Sierra Nevada Brewing Company

Six of the 10 largest Brewers Association-defined (BA) craft breweries recorded volume declines in 2024, according to data from the trade group’s May/June edition of The New Brewer magazine.

In this episode of the Brewbound Podcast, leaders from Sierra Nevada and New Trail discuss their craft portfolios, innovation, packaging and recent wins during the 2025 Craft Brewers Conference.

Beverage-alcohol’s embrace of flavor and craft beer’s shifting distribution trends were among spotlighted issues during last week’s Beer Marketer’s Insights Spring Conference in Chicago. Leaders from BeatBox Beverages, Boston Beer Company, Atomic Brands, Columbia Distributing and Anheuser-Busch InBev (A-B) shared where their business and the beer category is heading. Here are a few soundbites from the conference.

Despite recent headwinds, craft beer continues to have the largest share of beer sales at Total Wine & More stores. But “it won’t stay that way” if industry trends continue, according to the chain retailer’s senior director, merchandising, Andrea Starr.

Sierra Nevada’s Big Little Thing IPA is getting a second act. The imperial IPA has been reformulated as a juicy hazy IPA with the ABV amped up to 9.5% from 9%. Although Big Little Thing has been a top-30 craft brand in off-premise scans, the brand’s trends have trended down since 2023.

In Wednesday’s Brewbound Newsletter: 🍀 St. Patrick’s Day Off-Premise Dollars -3.9% YoY; 💰 Oregon Proposes 8% Sales Tax for Beer & Wine; 🏟️ Allagash Joins the Mets and Tilray’s Stock Issues; 🌎 The No. 1 Centennial Hop Buyer; 🍊 Sierra Nevada Revamps Big Little Thing IPA.

Dollar sales of craft beer declined -4.2%, to more than $596.2 million, year-to-date (YTD) through February 23 in off-premise retailers tracked by market research firm Circana.

Non-alcoholic (NA) beer claimed a record 4.2% share of beer category grocery sales during Dry January, according to an analysis by Bump Williams Consulting chief strategy officer Dan Wandel. NA beer recorded double-digit year-over-year (YoY) increases in dollar sales (+23.5%) and volume (+20.2%) in U.S. food stores tracked by market research firm NIQ for the four-week period ending February 1.

Craft’s rolling four-week losses improved to start 2025, according to the most recent report from market research firm Circana. The segment’s off-premise dollar sales declined -3.1% and volume, measured in case sales, declined -4.6% in the four-week period ending January 26 (L4W) at multi-outlet grocery, mass retail and convenience stores (MULO+C). That marked an improvement over the prior four-week period (through December 29, 2024), when craft dollars declined -5.1% and volume declined -6.5%.

Off-premise dollar sales of craft beer declined -3.3%, to more than $4.6 billion, in 2024, according to multi-outlet grocery, mass retail and convenience store data shared by market research firm Circana.

In the wake of Hurricane Helene, Sierra Nevada Brewing Company company is focused on ensuring its employees in Mills River, North Carolina, “are safe and accounted for,” while “still assessing” the damage sustained at the brewery, president and CEO Pryce Greenow told the company’s distributor partners on Tuesday.

Sierra Nevada CEO Pryce Greenow began his remarks to wholesalers last week acknowledging that craft beer is not short on challenges, including a “cash-constrained consumer,” category price increases, trends in moderation and bev-alc abstinence “becoming more meaningful,” and “a whole host of substitute products” entering the market.

While many annual business plans over the next couple months will likely include fourth-category innovations, Sierra Nevada is focused on continuing to innovate with “beer-flavored beer.”

Last week, Sierra Nevada announced the promotion of VP of sales Ellie Preslar to chief commercial officer (CCO) of the California-based craft brewery. Brewbound caught up with Preslar …