Hazy Little Thing IPA.
Sierra Nevada Brewing Company
The craft beer industry is in a strange place right now. According to the Brewers Association’s 2025 Midyear Report, overall craft beer volume fell 5% in the first half of the year, while the number of operating breweries dipped by 1%—from 9,352 to 9,269. Off-premise craft volume is down 4.1%, nearly mirroring the broader beer market’s 4.2% decline.
This is not an environment where most brands are finding growth. But in Chico, California, Sierra Nevada Brewing Co., one of the OG’s of craft beer, is playing a different game, one that saw it report 2% growth in 2024. A large part of their success these days is their massively popular Hazy Little Thing lineup of haze beers.
When Hazy Little Thing hit shelves in early 2018, it became the first nationally distributed hazy IPA in the U.S. Until then, the style had been a regional curiosity, often hard to find outside its New England birthplace. But the Grossman family, the founders of Sierra Nevada, kept hearing from their nationwide sales team that consumers were searching for hazy beers. Famous for its crystal-clear Pale Ale and hop-forward West Coast IPAs, they had never brewed anything quite like a hazy beer. But they decided to take a leap and released Hazy Little Thing with modest expectations.
It flew off the shelves immediately and was a spectacular success. One that sent shockwaves through the company.
Brian and Ken Grossman of Sierra Nevada Brewing Co.
Sierra Nevada Brewing Company
“It was one of those ‘holy crap’ moments,” Brian Grossman, Sierra Nevada’s chief brewer and second-generation owner, said in a recent interview. “We put it out there, and suddenly we didn’t have enough materials to keep up. It was all hands on deck as we struggled to keep up with the overwhelming demand coming from the market.”
Today, Hazy Little Thing is the No. 1 hazy IPA in the country, leading sales in 23 states and outpacing the category by 5.7 percentage points. It’s a growth driver in 34 states, and its 19.2-ounce single-serve cans, already the fourth best-selling craft SKU in that format, are up 13% year-over-year.
The beer’s success has spawned an entire “Little Things” lineup—nine hazy IPAs in total, from rotating releases like Peachy and Tropical to the higher-octane Big Little Thing. In early 2025, Big Little Thing was reformulated as a hazy imperial IPA, cementing the series as a haze-only family.
Hazy and Big Little Thing cans.
Sierra Nevada Brewing Company
In a hazy IPA category that has largely leveled off, Sierra Nevada holds four of the top 20 spots, including #1, #3, and #6. Its Hazy IPA pack is the top craft beer variety pack in the market, showing that consumers, many of them crossovers from the seltzer and RTD category, are still looking for approachable fruit-forward IPAs.
For Grossman, the lesson was clear: the right innovation at the right time can reset a brand’s trajectory. Hazy Little Thing showed Sierra Nevada could evolve beyond its traditional lineup without losing its core identity. That success gave the brewery the confidence and the market credibility to push into new territory like non-alcoholic beer and pilsner.
Once an afterthought in any brewer’s lineup, non-alcoholic beer has become a must-have for any national brewer. Drinkers in increasing numbers are looking for quality products that deliver taste without a buzz. The Brewers Association notes that NA beer is on fire—up 22% year-to-date in 2025 and more than 30% year-over-year at its summer 2024 peak. Sierra Nevada has heavily invested in the category. It offers its Trail Pass series of non-alcoholic beers and the Hop Splash hop-infused sparkling water line.
Sierra Nevada Hop Water Variety Pack.
Sierra Nevada Brewing Company
Grossman sees both as a natural fit for Sierra Nevada’s lifelong focus on trailblazing quality products that deliver to its fans. “The technology has come so far,” he told me. “We can make NA beers now with real flavor. And drinkers are moderating in interesting ways—alternating full-strength with NA, or blending them to make a low-ABV pint. It’s about giving them options without compromising the beer experience.”
PILS, a is a throwback and a challenge, especially since it will be packaged in a 8.4-oz ‘Proper Pilsner’ can, a first for the brewery. It’s a 4.7% ABV, 25 IBU European-inspired lager with a “kiss of Sierra Nevada hops” designed for proper glassware pours. For a brewery long defined by ales, it’s a statement that they can play in the lager space and do it well. “Pilsners are one of the hardest beers to make,” Grossman said. “There’s nowhere to hide. You have to nail it every time, we know we can.” It will be released to limited markets this fall with a nationwide rollout planned in January 2026.
The common thread between haze, NA, and pilsner isn’t just novelty; it’s execution. Sierra Nevada has thrived for almost five decades by refusing to rush products to market and by growing at a pace they can sustain. They’ve avoided the debt traps that sank other breweries, built deep relationships with wholesalers, and kept their beer fresh on shelves. That discipline gives them room to take chances.
Sierra Nevada Pils.
Sierra Nevada Brewing Company
It also means their innovations don’t feel like desperate grabs for attention. The pilsner isn’t a gimmick; it’s a world-class lager in the making. The NA beers aren’t an afterthought; they’re brewed with the same attention to detail as Pale Ale. And Hazy Little Thing? That’s no longer a gamble—it’s a flagship.
We are brewers, and we will make beer,” Grossman said. “That’s the focus. If we keep making beer we’re proud of, everything else follows. Trends will come and go, but if you’ve built trust over decades, people will follow you into new styles. Hazy Little Thing proved that for us. It opened the door for everything we’ve done since. As long as we stay true to that approach, I think we’ll keep finding ways to grow, no matter what’s happening in the market.”
Follow here for the most up to date information about the ever changing beer, wine, and spirits industry.