It’s no secret that the craft beer market in Saskatchewan has been on the rise and the province continues to look for new ways to increase their presence in the market. Currently, craft beer accounts for 10 to 15 percent of national beer sales by volume, which is expected to rise to 15 to 20 percent over the next five years.

“We just view it as nothing but untapped potential, especially for Saskatchewan,” says Mark Heise, president and chief executive officer of Regina’s Rebellion Brewery, the largest producer of craft beer in Saskatchewan.

This growth has been spreading across the country for a few years. In 2016, Canadian brewing facilities increased to an all-time high of 775, up 20.3 percent from 2015.

Although the majority of these brewing facilities are in Ontario and Quebec, Saskatchewan is within the top three provinces for the number of brewing facilities per capita (at a rate of 4.6 per 100,000 drinking age adults).

This is great news for Saskatchewan malting barley growers because craft beer production requires about three to four times more malt than mainstream beer production, says Peter Watts, managing director of the Canadian Malting Barley Technical Centre.

“The growth in the craft sector leads to an incremental growth in demand for malt and ultimately malting barley,” Watts says. “Already 35 percent of all malt in North America is used by the craft brewing sector and that may rise to 40 to 45 percent in the next five to seven years.”

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