{"id":422583,"date":"2026-01-21T01:33:13","date_gmt":"2026-01-21T01:33:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/422583\/"},"modified":"2026-01-21T01:33:13","modified_gmt":"2026-01-21T01:33:13","slug":"craft-beer-popularity-in-canada-could-be-drying-up","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/422583\/","title":{"rendered":"Craft beer popularity in Canada could be drying up"},"content":{"rendered":"

The hold craft beer<\/a> has had on the alcohol<\/a> beverage industry in Canada is dying down and possibly drying up.<\/p>\n

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The 2010s saw a thirst for small batch brews that couldn\u2019t be quenched, but now, a changing social scene and challenging markets have dampened the industry.<\/p>\n

Calgary is no exception to the trend.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you see a boom, when you look at that bell curve and see that boom, there has to be some attrition. That happens. We\u2019re seeing that the next generation coming up just definitely are not drinking as much,\u201d said Christina Owczarek, owner of XhAle Brew Co.<\/p>\n

Canning out of Prairie Dog Brewing in the city\u2019s southeast, trying new flavours such as lemon-lime sodas and even considering branching out into non-alcoholic beverages are just some of the ways Christina is adapting to social shifts.<\/p>\n

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\u201cWe\u2019re seeing post-COVID, getting people out of the house and adapting to that. You\u2019ve definitely got to pull more tricks out of your hat,\u201d said Christina.<\/p>\n

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The closure of local breweries, such as Evil Corporation Brewing, isn\u2019t a surprise to Prairie Dog co-owner Laura Cole. Saddened to see a fellow brewer close up shop, she says the market is getting trickier to navigate.<\/p>\n

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\u201cEspecially rent going up and supply chain \u2014 we don\u2019t have the commodities of scale in our ordering,\u201d Laura said. \u201cWe\u2019re ordering for two or three batches at a time. For small batches, it\u2019s a higher price. It\u2019s the same as when you order pretty much anything else in small quantities.\u201d<\/p>\n

Adding live music and trivia nights are just some of the ways Prairie Dog has weathered the changing market, opting for a business model where its restaurant and brewery can support each other, depending on which is performing better.<\/p>\n

While a change in culture could be the culprit, Alberta Gaming, Liquor and Cannabis\u2019s new rates issued in early 2025 are also a factor.\u00a0 The agency reclassified the small manufacturers\u2019 licence, meaning breweries producing over 180,000 hectolitres per year are now taxed $1.25 per litre \u2014 something small labels couldn\u2019t keep up with.<\/p>\n

The avenue for new brewers has also taken a hit. Olds College of Agriculture & Technology has suspended its Craft Beverage and Brewery Operations. Owczarek, who helped teach the program, said the course itself got too expensive to facilitate.<\/p>\n

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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tAlberta craft beer producers try to get ahead of U.S. tariffs\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\n\t\t&copy 2026 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The hold craft beer has had on the alcohol beverage industry in Canada is dying down and possibly…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":422584,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[176979,3374,49,48,1849,126152,176978,46,44],"class_list":["post-422583","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-canada","tag-alberta-craft-beer","tag-alcohol","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-consumer","tag-craft-beer","tag-craft-brewery-sales-decline","tag-economy","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/422583","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=422583"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/422583\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/422584"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=422583"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=422583"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=422583"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}