The Pacific Northwest has a proud India pale ale tradition. This here’s hop country, and no brewers on earth, except those bronzed SoCal hop mongers, can lay claim to the modern IPA crown like our royal fermenters.
However, a new wave of IPA—championed by guys with funny accents—is encroaching from the East, challenging the West Coast’s hoppy supremacy. The so-called Northeast-style IPA, marked by its hazy appearance and bursts of tropical fruit, is the hottest beer trend of the moment.
Until recently, Washington beer geeks had to scour beer-trading websites for lauded progenitors like the Alchemist’s Heady Topper. Now local versions—from Urban Family Brewing Co.‘s murky Pulp Control to Fremont Brewing’s Belmont Station, which drinks like a pineapple beer-mosa—have reached taproom ubiquity.