diff --git a/python-mako.spec b/python-mako.spec
index 72c8e3b..43c64bb 100644
--- a/python-mako.spec
+++ b/python-mako.spec
@@ -6,7 +6,7 @@
 
 Name: python-mako
 Version: 1.0.6
-Release: 8%{?dist}
+Release: 9%{?dist}
 BuildArch: noarch
 
 # Mostly MIT, but _ast_util.py is Python licensed.
@@ -50,7 +50,10 @@ calling and scoping semantics.
 %package -n python2-mako
 Summary: %summary
 Requires: python2-markupsafe
-Requires: python2-beaker
+
+# Beaker is the preferred caching backend, but is not strictly necessary
+Recommends: python2-beaker
+
 %{?python_provide:%python_provide python2-mako}
 
 %description -n python2-mako %_description
@@ -78,9 +81,11 @@ This package contains documentation in text and HTML formats.
 %package -n python3-mako
 Summary: Mako template library for Python 3
 Group: Development/Languages
-Requires: python3-beaker
 Requires: python3-markupsafe
 
+# Beaker is the preferred caching backend, but is not strictly necessary
+Recommends: python3-beaker
+
 %description -n python3-mako
 Mako is a template library written in Python. It provides a familiar, non-XML
 syntax which compiles into Python modules for maximum performance. Mako's
@@ -158,6 +163,9 @@ popd
 
 
 %changelog
+* Wed Mar 28 2018 Petr Viktorin <pviktori@redhat.com> - 1.0.6-9
+- Make python-beaker an optional dependency
+
 * Mon Feb 12 2018 Iryna Shcherbina <ishcherb@redhat.com> - 1.0.6-8
 - Update Python 2 dependency declarations to new packaging standards
   (See https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/FinalizingFedoraSwitchtoPython3)