Winter might have started less than a month ago, but that doesn’t mean we aren’t already tired of it. The cold, dark, days of winter are enough to make us cash in our vacation days in the first month of the year and book a flight to some warm, sunny, tropical getaway. Or you could go the much cheaper route and crack open a hazy IPA instead. These juicy, tropical fruit and citrus-filled IPAs are the perfect respites for the winter weather outside. One sip is like taking a little trip to an island paradise.
You don’t even need TSA pre-check.
To bring summer vibes back, we picked eight hazy, juicy, fruity IPAs and ranked them based on flavor and just how well they’ll transport your taste buds to somewhere with endless sunny skies and abundant palm trees. Keep scrolling to see how the likes of Stone, offshoot, and Captain Lawrence landed on our list.
8) Stone Neverending Haze
ABV: 4%
Average Price: $8 for a six-pack
The Beer:
This low-alcohol hazy IPA is brewed with a healthy dose of Citra and Mosaic hops. It’s known for its cloudy, juicy flavor with tropical fruits, citrus, oats, and just a hint of spice. All that and it’s a sessionable 4% ABV.
Tasting Notes:
Sweet oats, grapefruit, orange peels, and lightly floral piney hops are found on the nose. But they’re all rather muted. The same goes for the palate. While it’s easy to drink, the notes of orange peels, grapefruit, pineapple, and pine needles are fairly watery.
Bottom Line:
This is an easily crushable beer, but if you’re looking for something with more tastes, you might want to find something with a little more oomph in the ABV department.
7) Voodoo Ranger Juicy Haze
ABV: 7.5%
Average Price: $12 for a six-pack
The Beer:
New Belgium’s line of Voodoo Ranger beers is fairly popular in the IPA world. While you can’t go wrong with its classic Voodoo Ranger IPA, we think the best option out of the bunch is actually its Juicy Haze IPA. Brewed with American hefeweizen yeast as well as Pale and C-80 malts, wheat, and oats. It gets its hoppy flavor and aroma from Citra, Cascade, Centennial, Simcoe, and Nugget hops.
Tasting Notes:
The nose is all citrus peels, pineapple, peach, and lightly herbal, earthy hops. The palate is tangerine, ripe grapefruit, peach, pineapple, mango, wet grass, and slightly bitter, piney hops. It’s a juicy, fruity break from the winter, but a little too sweet for some drinkers.
Bottom Line:
While this hazy IPA has all the makings of a classic, fruity, juicy IPA, it’s tooth-achingly sweet. If that’s your thing, go ahead and grab some.
6) Collective Arts Life In The Clouds
ABV: 6.1%
Average Price: $16 for a four-pack of 16-ounce cans
The Beer:
This 6.1% ABV New England-style IPA is known for its hazy, cloudy, juicy, tropical fruit-centric flavor profile due in large part to the addition of Mosaic and Simcoe hops. It’s so fruit-forward, the folks at Collective Arts refer to it as “paradise in a can”.
Tasting Notes:
Peach, mango, pineapple, tangerine, grapefruit, and honeydew melons are big aromas on the nose. The palate is loaded with more ripe pineapple, grapefruit, melons, mango, toasted coconut, and lightly spicy hops at the finish.
Bottom Line:
This is a fruity, juicy, memorable IPA but it falls under the same category as Voodoo Ranger Juicy Haze — a little over-the-top sweet for some palates (mine!).
5) Offshoot Relax
ABV: 6.8%
Average Price: $16 for a four-pack of 16-ounce cans
The Beer:
This creamy, hazy, fruit-forward IPA is brewed with London III yeast, 2-row, and Carafoam malts as well as flaked oats. It gets its citrus and tropical fruit flavors from the addition of Amarillo, Citra, Simcoe, and Centennial hops.
Tasting Notes:
Right away, you’ll be struck by the sweet aromas of peach, mango, guava, pineapple, tangerine, and ripe grapefruit on this beer’s nose. The palate follows suit with notes of wet grass, bright pine needles, caramel malts, grapefruit, peach, mango, and lightly spicy, herbal hops at the finish.
Bottom Line:
This is a well-balanced hazy IPA with a nice mix of tropical sweetness, tart citrus, and spicy hops. The only downfall is that with all of those overlapping flavors, it’s not as fruity as some of its counterparts.
4) Jekyll Southern Juice
ABV: 6.3%
Average Price: $11 for a six-pack
The Beer:
When a New England-style IPA has the words “juice” or “juicy” in its name, you have a pretty good idea of what you’re in for. Jekyll Southern Juice definitely doesn’t disappoint. This unfiltered, hazy IPA is brewed with wheat and oats as well as Simcoe and Citra hops.
Tasting Notes:
Bready malts, mango, guava, pineapple, orange peel, grapefruit, and herbal, piney hops make up this beer’s vibrant nose. There’s a ton of citrus on the palate with notes of candied orange peel, grapefruit, lemon, wet grass, passionfruit, and lightly bitter, resinous hops.
Bottom Line:
Jekyll Southern Juice is another well-balanced, hazy IPA that you’ll want to drink all winter long. This is one for the citrus fans.
3) Medusa Light Runner
ABV: 6.6%
Average Price: $15 for a four-pack of 16-ounce cans
The Beer:
This 6.5% ABV New England-style IPA starts with the brand’s proprietary yeast strain. It was crafted to make hazy, creamy memorable IPAs. Mosiac and Amarillo hops give this beer a nice juicy, tropical fruit-forward flavor profile.
Tasting Notes:
The nose is a symphony of peach, mango, guava, passionfruit, grapefruit, tangerine, and herbal, earthy hops. The palate continues this trend with more passionfruit, mango, grapefruit, peach, honeydew melon, wet grass, caramel malts, and just a hint of pleasing pine at the finish.
Bottom Line:
This is a highly flavorful beer. It’s loaded with tropical fruit and citrus flavors with a lightly bitter finish that leaves you craving more.
2) Mighty Squirrel Cloud Candy
ABV: 6.5%
Average Price: $12 for a four-pack of 16-ounce cans
The Beer:
One of Mighty Squirrel’s most popular beers, this year-round 6.5% ABV New England-style IPA is double dry-hopped with Citra, Amarillo, and Mosaic hops. It’s known for its well-balanced tropical fruit-forward flavor profile.
Tasting Notes:
This popular IPA begins with aromas of ripe pineapple, bready malts, grapefruit, candied orange peel, and herbal, earthy pine. Drinking it is even better than sniffing it with flavors of tart grapefruit, tangerine, papaya, passionfruit, mango, peach, freshly baked bread, and herbal, dank pine at the finish.
Bottom Line:
Sipping this beer really is like taking a tropical vacation in a can. It’s sublimely well-balanced, fruity, and memorable.
1) Captain Lawrence Jam Juice
ABV: 8%
Average Price: $15 for a four-pack of 16-ounce cans
The Beer:
This 8% ABV New England-style IPA might be one of the higher alcohol content beers on this list, but it’s equally (if not more) juicy, hazy, and fruity thanks to double dry-hopping with Galaxy hops.
Tasting Notes:
Tangerine, peach, mango, passionfruit, papaya, lemon, wet grass, and dank pine, this beer’s nose has it all. The palate is loaded with fruit esters, peach, guava, mango, bready malts, caramelized pineapple, candied orange peels, and herbal, earthy, bright pine. The finish is hoppy, but not overly bitter.
Bottom Line:
This is one of the most well-balanced, drinkable, fruity, hazy IPAs on the market. While some of the other beers are like a short weekend trip to a tropical paradise, this is like an extended vacation.