1991
the Grateful Dead shows at Deer Creek where the story starts
13
seeds found in an ounce of Dogbud, by the participants' account
3
famous selections from the bag: Chem 91, Chem D and Chem #4
The Chemdawg strain goes back to June 1991, when the Grateful Dead played two nights at Deer Creek, Indiana. On the parking lot, a grower who went by Chem bought an ounce of flower called Dogbud. A later ounce mailed to him in Western Massachusetts had 13 seeds in it, and those seeds became the Chem line: Chem 91, Chem D and their sisters. Growers describe the family as chemical, skunky and sharp with diesel, and its fingerprints are on some of the most famous fuel strains ever grown.
Here’s the story as the people who were there tell it, which Chem is which, what the original growers say it tastes like, and why it smells the way it does.
Last reviewed: November 2026.
The Chemdawg strain story, from Deer Creek to Western Mass
The fullest account comes from the people who were there, in interviews they have given over the years. As they tell it, Chem met P-Bud and Joe Brand on the lot and paid $500 for an ounce of Dogbud. Brand had picked up a few pounds through friends in Crested Butte, Colorado, and thought it tasted “chemmy,” so some called it Chemweed. Chem put the two nicknames together and got Chem Dog.
Back home, he popped four of the 13 seeds. One was male and discarded. The three females were named Chem Dog, now known as Chem 91, Chem Dog A, now Chem’s Sister, and Chem Dog B. The 91 was the keeper. In 2001 he germinated three more seeds, labeled C, D and E, and D became the famous Chem D. In 2006 he gave four of the last six seeds to Joe Brand, who kept the fourth and calls it the Reunion Pheno, better known as Chem #4.
Every seed accounted for
What became of the 13 seeds
- Chem 91
- Chem D
- Chem #4
- Male
- Chem's Sister
- Chem B
- Chem C
- Chem E
- 9
- 10
- 11
- 12
- 13
- The keepersChem 91 from 1991, Chem D from 2001, and the Reunion Pheno, Chem #4, from 2006
- DiscardedThe one male among the four popped in 1991
- Sister plantsChem's Sister and Chem B from 1991; C and E from 2001
- The rest of the last sixThree more went to Joe Brand in 2006 with Chem #4, and two weren't given. The account doesn't say what became of them.
From the participants' account of what happened to each seed. A story told by the people involved, not a lab record.
The cuts traveled the way things did in the 1990s, hand to hand. After a 1992 Phish show at New York’s Roseland Ballroom, Chem traded cuttings with a grower called Weasel, and Chem 91 went to Staten Island. You can step through the dates below.
Step through the years
How the Chem line spread
Dates from the participants' own accounts.
1991
Deer Creek, Indiana
Chem buys an ounce of Dogbud on the Grateful Dead lot. A later ounce holds 13 seeds; four are popped and Chem 91 is the keeper.
1992
Roseland Ballroom
Chem meets Weasel at a Phish show in New York and trades cuttings. Chem 91 goes to Staten Island.
1994
Sour Diesel
An accidental cross of Chem 91 and an unknown hermaphrodite plant is named Diesel, later known as Sour Diesel.
2001
Chem D
Chem germinates three more seeds, labeled C, D and E. D becomes the Chem D.
2006
The Reunion Pheno
Chem gives Joe Brand four of the last six seeds. Brand keeps the fourth, Chem #4.
The participants' accounts, not a lab record.
Chemdawg, Chemdog or Chem Dog?
They all point to the same family. P-Bud has said it was never “Chem Dawg,” always “Chem Dog,” a mash-up of Chemweed and Dogbud, and the grower behind the nickname goes by Chemdog. JJ NYC of Top Dawg Seeds adopted the “Dawg” spelling to honor the originals and to set his own crosses, such as Tres Dawg (Chem D x Double Dawg), apart from them.
What matters more than the spelling is the suffix. Chem 91, Chem D and Chem #4 are separate plants from the same bag of seeds, and they don’t smell identical. A menu that just says Chemdawg could mean any of them, or a cross, so it’s fair to ask which one.
| Selection | Seeds popped | What the history says |
|---|---|---|
| Chem 91 | 1991, one of the first four seeds | First called simply Chem Dog; the keeper and the reported parent of Sour Diesel |
| Chem's Sister | 1991, one of the first four seeds | First labeled Chem Dog A; a parent of Bubble Chem |
| Chem D | 2001 batch, labeled C, D and E | D was the keeper; parent of Giesel and Tres Dawg |
| Chem #4 | 2006, given to Joe Brand | Brand's pick of four seeds, nicknamed the Reunion Pheno |
What Chemdawg smells and tastes like
The name itself is a tasting note. Joe Brand thought the original Dogbud tasted “chemmy,” which is how Chemweed and then Chem Dog came about. Hype Cannabis Co., which grows its own Chemdawg, describes a diesel-like fragrance you can “smell from a mile away,” an “extremely pungent funk of gas with a sweet and earthy undertone.” Sharp fuel up front, something sweeter and earthier underneath.
That skunk note has real chemistry behind it. A 2021 study led by Iain Oswald identified a family of volatile sulfur compounds in cannabis, chief among them 3-methyl-2-butene-1-thiol, which accounts for much of the skunky smell. In the samples the researchers tested, these compounds climbed in the last weeks of flowering, peaked during curing and dropped after about a week of storage; that’s not an expiry date for any particular Chemdawg jar. They also aren’t on a standard terpene panel, which is part of why two jars with similar terpene numbers can smell very different.
If you like where this is going, our gassy strains guide covers the fuel end of the menu. Mother’s Milk is a newer strain its grower describes as delicate and earthy.
Sour Diesel, OG Kush and the Chem family tree
Chem 91’s best-known child is Sour Diesel. AJ, a New York acquaintance of Chem’s, named an accidental cross of Chem 91 and an unknown hermaphrodite plant “Diesel” in late 1994, and friends in Albany later called it the Sour. It became the strain New York connoisseurs chased through the late 1990s.
Parent lines
Three strains with Chem parents
Press a strain to see its recorded parents.
Parent names stay with the producer record cited in this article. A diagram is not a lab result.
The OG Kush connection is shakier. The legend has a crew member carrying a Chem 91 bag seed to Lake Tahoe around 1994; Chem himself mentions seeded buds sold at Dead shows in Tampa. It’s one of the more believable OG origin stories, but OG Kush’s beginnings are still disputed. Treat it as lore with a good case behind it.
Chem bred some crosses of his own, including Giesel (Chem D x Mass Superskunk) and Bubble Chem (Chem’s Sister x Bubbleberry), and the Dawg spelling lives on in Top Dawg’s Tres Dawg and Star Dawg. For a strain built on the old Kush line that OG Kush is often tied to, see Hindu Zkittlez.
Is Chemdawg indica or sativa, and how strong is it?
Most menus list Chemdawg as a hybrid, and Hype calls its version exactly that, describing “a cerebral experience and a powerful, heavy-bodied sensation” and warning beginners to go slow. That’s the grower’s description of its own flower, and effects vary from person to person.
The family has a reputation for strength, but a reputation isn’t a number. Potency changes with the cut, the grower and the harvest, so the total THC on your jar’s label is the number that counts. Under the DCC’s labeling rules (4 CCR section 17407), that figure combines THC, delta-8 THC and THCA, and the label also has to list any other cannabinoid that makes up 5 percent or more of the cannabinoid content. Start low, and talk to a doctor about medical questions.
In our November 5, 2026 inventory snapshot, Vibe carried Chemdawg flower from Lolo (small buds) at the Redding and Ukiah stores and a Tempo Chemdawg live resin all-in-one vape at Redding, Sacramento and Stockton; that’s historical availability, so check your store’s menu for today’s stock. Choose your Vibe location to see what’s on the shelf. The Learn hub has more strain histories.
Frequently asked questions
Chemdawg is the family of plants grown from 13 seeds found in an ounce of Dogbud after the Grateful Dead’s 1991 Deer Creek shows. The best-known selections are Chem 91, Chem D and Chem #4.
Its smell and its descendants. Growers describe a pungent funk of gas with a sweet, earthy undertone, and Chem 91 is the reported parent of Sour Diesel and, in a more disputed story, OG Kush.
Most menus list it as a hybrid, and Hype Cannabis Co. describes its Chemdawg that way. Different Chem selections and growers may be labeled differently, and effects vary from person to person.
No, they’re spellings of the same family. Chemdog is the original grower’s spelling; Top Dawg Seeds adopted “Dawg” for its own line. The suffix (91, D or #4) is what tells you which plant you have.
Sources
- Hype Cannabis Co.: strain library, Chem (Chemdawg)
- Oswald and colleagues: volatile sulfur compounds in cannabis (2021)
- California Department of Cannabis Control: labeling requirements for non-manufactured cannabis
For adults 21+ (18+ with a physician’s recommendation in California). Keep out of reach of children and pets. Do not drive or operate machinery after use.
Find a Chem cut near you
Choose your Vibe store to check today's flower menu and ask which Chem selection the producer grows.