When it comes to winter beers, some drinkers tend to lean toward stouts, porters, winter warmers, and other darker beers. And while we enjoy all of those beer styles — especially when the streets below our apartments seem like frozen tundras — we also enjoy a respite from time to time. And that respite often means making space for a piney, dank, perfectly bitter West Coast IPA.
West Coast IPAs are known for their floral, extremely dank, piney flavors, thanks to popular Pacific Northwest hop varietals like Centennial, Chinook, Cascade, Simcoe, and more. It’s a very divisive style — some drinkers find it overly bitter. But if you take the time to find all of the various flavors, working in perfect unison, the hoppy, bitter finish will seem like a chef’s kiss.
There are countless exceptional West Coast IPAs on the market, perfectly suited for winter drinking. But to help you out we picked eight of the best, dank, piney, resinous, kick-your-butt West Coast IPAs on the market and ranked them. Keep scrolling to see them all.
8.) Breakside Wanderlust
ABV: 6.4%%
Average Price: $7 for a 22-ounce bottle
The Beer:
First brewed in 2014, this award-winning, year-round West Coast IPA is known for its mix of citrus peels and dank, bitter hops thanks to the liberal use of Amarillo, Cascade, Mosaic, Simcoe, and Summit hops. It gets its sweet malt backbone from the use of two-row and Munich malts.
Tasting Notes:
A nose of grapefruit, tangerine, lemongrass, and dank, piney hops greets you before your first tip. Drinking it reveals a mix of sweet caramel malts as well as orchard fruits, grapefruit, orange zest, mango, guava, ripe peach, and pine needles. The finish is bitter and highly memorable.
Bottom Line:
This is a sublimely dank and bitter West Coast IPA, but it has a nice malt backbone that creates a great balance.
7.) Rogue Gumberoo
ABV: 6.8%
Average Price: $12 for a six-pack
The Beer:
Gumberoo is a mythical creature that some lumberjacks claim to have stumbled upon. It’s supposedly bigger than a bear, has a mouth of jagged teeth, and has a hide too strong for bullets to pierce. It’s a strange, scary creature and one the folks at Rogue named their West Coast IPA after. This balanced, year-round beer is brewed with 2-row and Munich malts as well as wheat, Pacman yeast, and Mosaic, Simcoe, Belma, and Idaho 7 hops.
Tasting Notes:
The nose is heavy on caramel malts, tangerine, orange peels, ripe grapefruit, and earthy, resinous pine. The palate is loaded with honeydew melon, sweet malts, mango, grapefruit, and dank, resinous pine needles. The ending is bitter pine needles and woodsy flavors.
Bottom Line:
This is an epic, dank, bitter West Coast IPA. It’s one that absolutely deserves to be named after a mythical creature.
6.) No Label Cali Boy
ABV: 7.1%
Average Price: $14 for a six-pack
The Beer:
Cali Boy is one of No Label’s flagship year-round beers for a reason. It’s an amplified, crisp, flavorful West Coast IPA loaded with tropical fruit flavors and dank pine. It’s dry, bitter, and highly memorable. It’s the kind of West Coast IPA that made San Diego famous even though it was brewed in Texas.
Tasting Notes:
On the nose, you’ll find scents of lemongrass, clementines, grapefruit, peach, and floral, earthy, sticky pine. On the palate, you’ll find notes of caramelized pineapple, guava, and a ton of pine needles. The finish is crisp, dry, and bitter in the best way possible.
Bottom Line:
This is one for the cannabis fans. It’s flavorful and has everything West Coast IPA drinkers enjoy but — warning — it’s daaaaaaaank.
5.) Deschutes Squeezy Rider
ABV: 7%
Average Price: $11 for a six-pack
The Beer:
Known for its mix of tropical fruit flavors, malt backbone, and heavy dank hop presence, this year-round beer was brewed with 2-row malts and Munich malts. It gets its classic West Coast IPA flavor and resinous, floral, bitter aroma and flavor from the use of Cascade, Strata, Mosaic, and Galaxy hops.
Tasting Notes:
There are a lot of aromas of guava, mango, pineapple, passionfruit, freshly baked bread, and resinous, earthy hops on the nose. The palate is heavy with tangerine, ripe grapefruit, grass, caramel malts, more tropical fruits, and a pine-forward, dank, pleasantly bitter finish.
Bottom Line:
This is a very tropical fruit-forward West Coast IPA. But it still has the dank bitterness fans of the style crave.
4.) Casa Agria Full Blaze
ABV: 6.5%
Average Price: $16 for a four-pack of 16-ounce cans
The Beer:
Full Blaze is an extremely aptly named beer. It was brewed with a handful of Northwest hops to be a classic, sublimely dank, hoppy West Coast IPA. Tropical fruits, citrus peels, and pleasant bitterness. This skeleton-adorned beer has everything hop heads desire.
Tasting Notes:
The nose is classic West Coast IPA. There’s a mix of tangerine, grapefruit, and assorted citrus peel flavors as well as light tropical fruits, and the expected resinous, cannabis-like hops. There’s more of the same on the palate as grapefruit, orange peel, and lemongrass move into mango, peach, and eventually herbal, earthy, dank pine. The finish is pleasantly bitter and leaves you wanting more.
Bottom Line:
While it has a nice fruity backbone, this one is for the West Coast drinkers who want their beer to taste and smell as dank as possible.
3.) Societe The Pupil
ABV: 7.5%
Average Price: $13 for a six-pack
The Beer:
This well-balanced, award-winning, highly-rated West Coast IPA is known for its mix of tropical flavors, medium body, and dry, bitter finish. It’s brewed with a 2-row pale male base and malted wheat. It gets its hop presence from the use of Nelson Sauvin, Citra, and Centennial hops.
Tasting Notes:
Mango, tangerine, lemon, caramelized pineapple, and just a hint of floral, herbal pine needles make for a great start to this beer. Sipping it brings forth notes of lemongrass, lime zest, passionfruit, grapefruit, honeydew mellows, ripe grapes, and a nice kick of dank pine at the end. It’s well-balanced and has a pleasing bitter finish.
Bottom Line:
The mix of Northwest hops and Nelson Sauvin from New Zealand gives this beer the classic citrus and pine flavors of the West Coast IPA with more tropical, grape-like flavors from the Nelson Sauvin.
2) Our Mutual Friend Time’s Arrow
ABV: 7.7%
Average Price: $15 for a four-pack of 16-ounce cans
The Beer:
Everyone has a mutual friend, but does that friend brew an outstanding West Coast IPA? Probably not. Our Mutual Friend Time’s Arrow is a classic, pine, dank West Coast banger brewed with a mix of Citra and Idaho 7 hops.
Tasting Notes:
The nose begins with yeasty fresh baked bread and moves into pineapple, grapefruit, orange peel, and resinous, cannabis-like pine aromas. On the palate, you’ll be treated to biscuit-like malts, caramelized pineapple, tangerine, lemon, mango, peach, and more dank pine. The finish is dry and has just the right amount of bitterness to remind you that you’re drinking a West Coast IPA.
Bottom Line:
This is a great take on the West Coast IPA. While bitter and loaded with hop aroma and flavor, it’s well-balanced with bready, biscuity malts as well.
1.) Alpine Duet
ABV: 7%
Average Price: $15 for a six-pack
The Beer:
This year-round offering from Alpine is classic West Coast through and through. While not containing any of the “C” hops (Chinook, Citra, and Centennial), it’s loaded with Simcoe and Amarillo hops, giving it a balanced flavor profile featuring tons of dank pine and bright citrus.
Tasting Notes:
A complex nose of cedar wood, candied orange peels, lime, tangerine, and resinous, earthy floral pine starts everything off on the right foot. Drinking it reveals notes of sweet, biscuit-like malts, wet grass, grapefruit zest, orange peel, juicy peach, passionfruit, ripe pineapple, and a nice kick of resinous, dank pine needles. The finish is aggressively bitter and dry in the best way possible.
Bottom Line:
This is a true West Coast IPA for fans who love everything about the style. It’s potently bitter and loaded with hop flavor and aroma. What’s not to love?
