NEIPAs found in retail stores

Party store? i like that- definitely better than New England's "packie"

 

We're starting to see local shelves in Kansas City turn more into a row of 16oz cans vs. the 12oz, 375mL, 22oz, and 750mL bottles of the past. It's still far from shelf domination, but the creep is starting to become apparent. The two breweries that make up most of this transition of format and style: Decadent and Evil Twin. Of those two, the one beer that stands out is Pacific Punch.

There are many regional breweries participating, and depending on which side of the state line you're on, you can access different varieties. Sierra Nevada's Hazy Little Thing, Sam Adam's New England IPA, Deutsche's Fresh Haze, and New Belgium's Voodoo Haze come to mind with Epic's take on the style available a short drive away to the adjacent state. Sierra Nevada's offering is my favorite from that bunch.

Boulevard has recently opted to bottle three of their test IPAs from the past year, two of which are hazy/NE style. I've only had one of the three, and it was on tap so I can't speak to the bottle quality. That release may have only been local despite them being a regional brewery.

Fun fact: New Belgium's Voodoo Haze was the only hazy beer I saw while in Japan. I didn't see it in a store, but I saw someone drinking it at the airport. Pretty wild. I wonder how it held up, but I didn't ask for a sip.

 

Best on the shelves around here are Revision's hazies. Others that put out a lot of good hazies are Alvarado Street, Brouwerij West, and Mikkeller SD - but they're all usually more expensive and at times can be a miss.

I'd have to also go with SN Hazy Little Thing as my favorite cheap, widely-available hazy.

 

Lord Hobo up in Plymouth has Virtuoso along with Boomsauce, Hobo Life is a good session NEIPA.
Proclamation Ale Co.(Tendrill) and Revival Brewing Co.
(You Thirsty) are just down the road a bit and Wormtown
(Ales for ALS) is a few miles north.
I live in a target-rich environment, I buy in Northern R.I. and S.E. Mass.,Franklin and Bellingham mostly.
Maybee someday I'll take the hour drive to Treehouse.

 

I've seen Industrial Arts Wrench in fridges here in NJ. Also Singlecut and Icarus beers. NEIPA distro is getting pretty decent. Usually, though, there are only 1-2 solid NEIPAs that are actually fresh (<6 weeks old).

 

I gotta say Hazy Little Thing and SA’s NEIPA are super solid and easy to find. I didn’t think two juicy was anywhere close to the other two. I didn’t know flying dog came out with one, I’ll have to check it out!

 

There's a huge variety of shelf NEIPAs in NYC stores. Some, but not nearly so much on Long Island, at least not in the stores closest to home that I shop at most frequently. Stuff from Barrier, Capt. Lawrence, Mikkeler, SA, Singlecut, SN.

 

Well, I think it probably varies more than we think. We all can only say what we see in the stores we visit. You are happy with selection where you shop, and overall I am pretty happy with mine. That is all I can talk about, so I'll not use any generalization that I'm speaking for MA or RI as a state - only where I shop.

Being more or less in NEIPA Central here, I'd honestly expect to see many more of them in stores than I have observed. I would certainly not say they are the dominant style nor have they made any other beers less available. There are also a fair number of "imports" (SIngle Cut, Finback, Foreign Objects, etc) making appearances as well, so New England is getting NEIPAs from outside the region - go figure. The "foreign beers" do knock some others off the shelf from time to time, but once they have their moment in the sun things seem to revert back.

It also varies store to store. The better managed stores seem to rotate them through. Some stores I would guess maybe 20% of the beers on shelf are IPA or a variant of pale ale, but only a fraction of them are NEIPA. That may be because the breweries are selling on premises rather than through distribution. There are sooooooo many more NEIPAs available in my area than you will ever find on a store shelf since they don't have to sell there.

 

Larry, can you name some 'NEIPA' beers that are brewed in New England (e.g., MA) that are available on your local beer retailers' shelves? Are they on the same level as the beers from Tree House, Trillium,...?

Cheers!

 

Honestly, for as much as people crap on them, Lord Hobo are making some of my favorite shelfie NEIPAs. Otter Creek's are damn good, too. I buy a lot of Mikkeller. Barrier is another top favorite. I've also been finding Singlecut more regularly, but at $22-$25 a four pack I almost never buy them.

 

You can also get that in the Detroit airport.

And it is uber fresh.

 

Don't like Milk and Vanilla, don't think I've had a fruit. I don't like cherry, tastes like an infection. I killed myself for Cherry Rye, it was ok, but expensive.

 

Proclamation is a pretty good brewery and their hazeboi brews show up in cans sometimes. Captain's Daughter is arguably within the style parameters and is one of my favorites. Some of Mystic's offerings once in a while. Lawson's I have seen. Two Roads. Lord Hobo. Cambridge Brewing Company. Wormtown. I will have to take better notice, I suppose. I remember seeing some from Maine, CT, NH, but not on the regular.

Your question makes my point, I think. I spend a lot of time beer shopping and am having a hard time coming up with the locally and regionally produced examples. The style isn't dominating the shelves and coolers in my stores, even if you include the "foreign" beers. Most are sold on the brewery premises, and I would wager some of them are as good as any of the "icons".

You are asking the wrong person about Trillium and Treehouse. I have tried several of Trillium's offerings and I think they all taste the same. The Treehouse beer I had Sunday was as fresh as I would ever get it and while it was brewed well and true to style, it left me unimpressed. I believe I rated it fairly, but I really did not care for it. I dont have any problem rating to style and saying I didn't personally like a beer, so yes these brewers make world class beers that I don't "like". Except Trillium Big Sprang...still not a kolsch style beer. ;-)

 

I agree with everything LeRose wrote, but since I like the style a bit more than he appears to (and live in a different part of the state) I thought I'd list a few other quite good (imo) options that do show up regularly on the shelves. I know that @JackHorzempa asked for examples "as good as" Treehouse/Trill but I'm reluctant to wade into that specific water for fear of getting side tracked by people saying "you're crazy, those aren't nearly as good!"

Suffice to say that all of the following are readily available to varying degrees, some of them have ardent fans and command the same price as Tree/Trill, and they'll all (for me) more than adequately scratch the itch if I don't feel like shlepping to the breweries - which is usually. These are all based in MA.

-Exhibit A
-Springdale
- Lamplighter
- Castle Island
- Nightshift - Whirpool is essentially the poster child for a session strength NE IPA
- Banded - their Veridian is only $11 a 4 pack and is one of my go to singles)
- Fort Hill - notably, all their stuff is less than $10 a sixer of 12 ounce cans, even doubles)
- Lord Hobo - this is one I'm not personally a big fan of, but I felt it would be remiss not to mention them given how many people like them and how widely available they are. And some of their newer offerings have even won over some skeptics.

There's also another tier of stuff that isn't exactly regularly on the shelves in a wide area, but is still sporadically available without going to the brewery. This would include things like Idle Hands, Backlash, the Tap (Solar Plexus is my favorite DIPA not named heady topper), and Mystic. LeRose mentioned Mystic too and it's worth noting that they are really becoming a big deal.

It's a somewhat different conversation, but it might be worth mentioning that on the bigger brewery front Long Trail, Harpoon, and Wachusett all have widely available, and cheap, NE IPA options now that are better than either Sam Adams or Sierra Nevada to my mind. Maybe a harbinger of things to come?

So if you like NE IPAs I think there's a very good array of local options that are relatively easy to find - at least closer to the city where I live. But as LeRose alluded to, I personally feel like I have more options than ever when I go to the store so I don't feel as if that's come with a price. And, for that matter, there are still no shortage of west coast IPAs to be had, even if they're not well represented in the newer offerings (Larry, Green Monsta, Route 101, Be Hoppy, Greenhead, Flower Child, and Hoponius Union all still move a lot of volume). And heck, you can even still scratch an English itch with Harpoon IPA available literally everywhere and Ipswich and Berkshires versions still on many shelves.

 

Thanks for adding this content - like I said, I notice them but I don't pay much attention. When I want one, I'll grab one to try and I will taste 'em at the brewery, but I am certainly not the Hazebro poster child.

Ah - Castle Island just occurred to me as well.

Mystic is interesting - thought they were a really good "under the radar (or bridge, maybe)" brewery even before they started making milkshakes - since they are still making other things, looks like those milkshakes are paying the bills, though.

 

Yeah, mystic is a really interesting glass half full/empty case. They were super well regarded, but fairly small, when they were only brewing belgians. They blew up a bit when they added IPAs and ive read that their belgian offerings have suffered. But at the same time they now regularly can and distribute their most popular belgian (table beer) presumably due to their new found cash stream.

Also, you mentioned milk shakes and its interesting that they are one of the relatively few breweries up here to make a move into lactose. Those are still a pretty niche offering here and to my knowledge none of the other places i mentioned make one. I`ve never actually tried thiers as ive only had their "regular" neipas.

ETA: i made a mistake in my original post as i forgot Banded is from Maine.

 

Banded..damn that imported stuff!

The missus and I talked with Bryan Greenhagen on our first visit to Mystic. We had no idea who we were talking to, but it was well over an hour before he gave us his card. He was clearly into the science of fermentation and explained the reasoning behind his fermentation tank geometry. We loved Auerbach's Rauchbier, Day of Doom, and Descendent. I will say Day of Doom is absolutely not the same beer it once was, so I fear you may be correct. When we talked to him, he never seemed like he was interested in trend chasing and wanted to march to his own beat. Even back then he wasn't brewing mainstream styles.

 

Lucky. It's a great beer and probably the best shelf NEIPA

 

My store gets Exhibit A's Hair Raiser DIPA and Cat's Meow IPA along with one or two rotating ones every week and they honestly stand toe to toe with any of the big names.

 

If you cop a can of the Von Lune pilsner from Mystic you won't be sorry. Outrageous quality Czech nefiltrovane pils