Sierra Nevada Brewing Company

Sierra Nevada is committed to craft brewing. Not that there was any doubt that the family-owned, Chico, California-headquartered brewery is all in on craft beer, despite a downturn in the segment’s trends.

Sierra Nevada’s 2026 strategy revolves around a “core four” philosophy involving its top brands, while supplementing its flagships with strategic additions, leaders of the Chico, California-headquartered craft brewery shared last week during a virtual distributor presentation.

Craft’s off-premise performance over the last four weeks has been a tale of two channels.

The adult non-alc category is on its way to hitting $1 billion in off-premise sales as new entries shake up the top brand families and begin to drive prices down, according to market research firm NIQ.

Sierra Nevada has hired Angela Bloomer as its new VP of national accounts. Plus, Garage Beer promotes from within and hires an NFL veteran. Sapporo-Stone makes brand lead moves. And 3 Tier Beverages makes four more hires.

Non-alcoholic beer, Italian imports and fruit-forward offerings are just a few of the summer trends popping in Total Wine & More and Whole Foods Market stores. Total Wine’s Adrea Starr and Whole Foods Market’s Mary Guiver offered insights into what they’re seeing as summer sets in.

Although still in decline, craft beer’s dollar sales and volume losses eased up in May, according to the most recent off-premise report from market research firm Circana.

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.