Towards the end of 2020, Brewers Journal Canada caught up with Michelle Tham, a certified Cicerone and the Head of Education at Labatt Breweries, Canada. Part of her role is to help Canadians understand beer and appreciate beer.
Brewers Journal: Hi there! How have you managed in 2020?
Michelle Tham: In a truly challenging time for all Canadians beer is one thing that continues to bring people together. In Canada, the beer industry has remained fairly stable and healthy but that doesn’t take away the challenges. This is especially true for industries we work with including the hospitality industry, restaurants and bars where the impact for owners, managers and frontline employees have certainly felt a tremendous impact.
Much of the work we’ve done, in addition to manufacturing and selling beer, is to support those industries. That includes producing hand sanitizer out of the Labatt Breweries and Mill Street Breweries for frontline employees and people in food service and hospitality.
Brewers Journal: What are some of the favorite beers people enjoy from your brands? And has that changed at all in 2020?
Tham: There’s no question the best selling beer in the country is Budweiser and the pandemic hasn’t necessarily changed the behaviour of the brands people have gravitated to. With the diversity of our portfolio, there’s something for everyone and there is something for every occasion.
I think especially when we go into talking about Bud Zero is that Bud Zero is created to fit into the occasions where it makes sense for an adult Canadian to enjoy it. So, sober curious, which is something that was a trend that began prior to the pandemic and continues to be driven by millennials through 2020, is this idea that not every occasion needs to be an alcoholic occasion.
So we’re finding Canadians want the diversity of choice. It’s a great luxury and privilege for us to have that diversity of portfolio to continue offering choice. Whether you’re looking for a healthy and balanced lifestyle, whether you’re looking for diversity of flavour, whether you’re looking to support local producers, whether you’re looking for gluten free, zero sugar, non- alcoholic, the choices are there. And these are all growing trends.
Brewers Journal: You kind of jumped ahead and that’s great! Can you talk about some of the timelines relating to your Budweiser Zero launch?
Tham: Of course. So, we’ll rewind a little bit to 2016, when we first launched Budweiser Prohibition. At that time there was no non-alcoholic beer that was at 0.0% alcohol. And at that time, I would say the trend and what we had identified as an opportunity was starting to grow, which was Canadians looking for non-alcoholic choices, especially for adult Canadians that were fans of beer and love the taste of beer but just didn’t really have options that offered great tasting, non-alcoholic beer.
The reason for that is prior to that time most non-alcoholic beers were produced through a process called arrested fermentation. And fermentation as you and I know is incredibly important in developing the flavor of what we recognize in beer, whether it’s the alcohol or the phenols or the esters or all the byproducts of what makes beer beer. And what happens when you stop that process early on? It stops the production of alcohol but also stops the production of turning it into something that tastes like beer.
So, through the technology that we introduced in 2016, we were able to release Budweiser Prohibition. We believed so much in this growing opportunity and that there is a place in Canadians’ palates and in their behaviour that we took the most powerful beer brand and attached it to this non-alcoholic beer.
Brewers Journal: So that was 2016, how does that impact you today?
Tham: If we look at where we are now that appetite for choice has only grown. We are also finding that growth is also driven by millennials who are looking for diversity of choice in non-alcoholic beer, looking for options that fit into a balanced lifestyle and alternatives that allow them to pursue their sober curiosity. And that has now led to the evolution of Budweiser Zero. Budweiser Zero is not only 0.0% alcohol, but carries the equity in the brand name of Budweiser and is brewed with the same ingredients and process, only de-alcoholized. It comes in at 50 calories and zero sugar.
Brewers Journal: That’s a lot of choice.
Tham: I would say Canadians at large are looking for choice but it’s no mistake that millennials are really driving the behaviour that’s leading businesses like ours to pursue zero sugar products, non-alcoholic products, ready-to-drink coolers, cider, iced teas, which are all gluten free and several of them are now being made with zero sugar as well.
The cool thing is that when you look at the non-alcoholic products it’s driven by millennials in North America. We look at the growth in Canada of the non-alcoholic beer category grew and see it has 12% in total volume in the past year, which is massive growth. But it’s not just North America. That trend of non-alcoholic consumption began in Europe.
Brewers Journal: Is there anything that you want people to know about your company?
Tham: Our vision is to create a better world and we do that through beer and we have worked hard to put in the effort at this challenging time throughout the pandemic to do that. It is also part of our global aim that by 2025 that 20% of our global volume is either going to be no or non-alcoholic.
Michelle Tham is the Head of Education at Labatt Breweries of Canada. She is also a Certified Cicerone.