I've Tried Hundreds of Craft IPAs. This Cheap, Easy-to-Find Beer Is My Go-to in a Pinch

Yahoo

29-01-2025

I write about beer for a living, which means I taste a lot of the stuff. Most of it is great, especially IPAs. I can rattle off a list of bangers made with everything from foraged spruce tips to experimental hops that don't even have names yet, whether made by iconic industry trailblazers or under-the-radar nano-producers.
But for all the obscure IPAs we insufferable beer geeks hunt down and boast about—bonus points if you can pinpoint all five hops in the aroma or remember the entire three-sentence name of that Evil Twin hazy—there's something undeniably irresistible about what you might refer to as a 'supermarket IPA.'
Supermarket IPAs are those well-known bottles and cans from big independent craft breweries or their corporate-owned counterparts that have resources to earn shelf space in national chains. For example, one of the founders of Tree House Brewing in Massachusetts includes options from Lagunitas, Stone, and Goose Island in his supermarket IPA taste test video.
In short, a supermarket IPA is there when you need it, wherever you are. You know what you're getting is consistently good in flavor and mouthfeel, and they're great for introducing craft beer to new drinkers.
As a beer fan since 2008 and beer writer since 2017, I've had countless IPAs. When I'm in a situation where I need something tasty, cheap, and available—a crowd-pleaser for a party, decent brew at the limited airport bar, or convenience store pickup in a craft beer desert—I reach for a Sierra Nevada Hazy Little Thing every time.
Sierra Nevada launched Hazy Little Thing in 2018. It was a big move for a seminal brewery that had built their reputation on a different interpretation of hoppy.
'Hazy Little Thing broke the mold at Sierra Nevada and marked a mindset shift for us,' says Isaiah Mangold, Sierra Nevada's head innovation brewer. 'The explorative process we went through as we developed that beer unlocked so many ideas and possibilities that we had never considered before, because at that time we only knew what we had always known: that IPAs by nature were meant to be sharp, bitter, and clear.'
Smooth, sweet, and juicy, Hazy Little Thing was born to be its own offshoot brand, similar to the Voodoo Ranger series from fellow OG New Belgium Brewing. These brands were made for supermarket-IPA status. With their big, fruity flavors and splashy can art, they appeal to anyone wandering the aisle—whether they have an Untappd account or not.
'The Hazy Little Thing flagship has become ubiquitous,' says beer judge and writer Alexander Gates. 'There are lots of other sub-brands competing in this space, namely hazy IPAs at a lower price point…while Hazy Little Thing isn't as full-flavored as [Sierra Nevada's] Celebration or Torpedo, [it's] more approachable to people that may not like an aggressively bitter beer.'
Hopped with citra, magnum, simcoe, comet, mosaic, and el dorado, Hazy Little Thing delivers a pleasant blend of orange gummy candies and overripe tropical fruit with some nice bitter pine and tea notes for balance. It does so with a full, velvety mouthfeel that's not too heavy or filling. It's a perfect middle-of-the-road option—not too explosively hoppy or smoothie-like for hazy IPA newbies, but flavor-forward and substantial enough to satisfy a hazy IPA fan. At 6.7 percent ABV in a standard-sized 12-ounce can, its buzz isn't overpowering, either.
The proof is in the numbers for Hazy Little Thing's appeal. Per Nielsen data for 2024, it's the third ranked craft beer brand in the United States and the top-selling hazy IPA. Its success has blossomed into an entire portfolio featuring imperial, session, West Coast, and additional IPA 'Little Things,' nicknamed Big, Hoppy, Tropical, Rad, Dank, Cosmic, and Juicy. There's even a Wild Little Thing sour. The names, Gates notes, are another approachable feature.
'They're accurately described by their names, so they're also less pretentious and clear…whether [the consumer] has had a dank or juicy IPA before or not,' he says.
The sub-brand has something for every kind of IPA fan at every level, no doubt. But the one that started it all, Hazy Little Thing, remains unrivaled in its crowd-pleasing quality.