC seltzer since 2022, something more easily done because Minnesota, like Michigan and Illinois, have legalized cannabis for consumer use. Lavender Lemon was one of the brewery’s original THC flavors, but Bandy said the flavors became a little more generic with their recently released THC line of Burst Seltzers, including pink, orange, yellow and red versions. All are sugar-free, contain no juice, and have 0 calories.
“Think of these as candy flavors, which made it a little more difficult from an R&D standpoint,” Bandy says. “They can be your end-of-day treat, and you probably won’t be sitting down and having six of them.”
Like Lakefront, the Burst series comes in cans, Bandy says, because it’s easier to manage the THC distribution in the can than it would be in a keg, where the balance may be subject to how the keg is handled and tapped. Indeed has no canning operation in Milwaukee, so the brewery has to brew its Burst line in Minneapolis and truck it to the Walker’s Point pilot brewery.
Bandy, too, thinks changes are coming to cannabis laws, but is looking for greater uniformity at the federal level.
“People think this business is easier in Minnesota with its statewide framework, but it’s not,” he explains. “This industry is too financially important to be left to the individual states and a patchwork of laws. I would like it to be legal nationwide, and I do think it’s coming. Otherwise, it’s going to be a massive clusterfuck.”
