Wandering Haze: 6.5 – Taking another chance on Hazy IPAs to see if there’s a trend, and the answer is yes – Hazy IPAs are the way forward for the IPA type of beer. (Okay Milk IPAs too). There’s hops and bitterness, but there’s also a healthy amount of citrus and it’s incredibly pleasant to drink.
Price Average: $10 for 4-Pack 16oz cans
Website: https://www.ciscobrewers.com/
Trail Haze: 5.0 – Well we’ve recently had a fairly good lucky streak with Hazy IPA’s, but given the Pils last week – expectations are sufficiently lowered. However the result here is downright pleasant if a bit boring. It’s soft with a decent hoppy and bitter flavor, but nowhere near sharp. It’s easy to drink, but mostly forgettable and not really flavorful.
Price Average: $20 for 15-pack sampler
Website: https://sixpoint.com/
Big League IPA: 6.5 – There’s that ‘haze’ or ‘hazy’ tag again, and it might be there is a way aside from Cream IPA’s to make a an IPA style that isn’t bad. The beer her is juicy, got some hops but there’s other spice there too and most importantly it isn’t a bitter mess of nonsense. The only real downside is how short the taste actually is, in a blink and you miss it sort of manner.
Price Average: $16.50 for mixed 12 pack cans
Website: https://www.harpoonbrewery.com/
Harpoon IPA: 4.0 – Ahh to be trapped once again in the IPAs of a sampler pack. This starts off a bit nice, slightly closer to an irish red ale (which boy it’s been a while since we’ve seen one of those). The lingering aftertaste is quite nice, but like a shit sandwich, while the initial and lingering tastes is nice – there is still that overly hopped and very bitter middle which seals the deal for being just another boring and disgusting IPA.
Price Average: $16.50 for mixed 12 pack cans
Website: https://www.harpoonbrewery.com/
Next Coast IPA: 5.0 – We know, 3 IPAs in as many weeks – have we gone mad? Or did we just end up purchasing a sampler pack not realizing how many IPAs were in it (Vote now on your phones!). So we truly enjoyed the Hazy IPA, but were less pleased with the regular fare – how does this one match up? Well smack dab in the middle of the two. Now this is meant to be a bit more juicy and tropical, and it is. However it still has that bitterness from the normal IPA so the result is something that apparently require cinnamon to become better.
Price Average: $12 for 6 Pack 12oz cans
Website: https://www.gooseisland.com
Goose Island IPA: 2.0 – Given how pleasing the Hazy IPA was last week, it seemed right to check out the OG. Unfortunately while that was delicious, fruity, and flavorful (albeit mostly cinnamon) the result here is more true to form. It’s not super hoppy, but damn does it have a lot of bitterness. The sad thing is even as a shandy the bitterness shines through here and there’s not enough hops to balance out either.
Price Average: $6 for 4 Pack 16oz cans
Website: https://www.gooseisland.com
Lost Palate: 7.5 – We typically shy from IPA reviews because of pure saturation, and because we mostly don’t like them (except as a shandy!) There are of course exceptions to the rule, and that’s what you get here. This Lost Palate really wears the mango and cinnamon on it’s sleeve, not in a ‘oh I detect notes of cardamon’ nonsense – this really has got cinnamon going on. The result with that mango is that there really isn’t any bitterness at all. If there’s an issue it’s that the mango goes away rather quickly, making it very easy to down a lot of this and there’s not much aside from the two hit combo – but if this is what ‘hazy’ means we should all get hazy.
Price Average: $3
Website: https://www.gooseisland.com
Fresh Caught: 6.0 – It thankfully is not very bitter as is the way with IPAs which is a welcome addition. There’s not really a strong citrus fruit or something like that here – instead it’s more of a tropical fruit, and weirdly pine flavoring. The effect is worth it though, and as is the case for those who shy from the IPAs – know there are a select few out there that don’t suck.
Price Average: $14 for 4-pack
Website: http://www.sawbellybrewing.com/
Arctic Panzer Wolf: 2.5 – This site is still new to IPAs (because they by and large suck), but we’d found enough that were okay to warrant it. This is not one of those – it’s basically what you would expect from an imperial IPA. A 9% stupidly hopped beer that’s shouting it’s hopness at you like – well like some sort of dangerous wolf beast
Price Average: $16 for 4-pack tall cans
Website: https://www.3floyds.com/
The Craic: 3.5 – this certainly falls more onto the spectrum of an IPA instead of a proper red ale. It’s not awful as far as most IPAs go, but it’s still bitter and there’s no aspect of fruit or creaminess to help the IPA. Overall – just give us a red ale instead.
Price Average: $11 for 6-pack
Website: https://www.harpoonbrewery.com/