If you’re new to beer, you might not know that there is a ridiculously large, almost Grand Canyon-sized, difference between a classic West Coast IPA and the more recent phenomenon, the New England-style IPA. While the classic IPA is floral, piney, and known for its bitter (almost aggressively so) hop finish, the New England-style is known for its juicy, tropical fruit flavors with a ton of aromatic hops but little to no bitterness.
The New England-style IPA was first invented in 2004 when famed brewer John Kimmich brewed Heady Topper at Vermont’s The Alchemist. But while beer fans flocked to the small New England brewery to get this now iconic beer, the style didn’t really gain national exposure for another decade. Now it seems like every brewery from Montpelier to Montecito brews its own version of this hazy, juicy, citrus, and tropical fruit-filled beer.
Why is it so popular? Well, it’s a great beer for warm-weather drinking. But if I’m going to drink hazy IPAs, I’m going to drink the best of the best. Not simply juice bombs with no substance. The highest-rated, still juicy, but well-balanced New England-style IPAs. So I grabbed ten of the highest-rated and most well-known New England-style IPAs on the market and decided to blindly nose and taste them. I used the blind taste test to rank them. Keep scrolling to see if your favorite beer made the list and where it landed.
The Lineup:
- Trillium Congress Street
- The Veil White Ferrari
- The Alchemist Focal Banger
- Industrial Arts Wrench
- Bissell Brothers Swish
- Other Half Green City
- Lord Hobo Boom Sauce
- Fiddlehead IPA
- Toppling Goliath King Sue
- Tree House Julius
Part 1: New England-Style IPA Blind Tasting
Taste #1
Tasting Notes:
The nose is surprisingly light with some yeasty bread, orange peel, mango, lime, and pine. But not much else. Sipping it revealed honeydew melon, ripe peaches, mango, grapefruit, and lightly dank, resinous pine. The finish is a nice mix of sweetness and bitterness. It’s all just a little boring and lacking in flavor.
Taste #2
Tasting Notes:
Ripe mango, pineapple, lime peel, sweet wheat, freshly cut grass, tangerine, passionfruit, and a cornucopia of other fruit aromas make up a very memorable nose. On the palate, I found notes of peaches, mangos, pineapples, honeydew melons, lime zest, guava, berries, and light floral hops.
The finish is dry, sweet, lightly acidic, and memorable.
Taste #3
Tasting Notes:
A nose of bready malts, light tropical fruits, and dank pine greet you before your first sip. The palate is loaded with freshly baked bread, honeydew melon, mango, orange peel, and a good kick of resinous, dank pine. The finish is dry and more bitter than I prefer when it comes to a hazy IPA.
Taste #4
Tasting Notes:
Classic hazy aromas of mango, peach, orange peel, and light floral hops are prevalent on the nose. Drinking it revealed notes of cracker-like malts, mango, tangerine, and peach. The finish is dry and lightly bitter.
It’s all just a bit unexciting and a little watery.
Taste #5
Tasting Notes:
Complex aromas of ripe peaches, berries, tangerines, passionfruit, juicy mango, and light grassy hops make up a great nose. Drinking it brings forth hints of honeydew melons, tangerines, peaches, lemon peels, caramelized pineapple, freshly cut grass, and light, floral hops. The finish is sweet and dry.
Taste #6
Tasting Notes:
A lot is going on with this beer’s nose. Ripe pineapple, peach, mango, guava, grapefruit, caramel malt, fresh-cut grass, and light pine. On the palate, I found notes of juicy peach, mango, passionfruit, caramel malts, light citrus, and just a hint of pine needles. Somehow, even though there are pine aromas and flavors, there’s almost no bitterness to be found.
Taste #7
Tasting Notes:
Whiffs of grapefruit, tangerine, other citrus fruits, and light floral pine are big on the nose. I couldn’t find much else though. The palate is all orange peel, lime zest, grapefruit, pineapple, grass, and dank pine needles.
The finish has a bit of a bitter bite that wasn’t expected.
Taste #8
Tasting Notes:
The nose is filled with aromas of ripe berries, tangerines, peaches, mango, passionfruit, wet grass, and gentle, floral pine. The palate is sublimely juicy and fruity with ripe peaches, guava, mango, pineapple, tangerine, and grapefruit taking center stage. The finish is dry and lightly bitter — a great combination.
Taste #9
Tasting Notes:
This beer’s nose is like breathing in the aromas of a tropical vacation. Papaya, passionfruit, mango, tangerine, guava, lime peel, and light pine make for a very welcoming nose. Drinking it brings forth notes of juicy grapefruit, peach, caramel malts, light yeasty flavor, pineapple, mango, and a nice kick of lightly bitter, resinous pine at the finish to bring everything together nicely.
Taste #10
Tasting Notes:
The nose is a symphony of tropical fruit aroma. Caramelized pineapple, mango, tangerine, guava, passionfruit, lime peel, yeasty bread are prevalent. There’s also a touch of pine needles. The palate continues this trend with more bready malts, tangerine, pineapple, grapefruit, mango, peach, and pine. The finish is crisp, dry, and semi-sweet.
Part 2: The Rankings
10) Other Half Green City (Taste 1)
ABV: 7%
Average Price: $22 for a four-pack of 16-ounce cans
The Beer:
Other Half is so popular the New York City-based brewery has opened up offshoots in various other areas of the country. One of its best is Other Half Green City. This Simcoe, Centennial, and Citra-hopped double dry-hopped hazy is the brewery’s flagship IPA.
Bottom Line:
As hazy IPAs go, this one can best be described as “okay”. It’s not great and it’s not bad. It’s just a little muted and unexciting.
9) Fiddlehead IPA (Taste 3)
ABV: 6.2%
Average Price: $14 for a four-pack of 16-ounce cans
The Beer:
Vermont is a beer-lover’s dream. The state that invented the hazy IPA is home to many options including the popular Fiddlehead IPA. The brewery’s flagship beer, it’s hazy, juicy, and known for its lightly bitter, dry finish.
Bottom Line:
While this is technically a New England-style IPA, it’s much more bitter than most of the hazies you’ll find. It’s a good gateway for West Coast IPA fans.
8) Industrial Arts Wrench (Taste 4)
ABV: 7.1%
Average Price: $15 for a four-pack of 16-ounce cans
The Beer:
Located in New York’s Hudson Valley, Industrial Arts makes IPAs, pale ales, lagers, and even non-alcoholic beers. One of its best is Industrial Arts Wrench, a New England-style IPA brewed with Mosaic and Citra hops known for its juicy, sweet, citrus flavor profile.
Bottom Line:
This is not a bad beer. It has everything hazy IPA fans enjoy. It’s just a little more muted than I’d prefer in a New England-style IPA.
7) The Veil White Ferrari (Taste 7)
ABV: 8%
Average Price: $17 for a four-pack of 16-ounce cans
The Beer:
There’s a good chance you’ve never owned nor driven a white Ferrari, but you can still drink one. This double IPA is brewed with Galaxy and Citra hops. The result is a fresh, juicy, flavorful New England-style IPA bursting with hop aroma and flavor.
Bottom Line:
This is a beer for the New England-style IPA fans who enjoy a citrus punch. It’s also bitingly bitter at the finish which isn’t for drinkers expecting more fruit.
6) Lord Hobo Boom Sauce (Taste 10)
ABV: 7.8%
Average Price: $15 for a four-pack of 16-ounce cans
The Beer:
This 7.8% ABV double IPA is Lord Hobo’s flagship beer. This juicy, tropical fruit, and citrus-filled beer is brewed with Pilsner malt, Planet malt, red wheat, spelt, oat malt, and flaked oats. It gets its hop flavor and aroma from the addition of Warrior, Amarillo, Mosaic, Falconers Flight, and Ella hops.
Bottom Line:
There’s a reason Boom Sauce is Lord Hobo’s flagship beer. It’s complex, balanced, and has everything New England-style IPA fans love. It could just use a little bit more of it.
5) Trillium Congress Street (Taste 6)
ABV: 7.2%
Average Price: $12 for a 750ml bottle
The Beer:
Boston’s Trillium is a big name in the craft brewing world. Its flagship American IPA is Congress Street. This New England-style IPA is brewed with American 2-row barley, white wheat, C-15 malt, dextrin, and dextrose. It gets its tropical fruit and pine flavors from the addition of Columbus and Galaxy hops.
Bottom Line:
Trillium Congress Street is as well-balanced, juicy, and fruity as any New England-style IPA you’re going to find today.
4) The Alchemist Focal Banger (Taste 9)
ABV: 7%
Average Price: $20 for a four-pack of 16-ounce cans
The Beer:
Sure, Heady Topper was the first New England-style IPA ever, but many believe that The Alchemist Focal Banger is an even better example of the style. Featuring British malts and Citra and Mosaic hops, this IPA is known for its unpasteurized, hazy, balanced flavor profile.
Bottom Line:
Focal Banger is a great example of a hazy IPA done the right way. It’s a perfect balance of sweet juice and bitter hops.
3) Toppling Goliath King Sue (Taste 8)
ABV: 7.8%
Average Price: $20 for a four-pack of 16-ounce cans
The Beer:
Toppling Goliath King Sue is an epic New England-style IPA adorned with a ferocious, roaring Tyrannosaurus Rex. While many hazy IPAs are brewed with multiple different hops, King Sue’s tropical fruit and citrus-driven flavor profile was created solely by the use of Citra hops.
Bottom Line:
Juicy, tropical fruits, and gentle bitterness. What’s not to love with this surprisingly easy-to-find New England-style IPA?
2) Tree House Julius (Taste 5)
ABV: 6.8%
Average Price: $6 for a 16-ounce can
The Beer:
Tree House Julius is one of the most popular New England-style IPAs on the market. Brewed with an unidentified group of proprietary American hops, Tree House’s flagship beer is known for its juicy, hazy appearance and tropical fruit and citrus-forward flavor profile with a gentle bitterness.
Bottom Line:
Pillowy soft, juicy, yet surprisingly well-balanced, this is the kind of NE-IPA you’ll think about long after your last sip.
1) Bissell Brothers Swish (Taste 2)
ABV: 8%
Average Price: $18 for a four-pack of 16-ounce cans
The Beer:
This 8% ABV double IPA from Bissell Brothers is brewed with Golden Promise malts, Maine wheat, and Simcoe, Mosaic, and Citra hops. Its name is a reference to the homemade hooch imbibed in the cult comedy The Trailer Park Boys.
Bottom Line:
Bissell Brother Swish is as perfect of a New England-style IPA as you’re likely to find. It’s perfectly balanced in every way.
Part 3: Final Thoughts
Judging New England-style IPAs can get a bit tricky. You want a nice juicy, fruity aroma and flavor profile. But you also want some hop bitterness with neither aspect skewed too far in either direction. The IPAs that landed higher on this ranking managed to walk the line between the two. Semisweet is the name of the game with hazy IPAs — Swish nailed that.