The IPA is the undisputed champion of the craft beer world. But when drinkers envision this style, they usually think of the bitter hop bombs bred on the West Coast. In recent years, however, the idea of the IPA has begun to change and evolve thanks to the introduction of the New England-style IPA into the American craft beer scene.
The NEIPA style is known for its hazy, cloudy appearance (sometimes it looks more like a glass of fresh-squeezed orange juice than a beer). Instead of floral, piney, or bitter hops, this beer is sweeter, much less dry, and filled with myriad flavors like pineapple, mango, guava, and various other mouth-watering tropical fruit notes.
Its juicy, sweet, and refreshing flavor makes the NEIPA (sometimes called a Hazy IPA or just a “hazy”) a perfect beer for the dog days of July. In fact, we plan to sip on offerings from breweries scattered throughout the country from now until at least September (if not longer). To help you pick a few to stock the fridge with for the 4th, we decided to list eight of our favorite New England-style IPAs below.
Each of the beers featured here is juicy, hazy, and well-suited to quenching your summer thirst. You can try them yourself by clicking on the prices.
Lord Hobo Glorious
ABV: 6.5%
Average Price: $13 (four-pack, 16-oz. cans)
The Beer:
This hazy, easy-to-drink New England-style IPA is surprisingly simple in its ingredients. Brewed with Pilsner malt and “a double-dose” of Galaxy hops, it’s known for its unfiltered appearance, juicy flavor, and extreme crushability on a hot day.
Tasting Notes:
Before taking your first sip, take a moment to revel in this beer’s nose. You’ll be greeted with aromas of lime zest, ripe grapefruit, juicy mango, sweet peaches, and just a hint of spice at the end. The palate is swirling with lemons, limes, peaches, pineapples, and more tropical flavors as you sip. It’s juicy, mellow, and doesn’t have much malt flavor whatsoever.
Bottom Line:
This is the juicy, hazy, New England-style IPA for fans of citrus. There are a ton of lemon, lime, and grapefruit flavors.
Ommegang Neon Rainbows
ABV: 6.7%
Average Price: $14 (four-pack, 16-oz. cans)
The Beer:
Cooperstown, New York’s Brewery Ommegang is well-known for its Belgian-style beers. But this hazy, juicy, double dry-hopped IPA is its “unicorn.” It’s unique and completely satisfying with the addition of London ale yeast as well as Mosaic, Simcoe, Citra, Centennial, and Topaz hops paired with more Mosaic, Simcoe, Citra, and Topaz in the dry-hopping process.
Tasting Notes:
Aromas of ripe, juicy oranges, lemon zest, mangos, and peaches are prevalent on the nose. Sipping this beer reveals more lemon, lime, tangerine, and grapefruit citrus flavors as well as caramel malts and juicy tropical notes. There’s very little bitterness in this summer refresher.
Bottom Line:
This beer is like the IPA equivalent of a fruit salad. There are citrus, tropical fruits, and even berries on the palate. In the simplest terms: this is a fruity, flavorful beer.
Five Boroughs Gridlock
ABV: 6.5%
Average Price: $18 (four-pack, 16-oz. cans)
The Beer:
Gridlock is one of two juicy, hazy IPAs from Five Boroughs’ core line. Gridlock is brewed with Bohemian Pilsner and Pale wheat malts as well as rice hulls with Amarillo and Citra hops.
Tasting Notes:
After one whiff, you can tell how balanced this beer is. There’s a notable aroma of pale malts and caramel sweetness that pairs well with citrus zest. The flavor is similar to the aroma, with orange peels, grapefruit, and lime taking center stage, paired alongside biscuit-like malts. A mellow, sweet, fruity ending ties the whole sip together.
Bottom Line:
When you look up the definition of what a New England-style IPA should be, this is it. It has a great maltiness to sweet, juicy flavor. It’s definitely a beer you’ll want to drink all summer.
Weldwerks Juicy Bits
ABV: 6.7%
Average Price: $15 (four-pack, 16-oz. cans)
The Beer:
Sometimes a beer’s name tells you everything you need to know about what you’re about to sip. This is definitely the case with Weldwerks’ Juicy bits. This New England-style IPA is brewed with Mosaic, Citra, and El Dorado hops and lives up to its juicy, tropical fruit-centric moniker.
Tasting Notes:
Before you even drink this beer, you’ll be surprised at the massive amount of tropical and citrus fruits on the nose. But that’s not all. There are also prevalent floral and piney hops. Unlike many hazy IPAs, the pine resin hits you almost immediately. It pairs perfectly with the palate of ripe pineapple, guava, mango, and tangerine.
Bottom Line:
This is a great beer for classic IPA fans who want to give hazy IPAs a chance. It has enough resinous, dank pine flavor to appeal to their palates and enough juicy tropical fruits for New England-style IPA fans.
Cigar City Fancy Papers
ABV: 6.5%
Average Price: $12 (six-pack)
The Beer:
Even though this beer is called “Fancy Papers,” it’s anything but. It’s simply a reference to the designs printed on papers that are applied to cigar boxes to get consumers to purchase them. While we don’t get what that phrase has to do with this particular beer, the can does have fancy handwriting on it that makes us want to crack one open. A hazy, juicy beer brewed with Strata, Sabro, and Idaho 7 hops awaits within.
Tasting Notes:
The nose is all ripe orange, tangerine, lime zest, and fresh-cut grass as well as bready malts and sweet tropical fruits. The palate dances with notes of lemon, lime, bright grapefruit, mango, and juicy peaches paired with more earthy grass and caramel malts. It’s a multi-dimensional beer that has levels of flavors.
Bottom Line:
Cigar City makes nothing but high-quality brews. While Jai Alai gets all the press, Fancy Papers is one of our favorite New England-style IPAs because of its balanced, fruity flavor.
Green Flash Saturhaze
ABV: 4.2%
Average Price: $11 (six-pack)
The Beer:
Green Flash is another brewery that made its name with bitter, over-the-top West Coast IPAs. They even brewed a beer literally called Palate Wrecker. Its sessionable, low-alcohol foray into the world of hazy IPAs is its Green Flash Saturhaze. The kind of beer you could drink all day Saturday. It might be low in ABV, but it’s high in tropical fruit flavor.
Tasting Notes:
A lot is going on with this beer’s aromas. There are notable scents of pineapple, grapefruit, cantaloupe, and lime zest. Sipping it reveals more of the same with ripe tropical fruits, tangerine, and subtle piney hops making an appearance. Overall, it’s light, refreshing, fruity, and highly crushable.
Bottom Line:
When many drinkers think of New England-style IPAs, light, session beers aren’t usually what they visualize. But that’s exactly what Green Flash Saturhaze is — and that’s not such a bad thing when it comes to summer beers.
Voodoo Ranger Juicy Haze
ABV: 7.5%
Average Price: $12 (six-pack)
The Beer:
New Belgium might be most well-known for its classic Fat Tire Amber Ale. These days, it’s almost equally as known for its line of Voodoo Ranger IPAs. The best of which, in our opinion, is Juicy Haze. Brewed with American hefeweizen yeast, Pale, wheat, and C-80 malts as well as oats with Citra, Cascade, Centennial, Simcoe, and nugget hops, it’s hoppy, fruity, and highly juicy.
Tasting Notes:
The nose is packed with aromas of tangerines, lemons, lime, and grapefruit, along with dank, pine resin. The flavor is loaded with grapefruit, pineapple, lime zest, mango, subtle caramel malts, and a nice kick of slightly bitter, floral hops at the finish.
Bottom Line:
This is an extremely well-balanced IPA with juicy, ripe fruits that pair well with nicely bitter, piney hops. It’s zesty, dank, and refreshing on a hot day.
Elysian Full Contact
ABV: 8.8%
Average Price: $14 (six-pack)
The Beer:
This is a bold, potent, hazy beer that you won’t soon forget. The can is adorned with a mystical, mysterious-looking character holding a beer and pointing menacingly at you, the drinker. The juicy, hazy, fruity beer inside is brewed with 2-row malt, malted wheat, and un-malted wheat along with Centennial, Strata, and Simcoe hops, plus a few others that are mysteriously absent from the ingredients list.
Tasting Notes:
There’s nothing otherworldly about this beer’s fragrance. Unlike Elysian’s other hazy offering, Contact haze (which simply smells fresh and fruity), Full Contact has mango, guava, tangerines, lime zest flavor notes as well as a nice dollop of bitter, floral hops. The flavor mirrors the aromas with melon and peach being added to the tropical fruit and citrus flavors. A nice kick of bitter hops finishes everything.
Bottom Line:
Once you’ve enjoyed the fruiter, softer Contact Haze, work your way up to the bolder, spicier, hoppier, boozier Full Contact. You’ll be happy you did.
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