Beer Marketer's Insights - Sierra Nevada Vol Down "Slightly" but Outperformed in 2025; "Cautiously Optimistic" on 2026 Progress Industry-Wide

Sierra Nevada shipments and depletions dipped "just slightly," off 1.5-2% in 2025 vs 2024, CCO Ellie Preslar shared with CBN this morn. That likely puts shipments just under 1.04 mil bbls in 2025 vs 1.055 mil bbls in 2024, CBN estimates. It's "not where we wanted to be," but "considering the challenges of the industry," and outperformance vs both craft category and total beer, co's feeling relatively good about results. "It wasn't really driven by any one area or class of trade," tho on premise trended a bit better last yr. Sierra grew distribution in chain and indie channels both off and on premise, but "that didn't translate to volume growth because of the softness overall," said Ellie. Yet co's "really pleased" that lead brand Hazy Little Thing IPA was able to grow volume again in its 8th year; volume grew 0.5% in full-year Circana multi-outlet + convenience data, and grew on premise too. Flagship Pale Ale declined again, but "we continue to make a little progress" on improving the trends, and year-2 of natl parks program in both cans and bottles this yr is expected to help drive improvement.Among other growth highlights, "our variety packs overall" posted healthy gains last yr between Hazy IPA variety pk, new Torpedo variety pk and Trail Pass non-alc beer variety pk. Trail Pass variety pk especially "exceeded even our expectations," tracking as a top 10 craft variety pk (across alc and non-alc) in certain mkts, Ellie shared, which drove double-digit growth for Trail Pass non-alc beer family overall. Atomic Torpedo and Cosmic Little Thing IPA continued to grow. Deliberate, slow-roll launch of Sierra Pils, starting with draft-only mid last year before debuting unique 8pk "was really well received." And impressively, Sierra Celebration IPA "had another strong year" of growth, including an "incredible" Dec, "despite the softness" in beer, craft and seasonals, Ellie pointed out. It grew nationally in distribution, and co was also able to "really create a lot of energy behind it at our two breweries," she added.With all the puts and takes, Ellie and co are "cautiously optimistic" for both craft and the total beer industry to "make progress" in 2026. And Sierra Nevada remains laser-focused on outperforming the category and gaining share, as CEO Pryce Greenow emphasized during co's distrib mtg in Aug. Still early days, but Hazy Little Thing started "strong," Springfest IPA seasonal launch has some buzz and co saw Trail Pass and Hop Splash "run rates" tick up. Plus, Sierra Pils natl package rollout is just starting to ramp up for spring resets. Stay tuned.

Sierra Nevada Vol Down "Slightly" but Outperformed in 2025; "Cautiously Optimistic" on 2026 Progress Industry-Wide

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