BILLINGS — At Meadowlark Brewing, the canning line is humming.
"Today we are going to can Car Ramrod," says owner Travis Peterson, referring to one of the brewery’s popular light pilsners.
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As spring and summer approach, the brewery is pushing product out at a steady pace, averaging 40 to 43 cans per minute.
"Yeah, I think it’s a great way to get beer out to your favorite places," Peterson adds.
But amidst the busy production, there’s a new challenge brewing: tariffs.
Just days after the Trump administration announced a 25% tariff on canned beer imports and empty aluminum cans, Montana breweries like Meadowlark are doing the math.
"We knew aluminum was going to be affected. We didn’t know how soon," Peterson says.
A letter from one of Meadowlark’s aluminum suppliers was one of the first signs.
"They were anticipating the price coming to them, so because of that, they were going to do a flat 3 to 5 percent coming to all of their suppliers."
The frustrating part? Peterson says their cans come from U.S.-based suppliers. Still, the price hike is unavoidable and costly.
"It seems like pennies, right? So, a penny or two per can, how could that impact me? But we are buying cans at 25 pallets a whack, which fills one semi,” he said.
Meadowlark produces more than 600,000 cans a year. A 5% increase in cost could translate to about $6,000 in additional annual expenses just for packaging, according to Peterson.
"Yeah, it's going to add up, and somewhere it’s going to eat into my bottom line."
Ultimately, that added cost will also get passed on to customers, whether they're buying a six-pack at the grocery store or at Meadowlark’s restaurants in Billings and Sidney.
"I think at the end, it’s probably going to be the consumer, the person who is buying our products off the grocery store shelf. Because they are going to go from a $9.99 price point on our cans to maybe a $10.00."
Joel Schumacher, an economist at Montana State University, says it's difficult to predict how the tariffs will shake out over time.
"This just created a ton of uncertainty," Schumacher said.
He says in the meantime, it’s up to small businesses and consumers to decide how much more they’re willing to absorb.
Peterson says adaptability is key.
"We have to be mindful of where the market is shifting."
That means increasing efficiency — getting more out of every can and finding ways to offset other costs to stay competitive.
"How to get more out of what we are already doing," he explains. "I have a couple of suppliers so I can mitigate for a while."
For now, the team at Meadowlark Brewery is focused on what they do best — getting their beer to Montana shelves, one can at a time.
