GG4 Strain (Gorilla Glue #4)

Is GG4 indica or sativa?

GG4 is a hybrid, and it leans indica hard enough that plenty of people assume it is one.

Published genetics put it near a 37 percent sativa, 63 percent indica split, which is why you will see it filed under both headings depending on where you look. We list it as a hybrid because that is what it is on paper. What you actually feel is the indica side doing most of the talking, with just enough of a head lift early on to keep it from going straight to heavy.

In practice that means late afternoon and evening. It is not a strain that helps you get through a task list, and it was never trying to be.

The vocabulary is worth getting straight, because it trips people up constantly. A hybrid is any cross of indica and sativa genetics, which is almost everything on the market now. An indica leaning hybrid is a hybrid where one side wins the argument. GG4 is the second kind, and the gap between the paperwork and the experience is wider here than on most strains.

GG4 strain effects

GG4 settles over you rather than hitting you, and then it does not let go.

The first few minutes are mostly head. A bit of lift, a bit of float, the sense that whatever you were worried about has moved further away. Then the body catches up, and that is the part people remember. It is weight across the shoulders and down the legs, the kind that makes standing up feel like a decision rather than a reflex.

The name is not subtle about this, and neither is the strain. Growers called it Glue because the resin gummed up their trimming scissors. Smokers kept the name for a different reason.

Appetite shows up reliably about half an hour in. Worth knowing if you are the sort of person who would rather that did not happen.

It is a social strain for about forty minutes and a quiet one after that. Plan the evening in that order and it works well.

Most people feel the peak somewhere between forty five minutes and an hour and a half, then a long slow taper.

Tolerance matters more here than with most strains, because the body effect scales fast. If you are new to this, take less than you think and give it twenty minutes. GG4 is the strain people most often say snuck up on them.

Does GG4 make you sleepy?

Eventually, yes. Sleepy is not the opening act, but it is usually the closing one. The first stretch is relaxed and a bit floaty rather than drowsy. Give it an hour or two, especially at a higher dose, and most people are ready to stop doing things. That makes it a decent wind down strain and a poor one for anything you need to finish.

What GG4 tastes and smells like

Sharp diesel and pine first, then earth underneath, with a chemical edge that people either love or do not.

The nose is loud. Open the jar and it is fuel and sour pine, closer to a workshop than a fruit bowl, and nothing about it reads sweet. Underneath that is a damp earthy base that rounds the whole thing out.

On the inhale it is mostly pine and pepper. The exhale brings the sour chemical note forward, which is the part that divides people.

If you like Sour Diesel and you want the same gas with a body attached, this is that.

GG4 terpenes

GG4 runs caryophyllene first, myrcene second, limonene third.

In that order they account for most of what you taste and most of what you feel. Caryophyllene brings the pepper. Myrcene sits underneath and supplies the weight. Limonene is the one bright note here, and it is badly outnumbered.

Put those three together and you get the sharp peppery top, the earthy weight underneath, and just enough citrus to keep it from reading flat. It is a profile that fits the effect almost too neatly.

These figures come from published cultivar data rather than our own lab, because GG4 is a flower strain for us and not a vape. Where we produce the oil ourselves, terpene content is measured per batch and the COA sits on the product page.

How strong is GG4?

GG4 is a strong strain, and it has been the benchmark other strong strains get measured against for about a decade.

Published figures put it around 20 percent THC, which is above average without being a record. The number undersells it. What makes GG4 feel stronger than its percentage is the speed and the weight of the body effect, which arrives faster and sits heavier than most flower testing in the same range. Potency on paper and potency in the room are not the same measurement.

It is also unusually consistent. A lot of strains swing hard between batches and growers. GG4 has a reputation for landing in roughly the same place every time, which is part of why it became a reference point.

We will publish the tested figure for our flower on the product page once it is in stock. For a first session, take less than you normally would. You can always have more.

Is GG4 a strong strain?

Yes, and it is one of the strains people use as a yardstick for the word. The percentage on the label is only part of it. What separates GG4 is how quickly the body effect arrives and how much of it there is, which is why it tends to feel stronger than other flower testing in the same range.

GG4 side effects

Dry mouth and dry eyes are near certain, and worth having water nearby for. The one to actually plan around is the body weight at higher doses, which is the whole point of the strain until it is more than you wanted. Some people report feeling anxious or uneasy, which tends to track with taking too much rather than with the strain itself. If you are prone to that, start low.

Where GG4 comes from

GG4 came out of an accident, and the name came out of a trimming room.

The short version is that a hermaphrodite Chem’s Sister plant pollinated a Sour Dubb when nobody meant for it to. The plant responsible was destroyed, but some of the seeds survived, and those were later crossed with Chocolate Diesel. That cross produced the Glue family. GG4 is the sibling that stuck.

The name came from the resin. It was sticky enough to gum up trimming scissors and coat the hands of anyone working the plant, and somebody made the obvious comparison to the adhesive. It emerged around 2014 and has won multiple Cannabis Cups since.

Its offspring are worth knowing if you like it, because the traits carry. Grease Monkey and Gorilla Cookies both come from GG4.

Does Gorilla Glue still exist?

Yes, under a different name. The Gorilla Glue Company sued over the name and the two sides settled in 2017. The terms required the cannabis side to drop the Gorilla Glue branding and gorilla imagery by September 2018 and to hand over its domain. The strains were renamed GG1, GG4 and GG5. Nothing about the plant changed, only what you are allowed to call it, which is why you will see the same cultivar sold as GG4, Original Glue and Glue depending on the shop.

Growing GG4: flowering time and plant shape

GG4 flowers in roughly eight to ten weeks and grows into a medium height plant with heavy, resin loaded buds that often need support late in flower. The resin is the whole story with this one. It is sticky enough to be a genuine nuisance at harvest, which is where the name came from, and it is also why the strain became a favorite for extraction. Growers tend to describe it as forgiving to grow and annoying to trim. We source our flower rather than grow it, so treat this as background on the cultivar rather than a how to.

GG4 compared to GG1 and GG5

GG4 is the strongest of the three, and it is not especially close.

GG1 is the lighter sibling and the one people reach for when GG4 has been too much. Same family, same gassy direction, less weight behind it. If you like the flavor but keep losing the evening, this is the one to try.

GG5, sometimes sold as New Glue, is the sweeter one. It brings more of a chocolate and berry note from the Chocolate Diesel side and tends to feel slightly more balanced between head and body. Strong, but less single minded about putting you on the sofa.

GG4 sits between them on flavor and above both on effect.

Why GG4 became the benchmark strain

Because it was the first strain a lot of people smoked that made the percentage on the label feel beside the point.

GG4 arrived when the market was starting to chase THC numbers, and it quietly made the case that the number was not the whole story. It did not test dramatically higher than its competition. It just hit considerably harder, and it did it consistently enough that growers started using it as a control.

The resin content is the other half of it. GG4 produces so much that it became a default choice for concentrate production, and that put it in front of far more people than a flower only strain would have reached.

A decade on it is still in near permanent rotation, which almost nothing from that era managed. Most strains that win everything in a given year are gone in three. This one stayed.

What is GG4 good for?

Evenings when you have nothing left to do and no intention of finding anything.

It suits the end of a long day better than almost anything, and it suits a quiet night in better than a night out. People reach for it to stop thinking about work, to sit through something long on television, or to get a proper night of sleep after a stretch of bad ones.

It is a poor choice before anything that needs you sharp. Driving is out, obviously, and so is anything with a deadline attached.

If you are somebody who finds most strains too light to do much, GG4 is usually the one that finally lands.

What we sell, and where to buy GG4

GG4 is not in stock yet. It is in the current buying round as THCa flower, and this page will carry the product links and the tested potency the day it lands.

THCa flower, by the eighth. Coming first, and the format that shows the gas off best.

THCa pre-rolls, five to a jar. Planned alongside it, same flower with the rolling done.

Closest thing we carry today. Sour Diesel, for the diesel nose, in flower and in vapes.

Mix and match bundles. You Pick 2 and You Pick 3 across the THCa flower range.

We source our flower rather than grow it, and we pick strains on what people are actually searching for. GG4 has been on that list a while. Everything we sell is hemp derived and Farm Bill compliant, third party lab tested, and ships to most states. If you want to know the moment GG4 goes live, the email list is the fastest way to hear about it, and the whole THCa flower range is worth a look in the meantime if you are after the same kind of weight.

If you like GG4, try…

GG4 FAQ