Beer Marketer's Insights - Craft Down to 10 Share of $$, 7 of Volume in 2025 Circana Scans; Looking Back at Biggest Shifts

2025 is officially in the books, and while craft finished the final weeks of the year a bit better than where it'd been, it wasn't enough to move the needle much in year-to-date Circana multi-outlet + convenience scans. For essentially the full year thru Dec 28, craft $$ dropped 4.3% with volume off 5.8%. That amounts to a roughly $200 mil, 6.2-mil case drop vs yr ago in these channels, which typically track a bit over half of all-channel beer volume. And with total beer down 2.9% by $$ and -4.5% YTD by vol, craft segment slipped to an even 10 share of category $$ and 7 of volume in 2025, shedding 0.15 share and 0.1 share respectively. Tho recall, Circana tracks non-alc beer separately from craft segment, which would bolster trends a bit. Craft still finished the year at $4.43 bil in sales and over 100 mil cases in Circana tracked scans. And aside from hard cider, it maintained the highest avg price of any segment at over $44.06 per case. Segment prices increased in line with total beer, each up 1.6%, tho that amounted to a $0.70/case increase for craft vs $0.50/case increase for total beer. Craft's 4-wk trends improved slightly to $$ down 3.6%, volume -4.7% in period thru Dec 28. But the segment shed slightly more share in that stretch, down 0.2 share by $$ and -0.1 by volume, as total beer trends also improved for the period to $$ down 1.9% and volume -3.3%.Athletic Posted by Far Best Trend Among Top Suppliers; Only a Few Grew $$ at All Tho not counted as part of craft in this dataset, Athletic posted the best trends of any top 25 beer vendor. Its $$ grew 20%, volume +22% in 2025 Circana MULC scans, tacking on another year of strong double digit growth. No other craft co in the top 25 overall vendors came close to that mark. Monster-owned CANarchy was next best of the bunch with $$ up 1.5% and volume down 0.7% (tho separately counted Monster FMBs were down 26% by $$, dragging total Monster Brewing sales down 15%). Aside from AB's craft portfolio, which collectively grew ~1% for the yr, Sierra Nevada was the only other craft co listed among top 25 beer vendors to grow $$, up just 0.5% with volume down 0.7%.ABV Grew Slight Share, Kirin-Lion Flat; Other Top Cos Ceded Ground Artisanal Brewing Ventures did grow slight share, however, with $$ -1.9% and volume -2.8%, partly driven by Bold Rock hard cider plus solid Victory trends. And Kirin-Lion share was flat for the year, coincidentally posting identical trends to the total beer category: $$ -2.9%, volume -4.5%. Other top craft cos shed share with varying degrees of decline: Mahou USA $$ down 5%, Firestone -6%, Gambrinus -9% and Tilray down 14%. Combo of Blue Moon and Leinie's dropped ~7% by $$ for Molson Coors (including NAs), while Boston Beer's Sam Adams slipped 6%, offsetting better Dogfish performance. Heineken-owned Lagunitas $$ dipped 5% ex NAs.Several Voodoo Rangers Still Led the Way on Share Gains Among top 30 Circana-tracked craft brands, share gains were once again led by a pair of Voodoo Rangers. New Belgium's Juice Force was the #1 gainer in this group at +0.6 share of craft $$ (+12%). VR Imperial IPA was #2 gainer, up 0.4 share (+5%). And Tropic Force not far behind as #4 gainer, pickin' up 0.2 share (+15.5%), surpassed only by its portfolio mates and Goose Island Tropical Beer Hug Double IPA on this list. Other brands in NBB's portfolio in rougher shape, however, including 4 top 30 craft brands down steep double digits (see below).Goose Island, Wicked Weed Fastest-Growing Top 25 Craft Brands; Georgetown Still Strong A pair of AB-owned craft brands were the fastest-growing within the top 30 for 2025. Goose Island Topical Beer Hug ahead of the pack, $$ +26% and up 0.3 share to over 1 full share of craft in Circana scans. And Wicked Weed kept growing like one, +21% and up 0.2 share. Separately, Georgetown Bodhizafa IPA continued its growth streak with $$ up 10% for a 2nd straight year.Little Sumpin Sumpin, Space Dust, Jai Alai Back to Growth; Other Share Gainers Several legacy craft brands flipped from 2024 declines to solid growth in '25, including Lagunitas Little Sumpin' Sumpin' ($$ +9%), Elysian Space Dust (+7%) and Cigar City Jai Alai (+4%). Sierra Nevada Hazy Little Thing still up every year since launch with $$ +2.1% in 2025. Kona Big Wave stayed in positive territory too with $$ +0.7%, tho it couldn't keep up its double-digit pace from yr ago. Other top 30 craft brands that gained slight share of craft in Circana MULC spanned Bell's Two Hearted, Sierra Seasonal, Sierra Big Little Thing, and Sam Adams vty pk each down 1-2% for the yr. Lagunitas IPA $$ dropped 4% in 2025 scans but picked up a sliver of craft share.But Many Couldn't Flip the Switch A number of legacy craft brands saw sales slip and lost share last yr. Sierra Pale Ale and Shiner Bock both down ~5% in 2025, followed by Founders All Day down 6% and Firestone 805 off 8%. Sam Adams Boston Lager and Sam Seasonal both down about 10% by $$. Sales of biggest Circana-defined craft brand, Blue Moon Belgian White, dropped 9%, while Blue Moon Light sales slid 16% in wake of its rebrand. Leinie Shandy Seasonal also dipped 11% last yr. Other top 30 craft brands down double digits include Sierra Torpedo Extra (-15%), New Belgium Fat Tire (-24%) and a trio of Voodoo Rangers: Juicy Haze (-14%), Hoppy Variety Pack (-16%) and Fruit Force (down nearly 40%).Notable Rank Changes vs Yr Ago What were the biggest shifts in standings changes among top 30 craft brands vs yr ago? Top 4 stayed steady: Blue Moon Belgian White, Voodoo Ranger Imperial IPA, VR Juice Force and Sierra Hazy Little Thing. But Sam Seasonal slipped from the #5 by $$ to #9, passed by Sierra Pale, Kona Big Wave, Elysian Space Dust and Shiner Bock in the process. Despite its slowdown, Kona leapt to #6 from #8 year go, while Elysian Space Dust shot up from #10 to #7. Shiner Bock fell from 7 to 8 as that pair of AB craft brands surpassed it by $$ sales. At $77-78 mil a pop, both brands could be within striking distance of Sierra Pale sales in scans, which ended the year at $80 mil. Leinie Seasonal also slipped to #10 as Elysian Space Dust passed it. Among other top gainers: Voodoo Ranger Tropic Force jumped from #15 in 2024 to #13 in 2025, Goose Beer Hug Double IPA went from #19 to #16 and Wicked Weed Pernicious flew from #24 up to #19.

Craft Down to 10 Share of $$, 7 of Volume in 2025 Circana Scans; Looking Back at Biggest Shifts

Publishing Info