Beer drinkers love IPAs for their wide variety of flavors. While the bitterness associated with hops is front and center, there are also myriad other notes on the palate. We’re talking about tropical fruit, citrus, dank, piney, resin, herbal, earthy, grassy, and florals. While we enjoy IPAs featuring all these distinct flavors, today we’re turning out attention solely to that last phrase — we’re looking at hoppy, floral IPAs.
You might wonder why IPAs even taste flowery and herbal at all. It’s because hops are actually the flowering blossoms of the Humulus lupulus plant. While all hops will add at least a little floral aroma and flavor, certain hops are more well-known for it. This includes popular hop varieties like Cascade, Centennial, Amarillo, and Saaz.
So which tastes best? We decided to rank eight of our favorite IPAs based on their fragrant flowery flavors.
8) Founders Centennial
ABV: 7.2%
Average Price: $9 for a four-pack of 16-ounce cans
The Beer:
This 7.2% ABV, year-round IPA is brewed exclusively with Centennial hops (hence the name). It’s dry-hopped and known for its mix of citrus fruit and caramel malt palate and floral finish. It’s a beer for the Centennial fans.
Tasting Notes:
It starts with a nose of bready malts, citrus peels, and floral, herbal hops. The palate starts with a ton of malt and then moves into lemon zest and orange peel before finishing with floral, earthy hops. It is not very bitter at the finish and overall fairly unexciting.
Bottom Line:
This is a beer for Centennial hop fans. It’s a well-made beer. It’s just a little muted in the flavor department and lacks the floral kick we crave.
7) Great Divide Titan
ABV: 7.1%
Average Price: $12 for a six-pack
The Beer:
This award-winning beer is an aggressively dry-hopped double IPA brewed with Centennial, Amarillo, Simcoe, Mosaic, and Citra hops. It also has a nice malt presence designed to temper the deluge of hops aromas and flavors.
Tasting Notes:
The nose is surprisingly fruity with grapefruit, tangerine, ripe pineapple, and earthy, floral hops. The palate continues this trend with notes of caramel malts, orange peel, lemon, grass, and floral, dank, lightly bitter hops at the finish. Sadly, it just didn’t have enough of the floral flavor we want.
Bottom Line:
This beer was brewed with a ton of different hops. And while they all work together to create a great flavor, the floral element seems to fall behind some of the other flavors.
6) Ithaca Flower Power
ABV: 7.5%
Average Price: $13 for a six-pack
The Beer:
With a name like Flower Power, this beer better be a floral, hoppy bomb. Luckily, it is. The Central New York-based brewery’s flagship beer, Flower Power is brewed with Simcoe, Centennial, Cascade, and Ahtanum hops. It gets added aroma and flavor from being dry-hopped with Chinook, Amarillo, and Simcoe hops.
Tasting Notes:
Right away this beer lives up to its name as it’s surprisingly floral on the nose before moving into caramel malts, citrus fruits, and light pine. Drinking it reveals notes of lemon zest, wet grass, tangerine, sweet malts, grapefruit, honey, pine resin, and floral hops.
Bottom Line:
This is a great beer for floral IPA fans. Its only downfall is that it’s a little dank and bitter for those who prefer their IPAs to be a little more subtle.
5) Deschutes Fresh Squeezed
ABV: 6%
Average Price: $11 for a six-pack
The Beer:
At first look, this year-round, 6.4% ABV IPA is a fruity, citrus-filled banger. But it’s so much more than that. Brewed with 2-row, Munich, and Crystal malts as well as Citra and Mosaic hops, it’s also a great beer for floral fans.
Tasting Notes:
There’s a fair amount of citrus up front. Grapefruit, tangerine, and lemon are very noticeable. This is followed by bready malts and herbal, piney, and very floral hops. The palate is loaded with sweet malts, honey, orange peel, grapefruit, mango, and earthy, resinous, floral hops. The finish is dry and gently bitter.
Bottom Line:
Deschutes Fresh Squeezed is a great example of an IPA that starts with other flavors (namely citrus) and works its way nicely into floral, herbal hop notes.
4) Odell Myrcenary
ABV: 9.3%
Average Price: $13 for a six-pack
The Beer:
This IPA is so floral-centric it even gets its name from Myrcene, the essential oil from the flower of the hop. It’s brewed with a handful of different hops, all of which have very high levels of Myrcene. This results in a very fruity, tropical, boldly floral IPA.
Tasting Notes:
There are a ton of tropical fruit flavors in this beer’s nose. Aromas of mango, grapefruit candied pineapple, orange peel, bready malts, pine needles, and floral, earthy hops draw you in for a sip. The palate continues this positive trend with notes of mango, passionfruit, caramel malts, tangerine, grass, lemon zest, and piney, floral hops. The finish is dry and pleasantly bitter.
Bottom Line:
This is a very well-round beer with a ton of floral notes that complement the various other aromas and flavors quite well.
3) DC Brau The Corruption
ABV: 6.5%
Average Price: $12 for a six-pack
The Beer:
DC Brau The Corruption is brewed exclusively with Columbus hops. For those unaware, this type of hop is known for its intense aroma of dank, almost cannabis-like floral and pine resin as well as its floral, citrus, and wintry spice flavors. The Corruption begins with a malt backbone that works perfectly with the aforementioned hop aromas and flavors.
Tasting Notes:
On the nose, you’ll find candied orange peels, lemon zest, grapefruit, pine needles, clover honey, and floral, herbal, earthy hops. The palate begins with a cereal grain sweetness and works its way into more citrus fruits, tropical fruits, caramel, and a final flourish of subtly bitter, spicy, floral, dank pine.
Bottom Line:
This is a great IPA for floral fans because Columbus hops carry a potent floral aroma and flavor as well as other favorable scents and flavors that work well together.
2) Sierra Nevada Torpedo
ABV: 7.2%
Average Price: $11 for a six-pack
The Beer:
Sierra Nevada Torpedo gets its name from the “Hop Torpedo” used in the dry-hopping process. The flavorful hops included are Citra, Crystal, and Magnum. It’s known for its mix of citrus, pine, and floral flavors.
Tasting Notes:
The nose is a nice mix of caramel malts, cereal grains, honey, tangerine, grapefruit, and dank, resinous, floral hops. Sipping it reveals notes of bready malts, caramel, lemon peel, grapefruit, pineapple, and more dank, resinous, floral hops at the finish. It has a bitter bite, but one that works well with the flavors.
Bottom Line:
Sierra Nevada Torpedo is a great beer for fans of floral aromas and flavors because it makes up one-third of the beer’s flavor profile (along with pine and citrus) and works in unison with the other two.
1) Lawson’s Finest Hopzilla
ABV: 8.7%
Average Price: $18 for a four-pack of 16-ounce cans
The Beer:
With a name like Hopzilla, you’d probably assume this beer is monstrously hoppy. And it is. This 8.7% ABV double IPA is brewed with high-alpha hops and is dry-hopped to guarantee a floral, piney, fruity flavor profile you’ll want to drink again and again.
Tasting Notes:
Right away, this beer will knock you over with its bold pine aroma. It’s followed closely by caramel malts, pineapple, grapefruit, tangerine, and floral, grassy hops. On the palate, you’ll find notes of orange pulp, lemongrass, grapefruit, mango, freshly baked bread, caramel malts, and earthy, herbaceous, floral, dank hops.
Bottom Line:
When it comes to well-rounded, flavorful floral-centric IPAs, it’s difficult to beat the appeal of Lawson’s Hopzilla. Everything is working together in perfect harmony. Especially the bold floral aromas and flavors.