What is a West Coast IPA? And which are the best?

It’s a little after office hours and I’m in a queue at, of all places, a bar.

‘What can I get you?’ asks the bartender as I make it to the front. He’s wearing a baseball cap and wire-rimmed glasses, and he dons the obligatory modern-beer-moustache. He’s smiling, enthusiastic and immediately likeable.

‘I’ll have a half of that Burnt Mill West Coast IPA please.’

‘This one?’ He gestures to the only West Coast IPA pouring from the bar’s ten taps. ‘You could definitely try this. But if you’re after an IPA, I’d go with this.’ He gestures again. ‘For my money, this is the best IPA we’re pouring right now.’

I glance in the direction of what he’s suggesting. It is an IPA. But it’s a New England IPA, as opposed to the West Coast IPA I was after, and I hesitate.

Should my fellow bartender really be suggesting I try a different beer?

Way out west

Fairly regularly, curious patrons that drop into one of the Craft Metropolis taprooms down in South London ask me about the differences between West Coast and New England IPAs. Their enquiries are perfectly valid. They’re about beer, after all, and any question about beer is a good one. Plus, the IPA is a pretty niche beer style in itself. So can its various sub-styles really be that different?

The surprising answer is yes: West Coast IPAs and New England IPAs are now so dissimilar it’s probably time we started to think about a less confusing naming convention.

The West Coast IPA came along first, and was probably the beer style initially responsible for craft beer’s worldwide explosion. The history books suggest the style was born over on the USA’s west coast, back when experimental homebrewers began adding unprecedented hop volumes to their brews in search of ever greater depths of flavour. Compared to the New England IPA – or NEIPA, as it’s become known – the West Coast IPA (WCIPA) was early stage experimentation. West Coast IPAs then and now were and remain relatively bitter (thanks to the hops), and any sweet notes derived from the style’s malted barley are deliberately downplayed. In West Coast IPAs, the hops shine, which results in uninitiated drinkers invariably scrunching their faces post sip before describing WCIPAs as ‘too hoppy’. What such drinkers usually mean is the WCIPA’s distinct bitterness is unexpected. And it’s unexpected because, these days, the beer drinkers’ drink of choice is invariably the NEIPA.

A New England

New England IPAs are sometimes known as East Coast IPAs – which pinpoints their birthplace as that of the US East Coast. Whether deliberately or otherwise, the NEIPA is often positioned as a reaction to the WCIPA – the two styles contrast in looks, in aroma and in taste.

West Coast IPAs – which usually sit on a backbone of malted barley – are typically amber in colour and transparent in nature. New England IPAs? Their colour profiles vary, but they often lean towards yellow. Undeniably more striking is the fact they’re opaque (or ‘hazy’), which is the result of the NEIPA’s malt profile. Typically, brewers use a combination of barley, wheat and/or oats in their NEIPAs’ malt bills, which make NEIPAs soft and creamy – a characteristic that’s proving increasingly popular.

You can expect both West Coast and New England IPAs to carry fruity aromas… but the overlap is rarely sizeable. From a West Coast IPA you might detect some citrus, but it’ll invariably be cloaked by powerful aromas of some form of foliage – pine is the go to and fresh cut grass is another favourite. Increasingly, notes of ‘dank’ cannabis waft from the WCIPA’s glass.

By contrast, any New England IPA that doesn’t smell like a tropical fruit punch should be treated with suspicion. In a New England IPA, I’m looking for stuff like mango, passionfruit, papaya and cantaloupe melon, and maybe even a sprinkle of coconut (depending on the hops on showcase). And while it’s possible for a beer’s aromas to differ from its flavours, in my experience, such discrepancies are rare.

We’ve already touched on the differences in flavour but to spell it out: West Coast IPAs are usually bright, piney and resinous, possibly sweaty, sometimes fruity and, of course, their biting bitterness lingers. By contrast, New England IPAs tend to be so laden with fruit they’re described as ‘juicy’. NEIPAs are usually tropical and most likely to be a little sweet, with very little bitterness. Oats and wheat, when used, give NEIPAs a creamy quality.

The two styles are both outstanding, and just as I love stouts, saisons, lambics, goses, lagers, pales and porters, I adore both WCIPAs and NEIPAs in turn.

Still, they’re not the same thing, and sometimes you know precisely what you want.

Why choose?

I think about all the above back at the bar, where the (increasingly delightful) bartender is gesturing towards his favoured NEIPA, still with a big grin on his face, hoping to convince me to go with his suggestion.

‘You know what?’ I say. ‘Give me a half of the West Coast and a half of the New England.’

He’s even more delighted than he might otherwise have been, and as I take the two halves back to a table, so am I.

Craft beer. It’s all about experimentation but is West Coast the best coast? Only you can decide….

Try the beer

Verdant Brewing Co – Even Sharks Need Water NEIPA

Cornwall’s Verdant is seen as one of the UK’s best craft breweries, and Even Sharks Need Water is one of the brewery’s regular gems. Fruity, juicy and tropical; thick, creamy and soft. A great example of a solid New England IPA.

Pressure Drop Brewery – Behind Door Number 3 NEDIPA

Pressure Drop are no strangers to supplying drinkers with juice, and in Behind Door Number 3 they amp up the NEIPA to Double IPA territory. Soft, fruity, tropical and strong. This isn’t the thickest beer, but it packs a punch.

Verdant Brewing Co – Remembering Things I Didn’t Do WCIPA

The periodically rebrewed Remembering Things I Didn’t Do shows what Verdant can do when armed with west coast hops. This is citrusy and bright, clean and bitter. Dank notes complete the West Coast ensemble.

Burnt Mill Brewery – Get The Onyx WCIPA

Underrated all-rounders Burnt Mill flex their West Coast might with this clean and crisp WCIPA. Expect piney bitterness with hints of passionfruit. Warning: this thing reeks of weed.