From sour beers to coffee-flavoured stouts to fruit-infused ales, beer drinkers are spoiled for choice these days. But, many have turned away from trendy iterations and are returning to classic styles with roots in Europe.

European-style lagers are rising in popularity around the world, with Canada as one of their leading importers. While Canadians still favour domestic beer, beer drinkers also have an appetite for European staples, including pilsners, amber and dark lagers and traditional German-style beers. 

At the same time, craft brewers are using centuries-old techniques to create approachable, crisp-tasting lagers in a European tradition, as beer fans seek an alternative to high-alcohol, bold-flavoured IPAs, which have become a microbrewery standard. 

Lagers from the Czech Republic and wheat beers from Germany, for example, have inspired beer drinkers to seek out both homegrown versions as well as European originals. In fact, according to Beer Canada, European beers are outpacing the total beer growth in Canada by 15 per cent.

Budějovický Budvar, the national brewery of the Czech Republic, is just one brewer benefiting from this renewed interest. It sold 1.9 million hectolitres of beer across 70 countries last year, and has become famous for the ways its beers are served. Using the Czech-invented side-pull taps, various styles of pouring are used to produce different amounts of foam.

Radim Zvánovec, the brewer’s Global Brand Ambassador, says the time it takes to produce its lager also makes it distinctive from other beers.

While mass-produced North American lagers are usually made within two weeks, the Czech lager takes six to 12 weeks, going through a finely honed nine-step process. The slower process resonates with Canadian brewers like Luc “Bim” Fontaine, the owner and brewmaster behind Toronto’s Godspeed Brewery, which opened its doors in 2017.

After a visit to the Czech Republic, Fontaine adopted the local way of brewing in 2021, adding a Czech-style brew to the bar’s typical Japanese-inspired offerings.

“Lagers have as much to offer in taste and pleasure than any other beer styles out there, on top of the history and culture behind them,” says Fontaine. “It took time, perseverance and education for brewers like myself to make everyone understand that lagers have their place in the craft world.”

Fontaine has collaborated with Budvar’s brewmaster Adam Brož both in the Czech Republic and at home in Toronto to learn each other’s techniques.

“The trend is like the snowball effect,” adds Fontaine. “The more of us brewers making a name for ourselves and being successful with lager making, the more brewers will follow and brew them.”

Looking to diversify their offerings even further, Fontaine and the team at Godspeed are utilizing other European traditions, tapping into the overall affinity for time as an asset in brewing. “Many breweries just want to produce beer faster,” he says. “I don’t think making a lager fast makes a lager good.”

Apart from Czech lagers, and their homegrown Canadian counterparts, German ales have also become a go-to for beer connoisseurs looking for a variety of flavours, from crisp and fruity to smokey.  

Andreas Kahrs, director of sales export for German brewery Erdinger, says the brewer’s weissbier and dunkelweizen beers–light and dark wheat beers, respectively–have long been popular in Canada since they first entered the market 25 years ago. 

“We always enjoyed working in Canada and with Canadian people,” says Kahrs. “They received [Erdinger] as a German specialty with arms open…people are always searching for something new or interesting and they value good beers.”

For Kahrs, the “big wave of IPAs” was a race to see which brewers could make a better beer. “[We went] to extremes, and now we see that a lot of consumers are coming back [to lagers] because they say, ‘This is too much.’” 

Melissa Cole, author of The Ultimate Book of Craft Beer and The Little Book of Lager, agrees, explaining that lagers are making a comeback simply because brewers enjoy drinking them. Canada is now home to 1,352 licensed breweries, many of which stock European-style beers. While Canada exports around CAD$115 million worth of beer yearly, it imports more than twice the amount.

While classics like Heineken, Carlsberg, Peroni and Stella Artois will always have a home in Canadian bars and homes, beer enthusiasts are now making space for other European-style brews.