If you took a Marty McFly-like trip back in time and stopped in 2003 instead of 1955, you’d find a beer marketplace devoid of juicy, hazy, New England-style IPAs . This is because, even though it feels like you can’t stop into a brewery from Savannah to Montana without encountering a New England-style IPA , the style was created in 2004 .
You might be wondering what the first New England-style IPA is. It’s the now beloved Heady Topper from Vermont’s The Alchemist Brewery. Back in ‘04 brewing pioneer John Kimmich created the style when he launched iconic beer known for its unfiltered, hazy, juicy, tropical fruity-filled, and very little hop bitterness. This is thanks to a special, proprietary yeast, a blend of six hops, and a lack of pasteurizing (among other things).
If you’re a fan of this juicy, flavorful 8% ABV hazy IPA or if you simply can’t seem to get your hand on a four-pack, there are reasonable options available. To help you out, we found eight of the best hazy IPAs to drink if you enjoy the mouthfeel and palate of the wildly popular Alchemist Heady Topper. Keep scrolling to see them all.
Orderville is a unique beer in the New England-style IPA world. The San Diego-based brewery couldn’t just make a tropical juicy bomb without paying tribute to its West Coast roots. This 7.2% banger starts as a juicy, tropical fruit-filled hazy thanks to the use of Mosaic hops. But gets some of its dank, resinous aroma and flavor from the use of Sultana hops. The hops are rounded out with Simcoe and Ekuanot.
Tasting Notes:
It begins with a nose of tangerine, mango, passionfruit, guava, ripe pineapple, grapefruit, and dank pine. There’s more of the same on the palate with a ton of juicy orange, grapefruit, peach, mango, and caramelized pineapple up front followed by resinous, sticky pine. The finish is a dry mix of tropical sweetness and bitter hops.
Bottom Line:
This is the epitome of the East Coast meets West Coast. This has something for fans of both styles.
Who doesn’t love fuzzy baby ducks, right? This beer is as adorable as it is delicious. This single-hop New England-style IPA is kettle-hopped and dry-hopped with Citra hops. The result is a hazy, juicy beer that’s not exploding with ducks. Instead, it’s bursting with tangerine, grapefruit, mango, passionfruit, and other tropical fruit flavors.
Tasting Notes:
A lot is going on with this beer’s nose. There are aromas of mango, passionfruit, pineapple, tangerine, grapefruit, and light, floral pine. The palate begins with a nice sweet malt backbone that is propelled by grapefruit, orange peel, melon, mango, guava, ripe peach, and grassy, lightly dank pine. The finish is prickly, sweet, and lightly bitter.
Bottom Line:
New England Fuzzy Baby Ducks is a great beer if you’re a fan of Citra hops alone. This beer proves you don’t necessarily need a whole slew of different hops.
This 8% double IPA is brewed with a base of Golden Promise malt as well as Maine-grown wheat. It gets its hop aroma and flavor from the liberal use of Citra, Mosaic, and Simcoe hops. The result is a hazy IPA loaded with citrus, tropical fruits, and dank, resinous pine.
Tasting Notes:
On the nose, you’ll find notes of sweet wheat, lemon peels, grapefruit, tangerine, mango, ripe peach, pineapple, wet grass, and floral, lightly resinous pine needles. The palate begins with a nice kick of caramel malt sweetness that’s followed closely behind by juicy pineapple, tangerine, lemongrass, grapefruit, guava, passionfruit, and more grassy, floral, sticky hops. The finish is a nice mix of tropical sweetness and dank, bitter pine.
Bottom Line:
If you’re a fan of Heady Topper, you’ll love the balance you’ll find with this epic beer from Maine’s Bissell Brothers.
Trillium’s flagship IPA, Congress Street is brewed with American 2-row barley, white wheat, C-15 malt, dextrin, and dextrose. It gets its hop presence from the addition of Columbus and Galaxy hops. This creates a memorable cloudy, hazy, juicy beer featuring citrus, pine, and ripe pineapple throughout.
Tasting Notes:
The nose is an aromatic mix of caramelized pineapple, tangerine, grapefruit, lemon zest, honeydew melon, and a field of pine needles. The palate continues this trend with juicy peach, pineapple, tangerine, lemon, orange peel, mango, sweet, biscuit-like malts, and a gentle hop bitterness at the very end.
Bottom Line:
There’s a reason this is Trillium’s flagship IPA. It does tick all the New England-style IPA boxes.
With a name like Pulp, you should have a pretty good idea about what you’ll find when you crack open one of these beauties. First brewed in 2016 as a complementary beer to the brewery’s popular West Coast IPA, Pulp is brewed exclusively with Citra hops. It’s known for its flavors of ripe peach, tangerines, lemon, mangy, and freshly squeezed orange juice.
Tasting Notes:
The nose is a nice mix of bready, sweet malts, ripe oranges, grapefruit, lemon peels, peach, and lightly floral, piney hops. Drinking it reveals notes of sweet malts, ripe peaches, pineapple, tangerine, lemongrass, fresh-squeezed orange juice, mango, and just a hint of prickly, floral, dank hops.
Bottom Line:
Some breweries describe their beer as a “juice bomb”. Pulp lives up to that name. It’s fresh-squeezed citrus juice through and through.
3. Hill Farmstead Abner
Hill Farmstead Abner
ABV: 8.2%
Average Price: Seasonal Availability (currently off-season)
The Beer:
Hill Farmstead is one of the few breweries that make nothing but noteworthy, award-winning beers. One of its best beers is its New England-style double IPA called Abner. Named for the brewery’s founder’s great-grandfather, it’s brewed with house ale yeast and American malted barley and hopped with Centennial, Chinook, Columbus, Simcoe, and Warrior hops.
Tasting Notes:
A complex nose of pink grapefruit, orange peels, lemon, tangerines, mango, vanilla beans, caramel malts, and dank pine greets you before your first sip. Sipping it brings creamy notes of orange peel, pineapple, grapefruit, honey, fresh-cut grass, mango, vanilla, and dank, floral pine. The finish is juicy, citrus-sweet, and lightly bitter.
Bottom Line:
This is a sublimely creamy, juicy IPA for fans of ripe citrus fruits. Even with that, it has a nice sweet honey malt backbone as well.
This dinosaur-adorned New England-style IPA is well-known for its monstrously balanced, hazy, juicy flavor profile. This 7.8% ABV is solely hopped with Citra hops. The result is a hazy IPA bursting like the gates at Jurassic Park with notes of orange, mango, and other tropical fruits.
Tasting Notes:
Before your first sip, you’ll be greeted with scents of fruit salad, tangerine, pineapple, orange peel, mango, guava, and pine resin. The palate is filled with juicy orange, guava, peach, mango, sweet oats, honeydew melon, grapefruit, and dank, resinous pine. The finish is dry, bitter, and memorable.
Bottom Line:
This is an epic, citrus-filled take on the New England IPA style and one that you need to try if you enjoy Heady Topper.
To say that Massachusetts’ Treehouse Brewing Company is well-known for its hazy IPA prowess is a massive understatement. There are no other breweries that do it better. One of its best is Treehouse Julius. This 6.8% ABV IPA is known for its creamy, juicy mango, citrus fruit, and passionfruit flavors thanks to a blend of specifically selected hops.
Tasting Notes:
Complex aromas of passionfruit, tangerine, grapefruit, mango, guava, peach, and pineapple start everything off on a great foot. The palate is creamy, juicy, and loaded with more tangerine, lemon peel, guava, mango, passionfruit, lychee, peach, pineapple, grapefruit, and light, sticky, hop bitterness at the finish.
Bottom Line:
If you only try one beer on this list, make it Treehouse Julius. This is the juicy, creamy, fruity flavor profile we imagine when we think of New England-style IPAs.
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