looking for good examples of British ales and IPA's

So instead of derailing a different thread I was reading I thought I'd ask here.....
I enjoy quite a few typical west coast ales and IPA's. Of course Sierra Nevada Pale, and several of their IPA's, Deshutes has some of my favorites, Balast Point Sculpins!!!, Russian River, Port Townsend Brewery I visited has great stuff and many others. Even in my town we got the Knee Deep brewery and the Auburn Ale House and Cool Beerwerks.
I'd like to try some UK versions of these beers so I'm asking for some examples of some state side available British ales and IPA's to check out. Who knows if they will be available in my town but I'd like some place to start.
Thanks for your ideas!

Not sure how available these are but this is what the 2015 BJCP lists as Commercial Examples.

http://www.bjcp.org/docs/2015_Guidelines_Beer.pdf

From 2015 BJCP 12C English IPA
Freeminer Trafalgar IPA, Fuller's Bengal Lancer IPA, Meantime India Pale Ale, Ridgeway IPA,Summit True Brit IPA, Thornbridge Jaipur, Worthington White Shield

Belhaven Twisted Thistle is fairly easy to find in my area. Samuel Smith's IPA or Fuller's IPA are others that might be available. Fuller's ESB and London Pride aren't IPAs, but both are pretty classic examples of English ales, and are also worth trying IMHO.

There are also American-made versions of English-style IPAs, like Goose Island IPA, Left Hand 400-Pound Monkey, or Brooklyn East India Pale Ale. Those are all pretty widely distributed.

Marstons Old Empire would probably be the most prominent British style IPA that I know of.

More than up for a beermail swap btw (wrong subforum maybe? If so, sorry!)...

+1 on Sam Smith's India Ale. Available here which I would imagine is close to you:

BEVMO!
2745 BELL RD
AUBURN, CA 95603
(530)745-9855

Pick up a Taddy Porter if you can - SOOO bloody good. And frankly, anything else from SS that they carry.

http://www.merchantduvin.com/brew-samuel-smith-india-ale.php

It's not clear from the OP whether you're looking for UK produced American IPAs or British style IPAs (i.e. less hop forward, emphasis on British hops) whether they be produced in the UK, US, or elsewhere. I'd hope UK produced versions of both would be available in the US.

For UK style the BJCP commercial examples does mention a few good ones, but also lots of pretty mediocre ones as well. Thornbridge Jaipur is excellent but I think uses American hops (I guess the malts might make it bit heavier than a typical US IPA though). Meantime IPA is also OK and does use UK hops. Dark Star (esp. Hophead), Bath ales and Badger are other reasonably big brands over here at least that make decent pale ales and IPA.

Beavertown, Kernel, Magic Rock and BrewDog all make great American style IPAs. Aside from BrewDog might not be widely available in the US.

Another vote for Samuel Smith's IPA as well as the Twisted Thistle!

However I feel that Old Speckled Hen ESB outpaces Fuller's. It's amazing. So much so that I ordered a couple cans of Lyle's Golden Syrup through Amazon from England until I found that World Market sells it in a smaller package.

Samuel Smith's oatmeal stout is also great.

A strong argument can be made for the proposition that there is no such thing as a typical old school English IPA. The history of the style is muddy as all get out. Still, if you must try to find that style, I think Worthington White Shield is as close as you're going to get. Is it sold in the US?

Thanks for the suggestions, I think I'll pop down to bevmo and have a look at some of these.....

rodwha said:

Another vote for Samuel Smith's IPA as well as the Twisted Thistle!

However I feel that Old Speckled Hen ESB outpaces Fuller's. It's amazing. So much so that I ordered a couple cans of Lyle's Golden Syrup through Amazon from England until I found that World Market sells it in a smaller package.

Samuel Smith's oatmeal stout is also great.

Click to expand...

Thank you! I didn't know World Market sells it, Im headed down there tonight. I bought it off amazon as well. I made the OSH clone, but I don't think I put enough Lyle's in it, it wasn't nearly as sweet as the original.

The ones WM sells isn't nearly as much so you may want to try two. I think it's close to around 12 oz instead of a pound like the canned version.

It's also not green. I think it's mostly white (bottle).

we have Wegmans here that carries it. 11 oz bottle