Are hops (beer) really related to mari-juana?

[Taverner]

heard that - sounds kinda bs to me tho

[DBoon]

1. Yes, but

You can't get high smoking hops.

And using marijuana to make beer is a waste of marijuana and a waste of beer.

I read somewhere you could graft hops plants on to marijuana roots and get something you could smoke. Probably an urban legend.

[aePrime]

2. I went to high school in one of the few places that grow hops

They actually don't grow hops in very many places, but they did in the town in which I lived while going to high school. I don't know how the plants are related, but I can tell you that they look nothing alike, unless there are some marijuana plants out there that are capable of growing 20 feet high (they actually wire the hops plants up so that they grow almost vertically, and they get very tall).

[tkmorris]

4. Marijuana can indeed grow that tall

It usually doesn't when grown for illicit purposes simply because it is beneficial to force it to grow shorter and bushier. Left to it's own devices though it will grow tall and stalky. There is a story right now in LBN about Taliban fighters using 20 ft marijuana "forests" to lose themselves in and avoid capture.

[Bear down under]

3. Indeed they are

The plant family Cannabiaceae is related to the figs (Moraceae) and includes two genera -- Cannabis, with one species (C. sativa, the source of hemp fibre and marijuana) and Humulus, with two, namely H. lupulus, the European hop, and H. japonicus, the Japanese hop.

The dried flowers of the European hop are used to flavour beer (the drink itself is made from fermented barley), the flavouring agent being a resin exuded by glands in the female flowers. As far as I know, it doesn't contain THC, the active ingredient in marijuana.

[Random_Australian]

5. No, it does not contain THC for all practical purposes.

Good to see another Aussie around here!

:)

[TheBaldyMan]

6. yep, you can use marujana instead of hops in beer n/t