Calling all IPA lovers...what are your favorite 3?

GregR said:

Stone Ruination
Pliny the Elder
ballast Point Sculpin IPA

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Ditto.......

I got together with a bunch of beer-loving friends and we blind taste tested 16 IPAs. Here are the results: Men vs Culture: Men vs IPA - The Results

In no particular order:

Sierra Nevada Celebration
Stone Ruination
DFH 90 Min

Pliny the Younger
Pliny the Elder
DFH 90
Racer 5
Big Daddy IPA

jservants said:

Pliny the Younger
Pliny the Elder
DFH 90
Racer 5
Big Daddy IPA

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HEY! you're breaking the rules! top 3 buddy!

good choices by the way. I've never had pliny the younger or Big Daddy but Hamilton's in San Diego will have younger on tap tomorrow! gonna have to go try it.

Sorry, too many good ones!

Pliny the Younger will knock you on your a$%... be careful!; I believe its around 11%, only brewed around this time of year... they ran out of carboys at the brewery, so you had to either drink it there, or find a bar that served it. Enjoy!

Oh yeah, I think big daddy is only distributed in Nor Cal now... trying to get it down to So. Cal; SF based.

goetzUM said:

I got together with a bunch of beer-loving friends and we blind taste tested 16 IPAs. Here are the results: Men vs Culture: Men vs IPA - The Results

Click to expand...

Testing 16 IPAs can be a dangerous thing, but I'm glad someone had the guts to do it...though I feel like the results could have been skewed toward the end of that marathon.

Hops Infusion - Weyerbacher
Odells IPA
Avery IPA

goetzUM said:

I got together with a bunch of beer-loving friends and we blind taste tested 16 IPAs. Here are the results: Men vs Culture: Men vs IPA - The Results

Click to expand...

Next time throw a few British-style IPAs in the mix! Meantime, Schlafly Export, Drake's...if I were doing an organized tasting, I'd want a fuller picture of what IPAs are than just the neo-American version.

Traditionally they didn't use C-style hops, but they used more hops than a lot of the modern British versions so it's worth investigating both.

Dogfish 90 minute
Bells Two Hearted
Upland Dragon Fly

so speaking of IPA. . .I decided to go out to in spite of St. Paddy's day. I was going to go to my favorite bar but there were at capacity and a line wa out front. (god I hate St. Paddy's day!) so I ended up heading to another place. well my friend and I were there and I got a lost abbey first and then got a Racer 5 IPA. normally a great IPA. but this was just bad. I don't know if the whole Keg was off or it was really old or what but man. . . tasted way too sweet. had almost no hop bitterness. barely even an aroma of hops. all in all a very bad pint.

now before anyone says maybe it was a mispour -- I watched it get poured. ugh. I would have sent it back but seeing as there were no less than 6.022X10^23 people in the bar I just choked it down and my friend and I left. I need to go find a decent racer 5 soon so I remember how good it really is.

goetzUM said:

I got together with a bunch of beer-loving friends and we blind taste tested 16 IPAs. Here are the results: Men vs Culture: Men vs IPA - The Results

Click to expand...

It's funny you put Hazed and Infused in the list, although a fine beer it's not an IPA.

Don't remember if I posted already in this thread but (in order):

Boundary Bay Inside Passage Ale
RR Pliny the Elder
Stone IPA

+ 1 on Boundary Bay Inside Passage Ale
Port brewing HOP 15 a must try
bridgeport IPA a great mowing the lawn beer

Bear Republic Racer 5
Green Flash WCIPA
Russian River Blind Pig

mmmmmmmmmmmm....

Speaking of which, anyone have a TRIED and enjoyed recipe for any of those listed above? I have the BYO clone of Racer 5 recipe but so far I haven't read a reply from anyone who has brewed it and compared it to the commercial brew.

Great thread!

Pliny the Younger
Pliny the Elder
Stone Ruination
Blind Pig
Stone IPA

I've tried hundreds, but I really think these two breweries hit it on the head...

Green Flash
Pliny the Younger
Big Daddy IPA

Since you're including IIPA's....

Two Hearted
90 Minute
Founders Double Trouble

I've heard great things about Pliny and Green flash but can't buy either here.

Breckenridge 427
Saint Arnold's Elissa
Avery IPA

If I had to pick three:

Stone IPA
Bridgeport IPA (so delicate!)
Blind Pig, Pliny, or RR IPA (srsly, they are SO similar..)

Runners up:

Widmer Broken Halo (gas-station beer)
Lagunitas IPA (their new brew system works wonders)
Lagunitas Hop Stoopid
Belhaven Twisted Thistle
Full Sail IPA
Houblon Chouffe (does that count?)
Sierra Nevada Celebration
Anchor Liberty
Oskar Blues Gordon (if it's fresh)
DFH 120
Moylan's Hopsickle

Ones I do not like:

DFH 90
Stone Cali-Belgique IPA
Rogue I2PA

I forgot about Lagunitas. They make some beautiful beers and I love that IPA.

Three is a tough call:

Dark Horse Crooked Tree IPA
Tyranena Bitter Woman IPA
Bear Republic Hop Rod Rye

944play said:

Ones I do not like:

Stone Cali-Belgique IPA

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I really enjoyed the Cali-Belgique. Green Flash has a similar one called Le Freak which is basically the same concept. in fact I was so impressed with them that I took a generic IPA recipe and used a Belgian yeast just to see how it would come out home brew style.

something about the way the flavors of the Belgian yeast and a big hoppy beer mix really does it for me.

I really didnt like the cali-belgique too much either. Thats the only belgian-ipa i've tried and the style sounds so tasty- but the stone offering was sub-par for me.

Not in my top three (which I already listed here) but dam close is Ninkasi's Total Domination. I've been drinking a ton of that **** lately. super tasty

nutcase said:

Thats the only belgian-ipa i've tried and the style sounds so tasty- but the stone offering was sub-par for me.

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Don't give up on the style before you've tasted Houblon Chouffe!

i'm a huge fan of IPA's, but i live in iowa, which is a terrible state to get decent beers in.

O'Dell IPA (had this when i was living in colorado, because that's where the microbrewery is, but since i moved back to iowa, i've never met anyone who's even heard of it)
Stone IPA
but the best IPA i've ever had in my life was called "F.Y.I.P.A." at a place called the Mountain Sun in Boulder. i used to go there all the time, and it was just incredible. amazing brews, great food, incredibly laid back atmosphere.
honorable mention: bell's two hearted ale

also i just got a sample of Goose Island's new imperial IPA from a bar that does a lot of microbrews, and i thought it was phenomenal...

...but it was $16/pint. maybe on my next birthday

Sierra Nevada Celebration Ale
Three Floyds Alpha King
Racer 5 IPA

So many IpA's so little time.

Oh man, that's a really tough question...there are so many good ones out there.

Well...

Lagunitas IPA
Stone Ruination IPA
Sierra Nevada Celebration


Runner Ups:
SN Torpedo
Racer 5
Pliny the Elder
DFH 60 & 90

pliny
stone
mine

I am shocked that no one had Three Floyds Dreadnaught.

Three Floyds Dreadnaught
Bear Republic Apex
Avery IPA

My top three:
Sierra Nevada Celebration
DFH 90
Kodiak IPA on cask (at a local brew pub in Austin, North by Northwest)

Live Oak IPA gets honorable mention.

Heavy Seas - Loose Cannon
Smuttynose "Finest Kind" IPA
Stone IPA

I just finished my first Pliny the Elder, let me just say that it will not be my last! IPA is my favorite style, so the fact that it's going in my top 3 really says something.

So with that said, my top 3/4 IPAs:
Pliny the Elder
Sierra Nevada Celebration
Tie between Stone and DFH 90 Min

Regular IPAs
Sweetwater (far and away my favorite)
Bell's Two Hearted
Sierra Nevada Torpedo

Double IPAs
Avery Maharajah
DFH 90
Bell's Hopslam

1. Boundary Bay IPA
2. Stone IPA
3. Lagunitas IPA

Pliny
Green Flash
Lagunitas

Pliny, DFH 90, and O'Dells.

I'm amazed at the number of posts that list Pliny and DFH 90 in them.

Alaskan IPA
DFH 90 Min IPA
Northern Lights IPA

Smuttynose
Two-Hearted
Green Flash

Double's:
Smuttynose Big A IPA
Victory Hop Wallop
Stone Ruination

So hard to just list three...

Goose Island- IPA or IIPA
Two hearted
Big Sky

Diamond Knot - IPA
Stone Brewing - Ruination IPA
Deschutes Brewery - Hop Henge IIPA

<no image of DK's IPA available yet - just now in 22oz bombers>