diff --git a/examples/kotlin/pom.xml b/examples/kotlin/pom.xml
index 06df406144..5bd0dce1de 100644
--- a/examples/kotlin/pom.xml
+++ b/examples/kotlin/pom.xml
@@ -16,7 +16,7 @@
 
     <properties>
         <ftl.version>1.0-SNAPSHOT</ftl.version>
-        <java.version>11</java.version>
+        <java.version>1.8</java.version>
         <kotlin.version>1.9.0</kotlin.version>
         <kotlin.compiler.incremental>true</kotlin.compiler.incremental>
         <maven.compiler.source>${java.version}</maven.compiler.source>
diff --git a/examples/online-boutique/services/ad-kotlin/pom.xml b/examples/online-boutique/services/ad-kotlin/pom.xml
index 3f97e8294f..1e29b47f86 100644
--- a/examples/online-boutique/services/ad-kotlin/pom.xml
+++ b/examples/online-boutique/services/ad-kotlin/pom.xml
@@ -9,7 +9,7 @@
 
     <properties>
         <ftl.version>1.0-SNAPSHOT</ftl.version>
-        <java.version>11</java.version>
+        <java.version>1.8</java.version>
         <kotlin.version>1.9.0</kotlin.version>
         <kotlin.compiler.incremental>true</kotlin.compiler.incremental>
         <maven.compiler.source>${java.version}</maven.compiler.source>
diff --git a/kotlin-runtime/scaffolding/pom.xml b/kotlin-runtime/scaffolding/pom.xml
index 4aecf4bdef..007d897678 100644
--- a/kotlin-runtime/scaffolding/pom.xml
+++ b/kotlin-runtime/scaffolding/pom.xml
@@ -16,7 +16,7 @@
 
     <properties>
         <ftl.version>1.0-SNAPSHOT</ftl.version>
-        <java.version>11</java.version>
+        <java.version>1.8</java.version>
         <kotlin.version>1.9.0</kotlin.version>
         <kotlin.compiler.incremental>true</kotlin.compiler.incremental>
         <maven.compiler.source>${java.version}</maven.compiler.source>
diff --git a/pom.xml b/pom.xml
index f035168bea..9b011d6193 100644
--- a/pom.xml
+++ b/pom.xml
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 <project xmlns="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0"
-         xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
-         xsi:schemaLocation="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0 http://maven.apache.org/xsd/maven-4.0.0.xsd">
+    xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
+    xsi:schemaLocation="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0 http://maven.apache.org/xsd/maven-4.0.0.xsd">
 
     <modelVersion>4.0.0</modelVersion>
 
@@ -30,7 +30,7 @@
     <properties>
         <maven.deploy.skip>true</maven.deploy.skip>
         <rootDir>${basedir}</rootDir>
-        <java.version>11</java.version>
+        <java.version>1.8</java.version>
         <kotlin.version>1.9.0</kotlin.version>
         <kotlin.compiler.incremental>true</kotlin.compiler.incremental>
         <wire.version>4.8.1</wire.version>