GoneTrending

To say the IPA is a popular beer style is a massive understatement. Wherever you live, there are bound to be craft breweries nearby consistently highlighting West Coast, New England-style, and even Milkshake IPAs on their beer menus. The oftentimes slightly bitter (and sometimes aggressively bitter) beer style is a craft brewing mainstay from Bakersfield to Bar Harbor and everywhere in between.

There’s just something special about the IPA. Its distinctiveness is what makes it so sought after, but also so divisive. A well-made IPA might be a perfect harmony of malts and hops, citrus, ripe fruit, and other flavors, while a poorly-made one (or one made with too heavy a hop hand) might be bitter to the point of aggression. This is why great IPAs are so widely heralded while bad IPAs are quickly forgotten.

And, even though there are countless breweries scattered throughout the US, there are a few that stand above all else. That’s why we asked a few well-known craft beer experts, brewers, and beer professionals to tell us the one IPA they never get tired of drinking. Keep reading to see some familiar names as well as a few scrappy underdogs.

Fiddlehead IPA

Mike Haakenstad, brewing operations manager at Sycamore Brewing in Charlotte, North Carolina

ABV: 6.2%
Average Price: $14.50 for a four-pack of 16-ounce cans

Why This Beer?

This question is a lay-up. Without a doubt, Fiddlehead IPA is a must-try for any IPA fan. This is hands down my number one personally. This beer has a “dank-ness”(and I do hate that term) that is unmatched. I can only describe it as an oniony/garlic that I have not found in another beer, ever. They execute their hopping precisely for this characteristic to be showcased and it is beautiful. I would say King Sue from Toppling Goliath would be a close number two with similar characteristics. This beer drinks super well on a hot summer day and drinks just as well after snowboarding. This beer is a “W”.

The Veil WhiteFerrari

Josh Lancaster, brewer at Seven Sounds Brewing Company in Elizabeth City, North Carolina

ABV: 8%
Average Price: $19 for a four-pack of 16-ounce cans

Why This Beer?

The Veil Whiteferrari is a perfect representation of the New England Double IPAs that The Veil led the way in popularizing across the country. It’s smooth and slightly sweet and perfectly balanced, expressive of my favorite hops, Citra and Galaxy. You can always find several great IPAs on tap at The Veil, but when they release Whiteferrari I go and buy as much as I can.

Bale Breaker Top Cutter

Andy Innes, lead brewer at Phillips Brewing & Malting Co. Ltd. In Victoria, British Columbia

ABV: 6.8%

Average Price: $8.99 for a six-pack

Why This Beer?

Anything by Bale Breaker. Specifically, I’ll shout out Top Cutter. For hop-obsessed individuals who have yet to make the pilgrimage to Yakima, please go. Go down for the Fresh Hop Fest and carve out an afternoon for Bale Breaker. Their brews magically encapsulate the best of PNW hops and are so fresh and delicious. Top Cutter has a lot of what you’d expect, with big citrus and pine, but the delicate floral aromas they capture in their dry-hopping are wildly good. Rosewater. Geraniol. The things dreams are made of.

BKS Counterculture

Chris Meyers, co-founder at Crane Brewing Company in Kansas City

ABV: 7%

Average Price: Limited Availability

Why This Beer?

BKS Counterculture is a must-try beer. This is another great, local option and so worth snagging if you can get some. We are fortunate to have so many neighborhood breweries like this. Double dry-hopped with Citra, Mosaic, Simcoe, and Galaxy hops, it’s juicy, hazy, hoppy, and perfect.

Russian River Pliny the Elder

Douglas Constantiner, founder and CEO of Societe Brewing in San Diego

ABV: 8%

Average Price: $6.99 for a 16.9-ounce bottle

Why This Beer?

Russian River Pliny the Elder. To me, Pliny is to beer what ‘The Godfather’ is to movies. There are so many variations of the IPA now for beer drinkers to be excited about but even though Pliny has been around 20 years it’s still impressive. It has the perfect balance of grapefruit, pine, and malt backbone. There is nobody like Vinnie in this world when it comes to hops. When you drink Pliny, know that every IPA that you have ever had owes to this beer.

Odell IPA

Dan Lipke, head brewer at Clown Shoes Beer in Boston

ABV: 7%
Average Price: $9.50 for a six-pack

Why This Beer?

Odell IPA is a can’t miss beer. A great American IPA, big on citrusy hops, mellow on malt. Finishes with a crisp bitterness that makes you want another sip. The best part? It’s not that difficult to find.

Russian River Pliny the Younger

Alex Wenner, owner of Lasting Joy Brewery in Tivoli, New York

ABV: 10.25%
Average Price: Limited Availability

Why This Beer?

Anyone introduced to hoppy beers in the days where haze is king should do themselves a favor and try the now classic West Coast offerings. And if you are going to put a West Coast IPA on your bucket list, it is Pliny the Younger from Russian River Brewing. Released at their brewpubs only for a couple of weeks a year, it is certainly not an easy beer to get your hands on. None of the pure juice and pillow-sweetness of the Northeast, Pliny the Younger is piney, grassy, and dank with notes of citrus set against a boozy, caramel malt backbone.

Tree House Doppelgänger

Austin LaBrune, brewer at WeldWerks Brewing Co. in Greeley, Colorado

ABV: 8.2%
Average Price: Limited Availability

Why This Beer?

Doppelgänger: Tree House Brewing Company. Everyone knows about Treehouse if you’re looking at some of the best IPAs to try—Julius undoubtedly is the fan-favorite pick. But for me, Doppelgänger is where it’s at. It delivers the same experience every time. Doppelgänger is a juice bomb full of peach rings and mango while still delivering the textbook malt profile that Treehouse is known for. If I could only have one more IPA for the rest of my life, this is the one.

Russian River Blind Pig

Nik Mebane, brewmaster at Wynwood Brewing in Miami

ABV: 6%
Average Price: $5.50 for a 16.9-ounce bottle

Why This Beer?

That would have to be Blind Pig by Russian River. They literally wrote the book on West Coast IPAs. Sure, the Pliny beers get more press. But I believe the best, most bucket-list-worthy beer they actually make is the hoppy, slightly bitter, complex Blind Pig IPA.

Telluride Freaky Fish

Matt Simpson, head brewer at Tennessee Brew Works in Nashville

ABV: 8.5%
Average Price: $14.99 for a six-pack

Why This Beer?

Freaky Fish from Telluride Brewing Company brewed an Imperial IPA that was served at the Big Beers Festival in Vail several years ago. Not sweet, great aroma, bitterness was balanced. One of the best high-gravity IPAs of all time.

Bell’s Two-Hearted

Marshall Hendrickson, co-founder and head of operations at Veza Sur Brewing in Miami

ABV: 7.1%
Average Price: $7.99 for a four-pack of 16-ounce cans

Why This Beer?

Bell’s Two Hearted Ale is my pick. I’m sure most IPA-heads have tried this beer, but it’s one of the best IPAs out there. I believe it’s a single-hop IPA that only uses Centennial hops. It’s mind-blowing how they achieve such a dynamic hop profile with only one hop.

Tree House Julius

Frank Gervasi, certified Cicerone and general manager at Arizona Wilderness Brewing in Phoenix

ABV: 6.8%
Average Price: $5.50 for a 16-ounce can

Why This Beer?

Treehouse Julius. The availability of this beer has changed from when you had to line up at their Monson facility and could maybe get 5-8 cans of their new releases, but that doesn’t mean the beer has changed. It’s incredibly tropical fruit-forward. My first time drinking any of the Treehouse IPAs (Green and Haze included), I was amazed that there was no actual juice in the beer.

The celebrity showering debate is one that nobody asked for, but the hits just keep coming. It began last summer when a slew of Hollywood parents admitted they don’t wash their children (?), and then snowballed into other celebs admitting that they didn’t find showering necessary (????!) Now, James Corden is adding this take into the mix.

On a recent episode of The Late Late Show With James Corden, the host admitted that he is shocked by those who shower for longer than 10 minutes. “I’m in and out [of the shower] in a solid three or four,” Corden said, which puzzled his staff, who then awkwardly went over their showering habits.

While he should have just let it go right then and there, he added, “I’m trying to think about what people do in there for 10 minutes. I use soap, but I don’t wash my hair. I wash it every two months. That is a true story.” One of Corden’s producers then called him “dirty.” Maybe Corden is just trying to burn every bridge before leaving the show next year?

Some celebrities decided to blame their shower habits (or lack thereof) on the ongoing drought in California, which is what caused Corden to speak up when he should have just…not. The main takeaway here is that if you don’t shower, stop telling people that! They will be able to smell you either way. You can check out the clip above if you want to hear Corden trying to defend himself.

Madison Cawthorn will soon be leaving the congressional building, officially, after he lost his election. Much of this had to do with his constant stream of incendiary statements, yes, but there was also a PAC that targeted him while releasing explicit, unsavory video footage, which is likely what did him in with GOP voters. Well, that and his bizarre claim that the GOP is all about coke and orgies. In the aftermath of Cawthorn’s primary loss, Lauren Boebert has been awfully quiet.

However, one can assume that, since she is a fringe GOP/MAGA diehard like Cawthorn, that Republicans might be embarrassed enough to vote her out of office, too. She’s been ignoring the subject, but that hasn’t stopped stories — like her ex-employees airing grievances about missing paychecks and alleged luxury/breast implant splurges by Boebert — from circulating, and now, the same group that targeted Cawthorn wants to unseat Boebert, too. Here’s what Insider reports from the group:

“I think we’re going to go after Lauren Boebert in Colorado in a similar way,” David B. Wheeler, a cofounder of the American Muckrakers PAC, told Insider Wednesday. “I think we’re going to engage in that race pretty quickly.”

The group on Thursday launched fireboebert.com, seeking tips on information, pictures, videos, or documents on Boebert or her associates. A tweet by @FireBoebert reads, “Hi @RepBoebert – Ask @RepCawthorn about us. We look forwarding to getting to know you.”

So, it’s apparently on. And how is Boebert reacting to this news? She’s tweeting about abortion, gas price, Ukraine, teleprompters, and Nancy Pelosi. In other words, she’s coping, and whether she’s coping well is anyone’s guess, but her head is firmly in the sand.

As Madison Cawthorn recently stated, “the best is yet to come.” How that applies to his fellow Ultra MAGAs, well, we should find out soon.

Primary season’s shaping up to be a doozy!

Rina Sawayama broke through in 2020 with Sawayama and will be continuing her world domination with her next LP, Hold This Girl, which was announced only a couple of days ago alongside the release of the fierce single “This Hell.”

Last night, she brought that track to late-night television with an ebullient performance on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon. She flaunts the sass of the song with killer dance moves in killer outfits, including leather mini-skirts and cowboy hats, which really convey her sonic mixing of country and glam rock.

The track was produced by Paul Epworth, who has worked with Adele and previously won Grammy Awards for Producer Of The Year.

“The past couple of years I’ve been listening to lots of female country singers and wanted to write a euphoric and tongue-in-cheek country-pop song,” Sawayama said in a statement. “I’ve been dreaming of working with Paul Epworth my entire career so I knew it was meant to be when we finished this song in a day. I put in as many iconic pop culture moments as I can, but the song is more than that.”

Watch her performance of “This Hell” above.

Hold This Girl is out 9/2 via Dirty Hit. pre-order it here.

Playing basketball against Luka Doncic seems to be extremely difficult. Despite this, the Golden State Warriors were able to keep the Dallas Mavericks‘ star from imposing his will on Game 1 of the Western Conference Finals en route to a 112-87 win — Doncic scored 20 points, reeled in seven rebounds, dished out four assists, and committed seven turnovers in 35 minutes of work.

Perhaps one reason why Golden State was able to bottle him up is the amount of experience they have going against LeBron James in the playoffs. During the most recent episode of his podcast, Draymond Green gave some insight into how going up against Doncic is similar to going up against James, who the Warriors played in the NBA Finals each year from 2015-18.

“One of the main, glaring similarities that stick out at you is how those two guys can manipulate a defense, how those two guys can control the pace of a game,” Green said. “At their size, with their passing ability and the way they can put pressure on the rim, and pressure on the defense, and with the vision that they have, they’re a lot alike.”

Green said Doncic is one of the few players who can control a game like the two of them, but pointed out some major differences. James, he believes, likes to push in transition, while Doncic only looks to do that if he can get a “complete runout.” He also says that Doncic wants to “look for his shot a little bit more than LeBron,” while James is “more often than not pass-first.”

At the end of the day, though, Green can see the influence James had on Doncic’s game.

“It feels a lot like playing against LeBron,” Green said, “playing against Luka every possession.”

It is always refreshing to see new acts pay respect to artists who came before them in form of a cover. English singer-songwriter Griff accepted the challenge of reimagining Queen’s transcendent record “A Kind Of Magic,” opting to slow things down a bit but deliver the full magic nonetheless. The cover comes as part of a global expansion effort done by Coke Studio, including six other artists, like Dreamville’s Ari Lennox and K-pop band Tri.be putting their own spin on the 1986 song that reached No. 3 on the UK singles chart.

The aforementioned Coke Studio initiative is paired with the seven artists featured in a documentary titled The Conducter where viewers can see them perform “A Kind Of Magic” together. The 21-year-old tweeted her excitement about the endeavor on Thursday (May 19), sharing that this all started back in December.

The “A Kind Of Magic” cover follows Griff and Sigrid’s reworked single “Head On Fire” after the original iteration took home Best Collaboration at the BandLab NME Awards this past March where Griff also won the NME Radar Award.

Listen to her “A Kind Of Magic” cover above.

Griff is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

There is only one week left until the release of Tate McRae’s highly anticipated debut album I Used To Think I Could Fly, which has been relentlessly hyped up with eclectic singles ranging from vulnerable ballads to catchy anthems, plus a plethora of dancey music videos and emotive late-night television performances.

Today she’s back with a grandiose new music video for her cheeky song “What Would You Do?.” In typical Tate McRae fashion, she takes on a persona. Instead of a babysitter like she was in the “Working” video with Khalid, this time she’s a fed-up valet driver who gets revenge by stealing a car whose license plate is fittingly “2FLY4U.” To avoid getting caught, she tries on a bunch of different colorful wigs.

She also smashes a lot of glass, and dances in a leather suit, which checks out since she told Uproxx: “I always used to say ‘I’m a dancer who sings, not a singer who dances.’ That’s how it always went.” At one point, there’s a plane on fire. A lot goes on, basically.

Watch the video for “What Would You Do?” above.

I Used To Think I Could Fly is out 5/27 via RCA Records. Pre-order it here.

---

This also made labiodentals easier to produce, as indicated by a 2019 study published in Science magazine. You can catch the video below:

Researchers created two models—one of an edge-to-edge bite and the other of an overbite—to see which version was better for articulating labiodentals. The models clearly showed that the edge-to-edge bite required far more effort. Try to align your bottom and top teeth right now and say “fuh” or “vuh.” Not easy, is it?

The study offered the compelling argument that without the introduction to farming and softer foods, humans might have never incorporated labiodentals into their vocabulary. Even today, modern language used by hunter-gatherer groups use only one-fourth as many labiodental sounds as other languages affected by agriculture.

While the study was met with criticism, its findings offer an unprecedented concept: that our language is shaped not only by cultural and intellectual factors, but also by biological conditions. It also poses some new questions, such as what the spoken word actually sounded like thousands of years ago. It’s certainly an idea to chew on.

Recess will now be mandatory in Georgia for students in grades K-5, thanks to a new law under the state’s Quality Basic Education Act.

Georgia is the 10th state to make recess a requirement, joining Arizona, Arkansas, Connecticut, Florida, Missouri, New Jersey, Rhode Island, Virginia and West Virginia, according to the National Association of State Boards of Education.

The bill, signed by Georgia governor Brian Kemp, states that recess could not be taken away by teachers or school officials as a “disciplinary” action. And it’s important to note that unlike PE, which provides physical activity but still contains rigid curriculum, recess is defined here as “unstructured break time.”

Granted, that might be the most boring verbiage ever. Is the word “play” just too chaotic? Regardless, having a bit of unbridled fun is proving to be just as vital to a child’s well-being and development as pure academia.

---

The American Academy of Pediatrics considers recess a necessity. It offers an essential “respite from rigorous cognitive tasks.” Mental breaks remain an important skill long after school is over. And the habit can be very hard to instill later in life. Just ask the adult writing this article. No amount of Pomodoro timers or right-brained activity lists seem to thwart my ever-constant need to be productive.

Besides, learning doesn’t stop at recess. A 2013 policy statement from the American Academy of Pediatrics states that “children develop intellectual constructs and cognitive understanding through interactive, manipulative experiences. This type of exploratory experience is a feature of play in an unstructured social environment.” Other studies have indicated that recess actually helps focus and productivity in the classroom.

Recess gives kids a time when they can imagine, move and socialize. Through interactive games in an open environment, they can build lifelong social skills like empathy, leadership, collaboration, conflict resolution … you know, all those things you have to relearn through trust falls at a company team-building retreat. Again, these are tools we will continue to use throughout our life, or at least as long as we’re around other people. Why not develop them on a daily basis?

Recess is perhaps more important than ever as we inch ever-closer to a post-pandemic world, after two-plus years of virtual learning while sitting in front of a computer screen. In fact, it could even be the key to collective healing, according to Elizabeth Cushing, CEO of Playworks. In an interview with USA Today, she noted that “our brains can’t take on the work of learning if we don’t feel safe. Because [recess] makes school feel like a fun, welcoming and inclusive place to be, play can be a really powerful, efficient and easy lever to pull to help kids feel safer.”

The No Child Left Behind Act enacted in 2001 placed an emphasis on standardized test scores. As a result, recess was largely depleted, if not cut out entirely. This was a mistake. Play is in itself a powerful learning tool, one that helps us throughout our entire lifetime. More states mandating this basic necessity is great news. It’s at least one sign that we are moving toward a world where joy, pleasure and human connection are part of a core curriculum. More happy, healthy humans, please.

During their respective collegiate tenures, both Trae Young and JJ Redick were polarizing superstars who opposing fans loved to hate. The hate grew so prominent that fans would chant “f*ck you” at them throughout games.

Recently, Young joined Redick on his podcast, The Old Man & The Three, to discuss an array of topics, including what that dynamic was like for them so young and early in their prominence on the national stage.

“I got comfortable playing that role as a villain,” Redick said. “As a 19-year-old, it really f*cked with me. It really f*cked with me. I’d heard chants in high school, but it’s not the same thing when you’re doing a nationally televised game and everybody is like, ‘Oh, I f*cking hate you.’”

After sharing his own experiences and journey navigating that sort of thing, Redick turned to Young and asked if it affected him during his one year at Oklahoma.

Young didn’t require much time to contemplate on the question before replying with a resounding, “Hell yeah, it messed with me.”

“We played at Texas Tech. I was born in Lubbock, so my dad played there,” Young said. “I’m going home, I’m thinking it’s gonna be crazy, it’s gonna be nice. Midway through the first half, you get one side of the whole arena is yelling, ‘F you,’ and the whole other side is yelling, ‘Trae Young.’ It’s like, did they set this up in harmony?”

“It did mess me up early. But I think going through that helped me go through the (NBA) playoffs and whatever. Now, whenever people say it, I’m able to just brush it off.”

Redick shared how after Virginia Tech upset Duke one year and Hokie fans stormed the court, certain fans taunted his family and prevented them from leaving the arena. Eventually, Redick’s father engaged in a “public dispute” with Virginia Tech’s athletic director. He said experiencing all of that prepared for anything thrown his way in the NBA. Young agreed.

“There’s nothing you can say that I have not heard at this point,” Young said. “That’s how I feel. I’ve heard it all before.”