Minnesota brewers tap into shifting tastes
Craft breweries in Minnesota created new products and events they hope appeal to younger customers of drinking age, who tend to drink less beer than members of older generations.
As production at craft breweries declines, Minnesota brewers expanded the range of beverages and events they offer to attract younger generations.
That means less beer and more nonalcoholic drinks, cannabis beverages, and canned cocktails, as well as events where individuals would be comfortable in a taproom by themselves, like silent book clubs.
Craft brewers throughout the U.S. saw a 1% drop in production in 2023 compared to 2022, according to a report by the Brewers Association, a national trade association.
The numbers reflect a shift in tastes among younger millennials and older members of Generation Z that came to light during the COVID-19 pandemic, said Bob Galligan, director of government and industry relations for the Minnesota Craft Brewers Guild.
“Beer in general has been trending down. … Taste preferences for a lot of people entering the market, they tend to prefer more fruitier, more exotic tastes, which is part of the reason why seltzers have taken a decent amount of beer's market share,” Galligan said.
Industry adjusts
Laura Mullen, a co-founder of Bent Paddle Brewing Co. and its vice president of outreach and marketing, said the Duluth-based company noticed the shift among its customers.
“In terms of taste preferences, we do think that the younger generation hasn't gravitated towards beer like previous generations have,” Mullen said.
Bent Paddle has hosted events at its taproom and offered non-alcoholic beverage options since it opened in 2013, Mullen said. The taproom hosts a food truck every day in the summer and customers can have food delivered to the taproom, as well.
In recent years, Bent Paddle added cannabis-infused drinks to its roster, Mullen said.
“We're doing our best with the cannabis and just diversifying and interviewing people of different generations to see what might appeal to them in our lineup of what beers we're offering or seltzers – all that kind of stuff,” she said. “But it really is a demographic shift that's happening.”
Young people who are drinking alcohol tend to gravitate to seltzers, canned cocktails, and more exotic flavors, said Galligan.
An increasing number prefer non-alcoholic beer.
“The fastest growing category of beer the past couple of years has been non-alcoholic,” Galligan said, “and a lot of our members have entered that space, whether they are actually producing their own or if they're selling a national brand.”
Habits change
Jack Pine Brewery in Baxter saw craft beer production drop for the first time in 2024, said Patrick Sundberg, owner, founder, and brewer. Like Bent Paddle, Jack Pine Brewery opened in 2013.
The change Sundberg sees is the amount of beer people drink. The Brainerd Lakes brewery’s customers tend to be from the millennial generation and up, he said.
Lisa McClintick
“People are just drinking less – that's what we're finding,” Sundberg said.
In addition to craft beer, Jack Pine Brewery offers sodas, locally-produced kombucha, and non-alcoholic beer in its taproom. Sundberg said he also has three seltzers on tap, and he started selling three THC-infused beverages in November.
Sundberg used to brew non-alcoholic beer. ABV Technology in St. Paul removed the alcohol. However, trucking the beer to and from the Twin Cities became too expensive, and Sundberg said he didn’t have enough demand for it from customers.
“We have … other brewers’ NA product available, because it just didn't move well for us,” Sundberg said.
How to get people in the door
Dawn Finnie, co-owner of Little Thistle Brewing Company in Rochester, said she sees fewer people going out overall, and she hears the same thing from other business owners.
Little Thistle offers non-alcoholic beer from small producers, soda, seltzers, and THC-infused beverages in addition to its beer lineup. Like Jack Pine Brewing, Little Thistle tried brewing its own non-alcoholic beer, but stopped because it wasn’t selling as fast as they wanted.
Little Thistle has always hosted trivia, beer tastings, and live music, and now the taproom has added events where individuals would feel comfortable coming alone.
Community members packed the Little Thistle taproom in January 2024 for its first silent book club, Finnie said. She called the event a success.
“It's hard to measure it, but we felt like it was successful because it got people out of the house,” she said.
Attendance dipped over the summer, but the silent book club will be back this winter, along with a few new offerings. Finnie mentioned nights where people can learn to play cards, for example.
“I think younger people like those experiences,” she said. “They value doing something new, or having experiences over just going out and having a beer.”
Nora Hertel
Future shifts
There’s a bit of a dichotomy at play among potential new tastes, with health-conscious customers interested in vitamin-infused beverages, for example, Mullen said.
“And then on the other flip of the hand, there's the nostalgic want of candy flavors, so it's almost like that's totally opposite,” she said, “We're just exploring all the things that the market and the people are interested in.”
The Minnesota Legislature could also change state laws to benefit craft brewers. Currently, craft brewers can only operate one taproom, for example, Mullen said.
“At some point, the breweries might be asking for public support of things to loosen some of the pretty outdated laws that have been keeping beer where it's at in the state for quite a long time,” she said.
This story was edited and fact-checked by Nora Hertel.