I have two vices: Live music and delicious, wonderful craft beer. I can’t tell you how much I love both those things, usually together at the same time. As someone who greatly enjoys trying new things, there’s nothing better than going to shows around the country and crushin’ a couple local IPAs, usually resulting in some interesting adventures.
Two years ago, on IPA Day, I ranked 10 of my favorite IPAs every Bro needs to try before you die. I’ve had many, many more IPAs since then and I’m still alive, so it’s time to rank 10 more of my favorite IPAs to try before you die. This year I went heavy on the double IPAs and hard-to-get specialty brews, like Sip Of Sunshine and Tired Hands, two of my favorite breweries in America right now. For a lot of these beers, you can’t just go down to your local six pack shop or beer bar. You have to go straight to the brewery or find a great local beer bar (like my East Village jawn, ABC Beer Co) who lucked into grabbed a keg, usually on release day.
I’ll be straight up — Living in NYC and being from Pennsylvania, I have a huge East Coast bias when it comes to experience in craft beer, especially IPAs. I know, I know — the West Coast is the best coast for IPAs. I get to California a couple times a year, but I’m terrible at remembering the local craft beers that I had. Maybe someday I’ll learn to write them down? Maybe. Someday.
Here are 10 more delicious IPAs to try in honor of IPA day. Cheers.
VIDEO: How To Take The Ultimate Craft Beer Road Trip
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Moxee Moron Imperial Session IPA — Sierra Nevada Beer Camp
Oh. My. God. One of the most righteous West Coast IPAs ever brewed, IMO. Sierra Nevada’s limited edition Beer Camp IPA was made with TLC from breweries in the Pacific Northwest, home to fields-upon-fields of the freshest hops in the world. The name is literally inspired by the town of Moxee, Washington, which is in the Yakima Valley hop growing region of the state. Moxee-Moron has a wonderful citrus flavor, but the real kick is the hop-bomb explosion that tingles your olfactory/taste senses.
I’m a lucky man. I got to drink this beer with two of the biggest names in craft beer — Sam Calagione, the founder of Dogfish Head, and Brian Grossman, the son of Sierra Nevada founder Ken Grossman. Their enthusiasm for this IPA — along with all the Beer Camp specialty brews — was nothing short of inspiring.
These are available nationally in the Sierra Nevada Beer Camp sampler case, so get it at your local beer store while supplies last. I found the 12 pack sample in Whole Foods the other week.
The Crusher — The Alchemist Brewery, Stowe, VT
Heady Topper is soooooooo 2014. 2016 is all about The Crusher, the newest liquid creation from Stowe’s legendary The Alchemist. The lengths people go to get this beer are absurd — Show up at the brewery at 10AM to start waiting in line, even in the Vermont winters. They’re $12.50 per four-pack, though I payed $15 for one Crusher beer in the lot of a Phish show at SPAC this summer.
Please… we have no regrets.
It’s sweet and has a delicious pine-flavor, like drinking a damn Christmas tree. It has the absurd score of 99 on Beer Advocate, which shows just how buzz-y Alchemist beers are. Here’s a rad story from John Kimmich about how it was created:
“The Crusher is an American Double IPA that I started making years ago at the old pub. Hop heads were constantly asking for more hops. So, in the words of Frank Zappa, “Did you say you want some more? Well here’s some more.” While I enjoy hops with the rest of them, I still try to maintain some semblance of balance and drinkability. This beer is oozing with hop flavor and aroma with a very dry finish. Enjoy responsibly, this one can sneak up on you.”
Any IPA made with a Frank Zappa reference is cosmik in my mind.
Other Half IPA — Other Half Brewing Co, Brooklyn, NY
https://www.instagram.com/p/BH7r9fBBt4s/?taken-by=otherhalfnyc&hl=en
Hop beer heaven in Brooklyn. If you’re doing a brewery tour NYC, don’t skip Other Half. Put it high on your priority list. Their tap room is only open from 5 – 10pm, so don’t think you’re going to wander in at 10:01 on a Friday night to drink delicious fresh beers. There are a gazillion bars for that (I found this out the hard way once).
Other Half is notorious in all the right ways for their experimental IPAs. They release a lot of beers, as a good craft brewer does: Green Diamonds, Small Green Everything, Magic Green Nuggets, Double Mosaic Dream, All Citra Everything. Prismatic Eye, All Dank Everything, Telectroscopic. The IPA list goes on and on. The standard Other Half IPA is a great bar beer and all over the place in the Tri-State, including at your favorite happy hour bar. Drink it.
Laguintas Maximus
Two years ago, when I made this list, Laguintas had just started it’s bi-coastal takeover in being the IPA of pretty much any cool bar in NYC. How about a convenience store IPA? Now that Laguintas is partially own by Heinken, you can get this brew anywhere. And it’s good! Just because a brewery sells out doesn’t mean deteriorating quality — after all, that’s why the Dutch bought into this NorCal brewery in the first place.
Laguintas calls Maximus “our IPA on steroids.” I love it because I can get it at the bodega under my apartment at 2AM to compliment a slice of pizza when the craving hits. Can’t say that for most of the beers on this list.
Terrapin Hopsecutioner IPA — Terrapin Beer Company, Athens GA
https://www.instagram.com/p/BFaAvnru00K/?taken-by=terrapinbeerco&hl=en
I have a little bit of a ritual when I go to SEC country: Buy any and all the Sweetwater 420 Extra Pale Ales I can, consume regularly. But that changed when a friend said I had to try Terrapin from Athen’s Georgia. They make a tasty IPA. I’d make their Hi-10 D-IPA my Saturday Game Day beer if I could find it over the Mason Dixon Line.
Maybe I just need to try harder.
Tröegs Perpetual IPA — Tröegs Independent Brewing, Hershey, PA
Have to show some love for my hometown brewery. I have to be honest — I didn’t fall in love with Tröegs’ IPAs until a few years ago, long after I moved out of Central PA. I started picking these out at the bottle shop for a taste of home, which really brought me back to loving a brand that got me into loving craft beer in the first place.
DirtWolf Double IPA — Victory Brewing Company, Downingtown, PA.
I love this beer, but like all double IPAs it’s super aggressive — 8.7% ABV. One in a session and you’re good. Three and you’re in outer space. Unlike other IPAs on the list, it’s extremely smooth and tastes less like a pinecone. There’s a creamy, hazy goldenness to it that’s absolutely delicious when poured in a glass.
That reminds me — for the love of all things sacred, always pour your damn IPAs into a glass. That smell is 40% of the experience.
Alien Church — Tired Hands Brewing Company, Ardmore, PA
https://www.instagram.com/p/BFRaK2YpfFD/?taken-by=tiredhandsbrewing&hl=en
As far as big cities go, Philly and Denver have two of the coolest craft beer scenes in the United States right now. I would go to all ends of the earth to get this beer in NYC. That’s both a blessing and a curse — Tired Hands is still one of the best kept brewery secrets on the East Coast, which means I can only nab these when in Philly. And, hell, it’s hard to get even in Philly. I don’t care how far out of the way Ardmore is on those trips, stopping by Tired Hands is a MUST.
Threw back this beer along with the Hophands — their American Pale Ale — before this year’s June Phish shows at the Mann Center. Alien Church is 7%, a beautiful golden haze, and hits right in the sweet spot. Shout out to my boy Ben from Central Pennsylvania’s Three Springs Fruit Farm who supplies some of the fruit Tired Hands uses to brew. He hooked it up. Nothing quite like drinking some of the best tasting beer in the world in the grass of Fairmont Park — the best city park in the world — before some of the tastiest jams in the world.
Stone Ruination IPA — Stone Brewing, San Diego, CA
Mmmmm. Double IPA. 8.2% ABV. Super citrusy hops. Had a couple of these at a dinner celebrating the “west coast lifestyle” in Little Italy, NYC, as hosted by the super chill, super laidback shoe company Sanuk. Sans any employees of Stone Brewing, I think I’m the only person on the East Coast with Stone Beer-themed flip flops now. I wear them all the time.
Pinner Throwback IPA — Oskar Blues Brewery, Longmont, CO
By the makers of Dale’s Pale Ale, the crunchiest beer in the Rocky Mountain State. I don’t know how I’ve ignored this beer for so many years, despite seeing it on tap at a couple of my favorite bars. Hell, even my local grocery store sells it, yet I always go for something with a catchier label. It took some arm-pulling from a buddy of mine at Phish show at Philadelphia’s Mann Center this past year to actually try it. Oh my God it’s delicious.
I love this beer so much. It’s also way less intense that most IPAs, at only 4.9% ABV. Kind of like a session IPA. That’s what makes it a throwback — It’s a throwback to when you could brew a true IPA that you can drink all day long.
Sip Of Sunshine — Lawson’s Finest Liquids, Warren, VT
This is an exact conversation I had in the parking lot of Citifield this summer, while trying to score craft beers on Shakedown Street outside a Dead and Company show.
“Hey, can I have a Heady Topper?”
“You sure?”
“Uhhh…. Yea? You have it, right?”
“We also have Sip Of Sunshine.”
“What’s that?”
“The best beer you’ll ever have in your life…”
“Better than Heady Topper?”
“It’s like this… We’re here selling Heady Topper, but we’re all drinking Sip Of Sunshine… What does that tell you?”
“…It’s some pretty fucking good beer?”
“You won’t regret it.”
I don’t regret it. It’s some pretty fucking good beer.
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