It's even. I am a west coast guy but I have the pleasure of drinking some top notch "east coast" IPAs like FFF, bells, and founders, Which all are awesome and would love to drink them on the regs. However, west coast IPAs are just as good such as green flash, Alpine, SN, Stone, and Russian River. Once beer becomes that good it's just a matter of preference.
I completely understand where your coming from I've had my fair share of amazing IPA's from the East and Mis West ,Surly ,Fff,Resin, and if course who can forget about Lawson's or Heady Just trying to get people's opinions on things ...
Delicious Had both But Kean Idea and Black label Hopocalypse surpass those for me but that could just be me
yes double nelson is awesome. but my love goes for pliny, being so close to the source and off tap is just awesome to me
Tasted both coasts fresh and give the edge to the west coast. There are several up and coming breweries out here that will impress soon enough (highly recommend Knee Deep's Hoptologist). East kicks the West's ass in ales and stouts though. I think it is because of the colder weather.
At the moment I'd say East coast because I'm partial to Heady and Hopslam, but I must say Sucks is amazing and I haven't tried Pliny yet so West coast is still a potential winner of this battle in my book.
Surly, and resin are both on my wants list. I remember when I thought west coast made the best IPAs, now I am not sure. A local Orange County Brewery that makes a DIPA called knuckle sandwich that I find hard to beat.
I find east coast hoppy brews to be heavily malt based and on the sweeter side. West coast ipa's seem to be crisper with more of a bitterness. Just a generalization, there's always exceptions. Just my experience.
As a non American I gathered from this thread that Midwest is on Atlantic and Chicago is where Columbus arrived. Seriously, FFF, Bell's etc. are not "East Coast".
USA makes the best IPA. So many good ones there is no way to say more than that if you can't find one you think is great you aren't trying, mo mater what part of the country you live in.
Yep.. for on now whenever there's the inevitable East Coast vs. West Coast IPA debate, can we at least throw the Midwest in there and turn it into a Triple Threat match?
Range and depth the west coast dominates. A midwest lineup is better than an east coast lineup with the admission that I've never had any HF beers yet.
I haven't been to Europe lately if that is what you are asking, by the time IPA get here from Europe they aren't fresh. Hope to go one day, but IPA will not be among the styles I seek. Most of the European IPA's use American hops, I think that tells you most all you need to know about them. Still about a thousand good hoppy pales I haven't tried in this country, and I'm sure there are some absolute stunners among them.
My local Bel Air now stocks both Simtra and Hop Shortage at $7.29 for 22oz (was $9.99 previously), and best of all they're fresh. Have to give props to Knee Deep for having one of the easiest to find/read bottle dating... not to mention they're both delicious...
WOW i cant believe how cheap that simtra is ever since it came out everywhere around me sell for 9.99 plus tax i am going to tell my local stores that other places have it for substantially cheaper
Simtra is extremely underrated here on BA. I love getting it fresh. Hopocalypse is underrated on here as well. I'm definitely going to say west coast has better IPA's. Not that im biased because this is where im from, but it really is. But it doesnt really matter what side of the country has what beer, because if there was no such thing as the internet, we would be drinking what was available to us at our store.. But beer trading now makes it so its not even an issue of availability.
Best of all, last week when I saw this, I stocked up on a couple Hop Shortages bottled on 3/1/13. It was outstanding fresh. I think when I had it before, it may have been a bit older..
Yeah, i just got a simtra last week that was bottled about 6 days before. they are really on top of things right now
i do have to agree it is very cool that they show the bottling date across the bottle I actually bumped into the CEO of Kneedeep recently at Greenflash brewery and had a taster with him I guess he was sampling the competition lol
I'm going to preface this by saying this is a stupid thread (then why am I commenting blah blah blah...): I prefer west coast because I enjoy a greater percentage of the WC IPA's I've tried, but Heady is king in my world so that's gotta count for something
I don't know if it's necessarily underrated at 95/4.29... That's higher than I though it would be rated, but it's definitely one of my favorites...
Neither. Both coasts and the middle of the country all make good and bad hoppy beers. Let's just celebrate everyone.
