Top NE style IPA's available in the MN

If you can get your hands on some Spirit Foul by Fair State it is probably tops in the packaged for sale department. Ectogasm is also very good, just a small notch below in my humble opinion... Can't go wrong with either though!

 

I wouldn't call Spirit Foul a New England IPA. It seems to have higher attenuation and less sweetness / more dryness than does a typical New England IPA, and it has a bitter finish. It uses the x331 hop, which to me screams "West Coast" (although I'm sure some New England IPA producers are adopting it and taming it as they have Citra and Mosaic, which Spirit Foul also employs). It also has harsher and more substantial palate effects than a typical New Englander. I'd call it a hazy West Coast IPA, which perhaps makes it a lot like early Vermont IPAs but little like today's Massachusetts or Brooklyn IPAs. I think it was a way for Niko Tonks (along with his San Diego colleagues) to sneak a beer they could be proud of into the hands of consumers who think they only want New England IPAs and mistake haze for what defines New England IPAs. Notice that Fair State markets it as a "Hazy IPA," not a "NEIPA." It's a good beer regardless.

 

I’d disagree with the spirit foul assessment above, personally. It is the best NE-style IPA made in MN so far, IMO. Zap named my other tops. Junkyard makes tasty, hazy IPAs that usually lean a bit more bitter.

I find Wheez not very good. Ecto is ok, but not better than that.

 

Agreed. Regardless of rankings, it certainly is an embarrassment of riches these days.

 

Regular/Semi regular Available in no order:

Barrel Theory Rain Drops/DDH Rain Drops
Junkyard Galactic Falconer
Disgruntled Stupid Good and Damn Good
Fairstate Spirit Foul

Rarely available/no longer produced:

Wicked Wort first batch NE IPA( might have been my favorite in the cities so far)
Lupulin Straight Hash Homie

Drekker Ectogasm stands up to all of these though maybe not better and I don't think Wheez is too much of a step down from that.

 

Rain Drops is excellent, aso don’t forget King Sue

 

Also not a New England (Double) IPA

 

What are your top examples of the style? The Toppling Goliath’s IPAs (especially the ones coming out lately) I have had, have been very hazy and juicy. Can’t speak for King Sue, but DDH Sue, Hopsmack, and Fire Skulls and Money were all amazing. Also what I thought to be NE style.

 

TG beers may not meet the current definition of NE IPA but they definitely influenced the style or were a great derivative of the style. Actually prefer TG beers because the they have the haze and the mouthful but it enhance's instead of muting the hop profIle.

755 from Blackstack was a bit of a disappointment to me because the Citra & Amarillo were so muted. Love that hop combo and but it was marginalized by the soft sweetness of that beer.

Barrel Theory seems to do a good job riffing off the TG style. The hops still shine without all the sharp edges of a west coast style beer.

 

Toppling Goliath King Sue (and its smaller, older sibling pseudoSue) don’t derive from the New England IPA tradition (if one can call something that's been around for but a few years a "tradition"), although they certainly had some influence on it. (Tree House is a known disciple of Toppling Goliath and collaborated with it in Tree House’s early days). Toppling Goliath isn’t afraid to utilize the full range of potential hops expressions (including but far from limited to “juiciness”). It doesn’t avoid hops’ dry, bitter, or piney aspects in the way that the southern New England IPAs do.

The extreme Massachusetts and Brooklyn IPAs (think Trillium, Tree House, Other Half, and Grimm), as opposed to the more grounded original Vermont IPAs (think The Alchemist and Hill Farmstead), are what have proved so directly influential and popular nationally. These IPAs are distinguished by their remarkable sweetness (and almost complete eschewal of the traditional hops characteristics of dryness and bitterness) as well as by cartoonishly turbid appearances and “pillowy” palates. They are the reason that we now talk of “New England IPAs,” “Northeast IPAs,” or “New Era IPAs” instead of "Vermont IPAs." To me, it’s that sweetness (both in perceived form from solely “juicy” hops expressions and in direct form due to intentionally low attenuation) that defines the New England IPA “style.” The soft palates and, even more so, hazy/murky/cloudy appearances are, ideally, merely brewing byproducts, although we know that many brewers go well out of their way to meet customers’ expectations in those areas. In other words, “haze” is the least important characteristic of New England IPAs and arguably not even an essential one.

Vermont IPAs themselves are merely a subtle spin on certain unfiltered California and Oregon IPAs that have been in circulation in west coast brewpubs since at least the 1990s. The IPAs of Toppling Goliath may nod at a few early Vermont IPAs but otherwise represent an independent evolution of those cloudy West Coast IPAs, and I don't think they should be retconned into the NEIPA style.

Added: I do agree that Toppling Goliath, like many other breweries, has been going juicier lately (long after King Sue's initial release) with its IPAs, presumably in response to shifting customer palates that themselves are influenced by New England IPAs. Thus, that "independent evolution" that I mentioned may not be so independent anymore. I still wouldn't call what Toppling Goliath is making "New England IPAs," just as I wouldn't call, say, fruited West Coast IPAs (think Ballast Point Pineapple Sculpin) "New England IPAs," even though they're clearly aiming for the same sweet spot (pun intended).

 

Modist Dreamyard has not been mentioned here but I think is just as good as others. Lupulin Hooey I thought was better than Blissful Ignorance.

 

Tier 1: Disgruntled, Barrel Theory & Spirit Foul
Tier 2: Lupulin
Tier 3: Modist, Black Stack & Drekker

All are good but that's my order, just my opinion...

 

Disgruntled just got rid of their head brewer, so it'll be interesting to see if they stay up there.

 

I wish him the best... and selfishly I hope he finds a brewery closer to or even in the cities.

 

Wow, I hope he comes down to the Twin Cities. Could be a huge loss, their IPAs were all phenomenal.

 

Damn, know any more deets? Did they fire him or did he leave on his own?

 

When you say, "got rid of", do you mean he was fired or that he left on his own? Curious as to what is next for him then.

 

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