Tried any good IPA's lately?

wedge421 said:

One of my favorite Imperial IPA's and one of my favortie beers in general is Avery's The Maharajah. Absolutely epic hop character and it hold up very very well! The other nice thing about this beer is that no hop extracts are used at all.

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Maharajah is great, but what's the beef with hop extracts? Hop Stoopid uses extracts and it tastes like magic. So much that I thought of making a homebrew with extracts, but it turns out that **** is pricey on a homebrew scale.

Caldera IPA

Had some Fat Head's Headhunter this summer. Quite enjoyable!

Fritztheelephant said:

Had some Fat Head's Headhunter this summer. Quite enjoyable!

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Hey Fritz, where do you get that in our neck of the woods?

I had it at Blues and Brews at Stan Hywet this summer. Fat Heads has a newer brewpub in Cleveland and the original in Pittsburgh. I'm not sure it is available anywhere else.

Lately my IPA of choice has been Victory HopDevil, damned tasty beer! Also, the past few weeks my wife and I have had a real soft spot for the last of Sierra Nevada's Southern Hemisphere that's still in the shops here and which is still drinking mighty fine! Another fantastic beer I finally got to try and which I hope becomes regularly available here is Cigar City's Jai Alai IPA.

Off course I always enjoy DFH 60 and 90 Minute, SN Torpedo, Sweetwater IPA and Full Sail IPA. If we had Magic Hat Lucky Kat in six packs here instead of only in mixed twelves I'd drink that frequently.

if we are talking imperials i would have to say FFF's Dreadnaught and that southern tier oaked unearthly are some of my favorites along with pliny, hopslam, and that great divide anniversary iipa.

Just bought a sixer of Founders IPA...not tried them yet, but was well recommended.

I posted one earlier about Magic Hat and I wanted to add this to it:

I just got back from Tokyo and went to a pub in Harajuku called Baird's Beer. I had the Suruga Bay IPA and it was amazing! The hops were definitely there but it wasn't overwhelming, especially for 90IBUs.

I was down at the Amana Colonies (Amish country) the other weekend and stopped by Millstream Brewing. Picked up a few of these.
Hats off to ya Millstream. Thats a damn fine brew.

what counts as good? I got Lattitude 48 as part of Sam Adams summer pack and was supprised by how balanced it was.

Finster said:

I was down at the Amana Colonies (Amish country) the other weekend and stopped by Millstream Brewing. Picked up a few of these.

Hats off to ya Millstream. Thats a damn fine brew.

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I'm honestly kind of surprised at this. I've tried that Iowa Pale Ale and thought it was terrible.

munche said:

Their Double Dog IPA is really good.

I haven't had anything new tickle my fancy in a bit, sticking to my old standbys: Green Flash West Coast IPA, Racer 5 IPA, Pliny the Elder and Lagunitas Hop Stoopid.

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I'm surprised more folks haven't mentioned these bad boys. That's basically the go-to IPAs in any situation.

Double Mountain's Killer Green Fresh Hop was very nice. Hell, almost anything with fresh hops is nice: Port High Tide, Sierra Nevada Northern Hemisphere, Beer Valley Leefer Madness...

Millstream is alright and very close to me actually...need to make a trip there...but lately I have been hooked on Founder's Dry Hopped Pale Ale....DELICIOUS!!!

I'm a big fan of Golden IPA by Squam Brewing

www.squambrewing.com

I too think the Millstream Brewing Co. produces aweful, aweful beers. I begged my mother in law to stop buying them on her travels.

But on subject: I just had the Goose Island "Minx" on saturday...its a hoppy IPA that I found pretty tastey. Since I'm not a big hop head, consider that my 2 thumbs up on it..

I loved Millstreams Ipa. Ive also been drinking the shat out of their Hefe"R"weissen all summer.

great divide titan ipa is mighty tasty

Was recently in AZ (Tucson) and went to liquor warehouse Bev Mo and picked up as many of the Zymurgy top 50 IPA's that I could find. Hop Stoopid, Ruination, Torpedo, Firestone Walker, Bear Republic Racer 5. Have already had Bells, and all of the CO. beers that mad the top 50.

My favorite by a long shot was the Stone Ruination. Really hoppy which is the way I prefer my IPA/IIPA's. I did not really care for Hop Stoopid that much - had a nice taste to it but I thought it was somewhat weak in the hops department and it was not what I was expecting at all. The Firestone was also OK but again, didn't knock my socks off. Torpedo was interesting. I could definitely smell the Citra aroma but I didn't get much in the way of hop bitterness in the tasting. I did enjoy drinking it very much though. I remember thinking that it would be a nice session beer and we indeed went through a case of it over the course of a few days. The Bear Republic Racer 5 was also OK but I think that I liked the Speed Racer type label graphics more than the beer itself.

A couple of non-IPA that I had and really enjoyed included the Dogfishead Raison and Arrogant Bastard. Really nice beers. Montanaandy

alexdagrate said:

I'm surprised more folks haven't mentioned these bad boys. That's basically the go-to IPAs in any situation.

Double Mountain's Killer Green Fresh Hop was very nice. Hell, almost anything with fresh hops is nice: Port High Tide, Sierra Nevada Northern Hemisphere, Beer Valley Leefer Madness...

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My buddy and I stopped in there by accident this weekend. We were going to hit full sale since I hadn't been there for some reason and found them around the corner because they weren't open yet and we wandered around to kill some time. We tried their killer green and it was pretty good. The IPA was decent. Their IRA, Vienna and Cherry krieks were so good I can only describe them using multiple curse words which I will not do here. :rockin:

Long Trail Brewmaster Series Double IPA

http://beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/94/48780

I think I'm actually going to go buy some right now.

Finster said:

I was down at the Amana Colonies (Amish country) the other weekend and stopped by Millstream Brewing. Picked up a few of these.

Hats off to ya Millstream. Thats a damn fine brew.

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Great beer, but more of a pale ale IMO, their Oktoberfest is one of the best Ive ever had, only one thats is good, is Ayinger's.



As for IPA's

Bell's- Two Hearted Ale & Hopslam (IIPA)
New Glarus- Moon Man
Terrapin- Hopsecutioner
lagunitas- Maximus

I am drinking and really enjoying New Belgium's Ranger IPA! It's actually one of my favorites right now.

Ranger, Hoptopia and Racer 5 have been my go-to bomber size IPAs as of late. Torpedo all the way when looking for a sixer.

Torpedo is an excellent example of a well balanced IPA imho...

I am currently downing a 22oz of Port Brewing Wipe Out IPA out of San Diego, it actually goes really well with my 22oz of Pliny.

If you can get your hands on any of the IPAs from Laughing Dog, don't hesitate. Alpha Dog (Imperial), Dogzilla (Black), and Rocket (Rye) are some of the best I've ever had.

Millstream is great. I went and visited them a few times over the last year. They had a wiezenbock on tap that was incredible. If you had a bad experience with them before you should try them again. They have better distribution and quality control, so you wont get a beer thats been collecting dust on the shelves anymore. Also, I think this year they used locally grown hops in the PA. My favorite of their would be the stout though.

Anyway, IPAs I'd go with DFA 60 or 90 minute, New Glarous, those are my favorites, Peace Tree Brewings Hop Wrangler is pretty damn good, needs a little more malt balance, and their double IPA is awesome.

I just tried Ska's imperial ipa called Decadent on Sunday. It's a 10% brew that wasn't too overpowering, but if you take more than a sip at a time it had a tendency to taste like wine. At least to me it did.

I am still stuck on HUB IPA from Hopworks. I love me some hops and apparently so do they.

I keep a steady supply of Lagunitas Hop Stoopid Ale, Oskar Blues Gordon, along with Dogfish Head 90. Withouth having tried Pliny the Elder, those are at the top of my list.

I sure wish I could keep DFH on supply... my local BevMo has been "limited supply" (i.e. out of stock) for a freaking long time!

Had a Karl Strauss IPA. I wouldn't say it was too good though. In fact, everyone said they liked my homebrew better. Kind of had an iron (or bloody) taste to it which is kind of weird. Only 6.5% alcohol and $4 for 1 22 ouncer. Drinkable, but nothing special.

MattCA said:

Had a Karl Strauss IPA. I wouldn't say it was too good though. In fact, everyone said they liked my homebrew better. Kind of had an iron (or bloody) taste to it which is kind of weird. Only 6.5% alcohol and $4 for 1 22 ouncer. Drinkable, but nothing special.

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I never realized that Karl Strauss was a real Microbrewery. They serve it on the California Adventure side of Disneyland.

I'm surprised that no one has mentioned Central City IPA, called red racer IPA on beer advocate. It's from Surrey BC and is by far the best commercial IPA I've had, also their double IPA is quite good too. I haven't tried a lot of US IPA's though...if I can find them they are around $5-7 for a 650 mL bottle.

Central city is being sued by Bear Republic for the use of the "racer" word. Red racer IPA vs. Racer 5 IPA. Note that bear republic has 58 beers and racer is in 3 of their names, and Central city calls all its canned beers "red racer". I need to go out and spend that $7 to try racer 5 IPA to know for sure, but off the top of my head I don't think enough people out there would ever confuse the two beers and give the smaller guy an A rating just because they heard about Bear's great rep and thought it was one of their beers. It's hard to ignore a red head riding a bicycle with her skirt blowing in the wind on the front of every can.

I'd say their canned products are not nearly as good as on tap, yet the IPA shines like you wouldn't believe for a canned product. After a 1 and a half hour tour of the brewery for myself and 2 friends I was asking for a job. I would recommend everyone here on HBT to do a comparison and see the difference between racer 5 IPA and red racer IPA. Lawsuits are not going to help the craft beer market improve IMO, and I don't think Canadians can afford to buy Bear's products anyways because they are so very hard to even find here.

Huge fan of Surly Furious out of the Twin Cities (Mpls-St.Paul). Working hard on a real clone. Most aren't hoppy enough, need to keep the balance.

Also, +1 on Torpedo.

Dave

dummkauf said:

I'm a big fan of Crooked Tree IPA from Dark Horse Brewery(out of the UP) as well as the dogfish head 60 min IPA.

Also, if you can get Bells brews, HopSlam is quite possibly the best IPA I've ever had(in my opinion anyhoo). This one is seasonal and comes out around January. Expensive, but worth every penny

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Dark Horse isn't in the UP. Its 30 minutes from the Indiana border in Marshall. Double crooked tree is awesome, have tried theregular. I just had some Bells Two hearted which is awesome and some Founders Harvest Ale which was spectacular. Also just had an Alesmith IPA and that was impressive.

boostsr20 said:

Dark Horse isn't in the UP. Its 30 minutes from the Indiana border in Marshall. Double crooked tree is awesome, have tried theregular. I just had some Bells Two hearted which is awesome and some Founders Harvest Ale which was spectacular. Also just had an Alesmith IPA and that was impressive.

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Crooked tree double IPA if amazing!!

BulldogBrewer said:

I never realized that Karl Strauss was a real Microbrewery. They serve it on the California Adventure side of Disneyland.

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Yep here in San Diego. Pretty good stuff usually. Pretty popular too.

I'll throw out the name Loose Cannon IPA again. This has been my favorite for the last 3 months. It's a very complex beer. I finally did a 10 gal clone last week, which included my first shot at FWH. My fermentation room was smelling great this whole week!

I sure wish I could keep DFH on supply... my local BevMo has been "limited supply" (i.e. out of stock) for a freaking long time!

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That's funny, I used to go to one of the craft brew liquor stores in Mass to get DFH. The last couple months it seems like theres been a huge push by DFH into the area. The bar down the street has 3 different DFH on tap at all times (out of 10 taps). I wonder if it's a regional thing.