Canada: Millennials’ tastes continue to change the beer industry

Options for alternative libations continue to grow in Western Canada, and millennials are driving the shift, The Western Producer reported on January 9.

According to Beer Canada, beer consumption has been on a steady decline over the years, with recent numbers from 2023 showing a year over year decrease of 6.6 per cent from 2022 in litres consumed per capita across Canada.

According to those working to create Canadian beers, millennials are starting to look for the same taste without the buzz, choosing to drink less or drink differently. Non-alcoholic brews, as well as possible organic and gluten-free choices, are continuing to change the beer industry.

This could also mean a change for barley growers. According to the Annual Barley Harvest Report 2024 put out by Grains Canada, the total area seeded with barley was around 13 per cent lower than 2023 and seven per cent lower than the 10-year average.

Peter Watts, managing director of the Canadian Malting Barley Technical Centre, applies a 50-50-50 rule when calculating what a year’s worth of barley production means for the malting industry: 50 per cent of all barley seeded is in malting varieties while only 50 per cent of that reaches the malting process, he said. In terms of 2024 numbers, Watts said they select about two to 2.5 million tonnes of malt barley for the domestic and export markets each year.

“A lot of malting barley either doesn’t meet the specification or farmers are just growing it but they’re not really intending to sell it as malting barley.”

Even with the previous years’ decline in barley acres, Watts still has high hopes for next year, predicting a five per cent increase in barley acres for 2025.

Change and challenge isn’t always a bad thing. Market shifts could be an opportunity for brewers rather than a barrier, said Watts, because barley will continue to grow across the Prairies. With proper market assessment and testing, small brewers will have to make the choice on whether this is worth exploring.

“If that’s what consumers are looking for, then it’s important to provide that offering,” said Watts.

With more types of brews becoming popular, many are taking on the challenge of quenching the Prairies’ thirst for something different.

Those in the beer industry are noticing how drinking habits are changing as more thought goes into how people choose their drinks and how much they want to consume, said Garrett Pederson, co-founder and chief operating officer at 9 Mile Legacy Brewing in Saskatoon.

The days of someone polishing off a 24-pack in a weekend are becoming less common, he said, which has opened up some exploration into brewing new products, especially when it comes to non-alcoholic beers, mocktails, and adult sodas.

Watts said millennials are driving this trend toward non-alcoholic beer, but it can be a more expensive process.

Brewers have to brew an alcoholic beer first before putting it through a filtration system to take out the alcohol, he said. There is a need to invest in the infrastructure to do so, which can be expensive for small operations.

“Most of the non-alcoholic beers that you see available are made by the big companies who have the money and the infrastructure to produce it,” said Watts.

“The non-alcoholic beer is tricky for the craft brewers.”

However, Pederson said craft equipment manufacturers are starting to create brewing and production equipment on a smaller scale for craft production.

For 9 Mile, it was able to purchase a machine for pasteurization that it needed for the production of non-alcoholic products, but this has also meant a wealth of new opportunities for the production of any product that needs this production step, such as pops and juices.

Anything with sugar needs pasteurization to eliminate the risk of bacterial growth, he said.

Pederson said local beers made from local ingredients have also been something his customers are asking for, but organic beer is not in high demand at the moment.

At the Advancing Organics conference last spring, Pederson attended as a panelist with Maker’s Malt owner Matt Enns, speaking with organic producers directly about where organic brewing could go.

Located in Rosthern, Sask., Enns said his malting company processes only 150 to 200 acres of malt barley a year. Around 15 brewers buy solely from Maker’s Malt, but he hasn’t been asked for an organic supply for beer production.

He said organic farmers are interested in supplying him organic malting barley, but it would make up a tiny fraction of his market.

The regulatory process to become organically certified would be more money and time than what he would gain through selling organic products for brewing, he added, although other organic products could eventually make the transition worthwhile.

“We do a few other products in the baking area — sprouted flowers, diastatic malt powder, those kinds of things. Those have almost an easier path to scalability on the organic side because they’re often used in healthier bread or baking…. They would have a very natural translation to organics.”

Watts is not aware of any Canadian research into the impacts of organic malt barley on beer production or the final product. He does not see how organically grown ingredients would impact the flavour or quality, but he could see the social impacts of organic brewing.

“If, as a consumer, you prefer to purchase organic-based products, that’s a consumer preference, but from a flavour standpoint, I don’t really see any impact.”

He said growing barley to meet the specifications of both organic regulations and malting requirements would be a significant challenge for farmers to manage disease and protein levels.

Just like organic beer, making gluten-free beer requires a different process with different certification and a rigorous audit process, said Pederson. For small brewers and maltsters, this can mean a lot of work to become certified and prove they have eliminated cross-contamination risks.

While 9 Mile isn’t certified to produce gluten-free products, Pederson and his team have been able to reduce the gluten content with an additional enzyme that feeds on the protein during the brewing stage, a step they’ve added for all their products.

Clarex was initially added to reduce “chill haze,” 9 Mile’s social media team said in an Instagram post, but it “also has a brilliant side effect — it neutralizes the harmful parts of gluten to an almost zero level.”

More testing and analysis is needed, said Pederson, but from what they’ve seen so far, a few customers with gluten sensitivities have been able to enjoy 9 Mile beers since they’ve changed their brewing practices.

Pederson said it’s difficult for brewers to take the plunge until they know the investment is going to be worth it, especially because the additional work means added costs to consumers.

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