Ummm... I believe Elevated is made by La Cumbre in Albuquerque. Wrenovation is made in Arizona. As it turns out, Project Dank is also from La Cumbre and has a slightly higher average rating (than Elevated). So maybe that's a reasonable selection? I've never had it... (have only had the Elevated ipa).
Elevated is almost like what if IPAs akin to Avery, Hop Devil, Hercules, etc. continued to evolve. It's the best example of that style of IPA in existence in my eyes. Project Dank is paler, more hop-forward, and a hair more fruity-leaning even if it's less sweet. Calling it "west coast" would probably be appropriate. I like Elevated more, but PD is definitely closer to where current IPA trends lean.
Lists like this drive me crazy because they are so easy to misinterpret. The article link posted by @brewme states that the listed IPAs are "must-try." This is typically based on notoriety. It isn't the same thing as "best." That is far more subjective based upon whether you like single or double IPAs and your preference in hops. I won't quibble with Kane's Head High being the New Jersey representative but I (and many other people I know) vastly prefer Kane's Over Head, which is a DIPA with a different hop bill and very different taste. There may be states where picking one IPA makes sense, such as California (who can argue with Pliny the Younger?) but other states, like New York, are far more difficult. The representative on this list is Broccoli but objectively who can say it is better than many other Other Half IPAs?
Good point. The IPA that is "best" is open to the interpretation of each person's individual preference.
Yeah, I saw what the author said (the must try part), but it's simply not possible for me to buy that. Beers like Heady and PtY, then sure. That makes sense. But beers like RPM, Lunch and Blimey that's Bitter? They're fine beers, but hardly what I'd call "must try."
Every list is debatable, but I promise you they were just trying to be contrary w/ VT. There's no need for that. We all know the answer.
I don't live there but visit relatives in Lewes about once a year, and among many visits haven't found a ton of local IPA worth dying on a hill over. It's fair to nitpick 120 vs. 90 vs. 60, but as long as they chose a core-ish DFH it could be worse. Dewey's Swishy Pants is a perfectly acceptable hazy that's pretty widely available in the area, if you wanted to go more new-school that'd probably be the modern state flagship.
It's probably mine, too. To me it's the perfect bridge from 00's IPAs to modern bright IPAs, but with the best of both worlds. Pretty sure it's their best seller, so it's unlikely to see any giant sweeping reformulations, too.
Sure do. I thought it was excellent. It wasn't available in Baltimore when I lived there, but kegs would show up periodically in the SEPA philly area. I would order it whenever I saw it.
Exactly! The first beer I would always look for when in Colorado. It’s distributed here now, but the availability seems to be more limited as when first introduced. Troubling…
