Favorite Colorado IPAs?

The Avery XX was solid as well!!

 

Wow, no one mentioned Upslope, the IIPA and IPA are both fantastic. I also really enjoy Bristol's Compass IPA on Nitro.

 

It's DuganA season. Take advantage, brother. Take advantage.

 

I love Avery's Simcoe and Chinook IPA they have at their tap room. It's perfect for some of the hot summer days we've been having. Equinox's is also highly delicious. Great Divides oak aged IPA (Rumble-a seasonal) also blew me away.

 

I really hate to agree, but I have to say that colorado is grossly behind the times when it comes to hoppy beers. FFF, kern river, and HF simply destroy us, but even deschutes and elysian are kicking our ass. I do enjoy dry dock breakwater, but it isn't a pale ale. The only two stand outs that I can think of would be the obvious hop savant and the lesser know but better tasting red swingline from trinity. If they could bring their price point down on that beer I would mainline that beer.

 

I actually prefer the "old school" IPA's to a lot of the latest and greatest types. To me some are terrific, but they're 1-&-done. Some of them I don't like at all, too. There are some good and bad IPAs out there, but I don't think we're that far behind. I'd don't mind that our breweries are inspired by 90 Minute, Hop Devil, and Stone IPA.
Having been on BA a while, something tells me that what's cool and innovative today will be tomorrow's shelf turd.

 

Ablackshear did mention Upslope IIPA before, and I agree, this beer is also much more modern and excellent.

 

A lot of people probably agree with you, and I love an Avery IPA or Modus Hoperandi. But it seems to me, especially when hearing interviews and talking to brewers, like this is far less of a fad and much more what they feel is the forefront of technology in IPA's - that is, an IPA with less hop bitterness and a focus on hop aroma and flavor, one that doesn't try to match the level of bitterness with crystal malt as a way to try to find balance, instead showcasing the hop character with a much dryer, bready malt. This is why it's odd to me that we're not seeing them made like this here, especially by any of the myriad new Colorado breweries that have opened recently.

 

While I thinks some of the new IPAs are terrific and do showcase what's great about hops - many showcase what can be horrible about hops. Everything from onions, to shake weed, to swamps and ammonia.
I agree that there's not a ton of IPA innovation going on in CO, we don't have many I'd consider to be completely horrible either. To me the only major dog we have is the Gubna, and a few people with a broken palate (I kid, I kid) actually like that one.

 

Lots of good ones listed, I'll add Mojo Risin'.

 

That's a good point, CO breweries are not making that many world class IPAs, but most all of them are solid beers. Have not tried the new Gubna yet, but I don't seem to be as sensitive to the oniony flavors from Summit hops as some other people

Though I did have an IPA from one of the very new breweries in town on Friday night that was an under-attenuated mess, tasted like barely fermented wort with a bunch of hop floaties. I had a hard time believing they were actually selling that beer.

 

Yeah, I definitely need to qualify my statements with "of our major breweries." Some of those recent upstarts are most certainly producing lesser products and it's not because of experimentation either. For every 2-3 producing (mostly) good beers, there will be one selling stuff I wouldn't even give out as a joke.

 

I've very much enjoyed the hop forward offerings from Fate and Black Bottle.

 

I'd take a Kern River or Alpine anyday. FFF I'm losing interest in, all they care about is offensive bitterness, aside from Zombie & maybe Dreadnaught which are about the only slightly balanced ones.

One of the other major differences is hops used. Not many Colorado IPAs (that make it to shelves) use Citra, Amarillo or Mosaic, aside from a few. Rampant, Escape to Colorado, Hopulent could have been better, Swingline uses Mosaic and is fantastic. I'd also add the use of Maris Otter (or more lightly toasted caramel malts) in IPAs now which point to Josh's point about using a grainier/breadier malt over a dark caramel malt. There's also the addition of rice like DRIPA which is a fantastic IPA (light hybrid). So many others are advancing the style moreso than Colorado.

But Colorado still has a large plethora of flagship IPAs that have withstood the test of time, they're just all using the classic Cascade, Centennial, Chinook, Simcoe...

 

This post Lost me. Deschutes and Elysian kicking our ass, Really? Neither have a IPA or DIPA that can even touch Odell IPA, Myrcenary or Avery Dugana, Maharaja..



I agree with most what Aaron said as i think we share a similar palate even though i enjoy Ranger.

 

Odell IPA and Myrcenary, top 2. Modus Hoperandi, third.

 

Yeah, they're kicking our ass. Colorado ipa's are almost prehistoric in their use of hops, and when they do use new types, these are buried behind shit liike summit and centennial. Elysian space dust blew me away, and its a pretty good example of the way ipa's are being brewed and hopped right now. That's cool if you like the big piney bitter west coast ipa's. I find them antiquated compared to other ipa's myself.

 

I thought Space Dust was really good, but the previous time I tried an Elysian IPA it was a drainpour. Could have been old, but there was no date on the bottle. Seems like we don't get that much of their stuff here though, and it sits around

 

I like a few of Elysian's beers, but I've never been a big fan of their IPA's. That said, like ablackshear mentions, their stuff tends to sit around.
On an unrelated note, their brewer was kind of a dick at the DRBT last year, so I'm not exactly waiting in line to buy his stuff anyway.