The 4 Best Hazy IPAs For All Seasons

If you have only been drinking beer for a few years, you might not realize that one of the most popular beer styles is fairly contemporary.

Hazy IPAs, also called New England-style IPAs, have only been brewed since 2004. This is when famed brewer John Kimmich at Vermont’s The Alchemist brewed the first batch of the now iconic Heady Topper IPA. In the two decades since, the hazy, juicy, fruity style has exploded. Today, you’d be hard-pressed to find a brewery that makes IPAs that doesn’t have at least one (if not more) hazy.

If you didn’t guess it based on the name, the hazy IPA is known for its (you guessed it) hazy, cloudy appearance and juicy, fruit-forward flavor profile featuring notes of caramelized pineapple, ripe peaches, tangerine, guava, mango, orange juice, and sometimes prickly, dank, not-so-bitter hops.

Now that you’ve learned a little about this highly popular beer style, it’s time to find some to drink. Below, you’ll see some of the best hazy IPAs for all seasons. As James Taylor should have sung, “Winter, spring, summer or fall, all you have to do is call and I’ll be there…with a hazy IPA.” Keep scrolling to see all the cloudy, juicy, fruity, hoppy brews.

New England Fuzzy Ducks

This 6.2% ABV New England-style IPA is completely kettle and dry-hopped with Citra hops. The result is a juicy, hazy, tropical fruit, and citrus-filled beer that you won’t soon forget. Brimming with pineapple, passion fruit, mango, tangerine, grapefruit, and orange, this is a can’t-miss IPA.

Tree House Julius

If you only buy one beer on this list, make it Tree House Julius. Always listed as one of the best hazy IPAs, Julius has completely balanced between hop bitterness and tropical fruit juiciness. There’s a ton of mango, passion fruit, guava, and citrus juice flavor, but the sweetness is tempered with sticky, dank pine at the finish.

Fieldwork Pulp

The sibling to the brewery’s Pulp Free West Coast IPA, Pulp is a 6.9% ABV Citra-hopped beer for any time of year. Much less bitter than its counterpart, it’s known for its creamy mouthfeel and cloudy, hazy, unfiltered appearance. Sipping it reveals notes of ripe peaches, orange juice, lemon zest, mango, guava, and caramelized pineapple. It lives up to its name as it’s as close to drinking a glass of fresh-squeezed tropical fruit juice in beer form as we’ve ever tasted.

The Alchemist Heady Topper

No hazy IPA list is complete without the OG New England-style IPA. Still one of the most popular IPAs today, Heady Topper is an 8% double IPA that needs to be tasted to be believed. There’s a ton of fresh orange juice, lemon zest, grapefruit, pineapple, mango, and other tropical fruit flavors. It’s not all juicy, fruity sweetness though. The finish is dank, piney, and bitter. This is a great gateway hazy IPA for West Coast IPA drinkers.

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