New York City’s beer history is a strange one. A big beer powerhouse from the days of the Dutch all the way to post-World War II, then well ahead of the brewpub trend in the 1980s, by the 1990s and early 2000s, when the craft beer movement was beginning to boom, New York City was suddenly lacking.
That would change quickly in the 2010s as great brewery after great brewery began to spring up — mostly in Brooklyn, but today each borough has at least one or two spots of note. Like virtually every other beer mecca across the globe, the IPA became the city’s beer style of choice over the last decade.
Granted, New York City is not Vermont nor San Diego nor even Chicago when it comes to legendary IPAs. But there are still quite a few good ones in town.
To find out which New York City IPAs stand out from the pack, we gathered 10 of the most iconic year-round, flagship expressions — no obscure, wait-in-line one-offs here — and put them all in the ring for a tasting showdown. Can an English-style IPA from the ’90s beast a milkshake IPA from the 2020s? Can a West Coast-style IPA originally from Queens beat a hazy from Manhattan? Is Other Half still worth all the hype?
Dive in to find out as we rank the following New York City IPAs from worst to best, or rather, least best to best.
10. Brooklyn Brewery East IPA
ABV: 6.9%
In a pre-IPA era, this India Pale Ale was essentially all New York City had to offer. Put into the Williamsburg brewery’s year-round lineup in 1996 — well before IPAs were a known commodity, and well before Brooklyn had become the center of the universe — the English IPA was a style obscure back then and one virtually unknown today. But it’s not bad! Amber in color, malty in flavor, but with some classic English hops character — notes of peach and pine. If you haven’t tried one in decades, you’ll be surprised how good this still is.
9. Sixpoint Brewery Bengali
ABV: 6.6%
One day New York didn’t really have modern craft beer, and the next, mysterious kegs of something called Sixpoint Bengali Tiger were suddenly on tap. Arguably the city’s first modern craft brewery also gave us arguably the city’s first modern IPA circa 2005. By 2014, its formula had been rejiggered to changing tastes — think: Mandarina Bavaria hops, flaked oats for texture — and it was now known as simply Bengali. Coming just before the haze explosion, this is nonetheless tropical and citrusy, balanced with a slight dankness.
7. Torch & Crown Brewing Company Almost Famous
ABV: 6.6%
Manhattan’s biggest brewery by far not surprisingly offers this fairly ubiquitous IPA. The first beer ever produced by this downtown spot, it’s a quintessential New England-style IPA. Bright and citrusy on the nose with a hint of melon, it is straight Orange Julius on the palate. It’s not super complex, nor particularly unique, but it’s well done. The light carbonation and slight creaminess render it eminently crushable.
7. Talea Beer Co. Sun Up Hazy IPA
ABV: 6.5% ABV
This female-owned brewery — a VinePair Next Wave Awards winner in 2021 — has exploded on the scene over the last five years, now offering five attractive tap rooms across the city. While perhaps best known for easy-drinking fruited sours, the flagship IPA is every bit as approachable. Fruity and tropical, the addition of lactose negates any bitterness, giving it a vanilla-y sweetness. An IPA to woo so-called IPA haters.
6. Other Half Brewing Green City
ABV: 7%
If there was a time that one had to line up for hours to secure literally any Other Half IPA, in a post-pandemic New York, the Brooklyn spots’ distribution greatly expanded. Soon, you were seeing Green City all over town, in bars, restaurants, bodegas, and even movie theaters. Nevertheless, the quality remained every bit as high as the days when Other Half was a micro outfit. Double dry hopped (as seemingly all OH beers are), you get white grapefruit on the nose; the palate leans more peaches and cream, the latter note perhaps thanks to the oats in the recipe.
5. Threes Brewing Logical Conclusion IPA
ABV: 7%
It could be argued that this Gowanus brewery is the city’s overall best, having made top-in-class Czech-style lagers and pilsners, funky saisons, and even stouts and barley wines over the last decade-plus. With such a vast array of stellar styles, it’s easy to overlook its IPA program. You shouldn’t. Threes’ flagship hazy is, no surprise, solid and readily available across the city. It’s pleasantly fluffy on the palate with strong citrus notes, a touch of blueberries, and pine tree bite.
4. Finback IPA
ABV: 6.8%
Ushered in among the city’s first big explosion of new breweries in 2014, Finback quietly did its business in suburban Queens for years. Opening a second location in Brooklyn (just a few blocks away from Threes) put the brewery more on the map and showed it was making beer every bit as good as anyone. The core IPA, produced since day one, is a rare West Coast-style entry on this list. The troika of classic “C” hops (Chinook, Columbus, and Cascade) produces a weed-like aroma; the palate is every bit as pleasingly dank and bitter. This is a nice reminder of an era before IPAs started tasting like Tropicana.
3. SingleCut Beersmiths Softly Spoken Magic Spells
ABV: 8.6%
For whatever reason, this Queens stalwart has never quite gotten the attention of many of its Brooklyn brethren. That’s a shame. SingleCut has long made some of the best beers in New York, and its IPAs are no exception. This double IPA, first released in 2016, is an early era hazy à la Heady Topper. It’s bright and citrusy on the nose with a palate that is a touch more malty than you see from other NEIPAs these days. Well worth seeking out.
2. Other Half Brewing All Citra Everything
ABV: 8%
In a way, it’s hard to rank Other Half’s output. Among a sea of Evers and Everythings and Dreams and Daydreams, not to mention Broccolis — along with their double dry hopped counterparts — it can be hard to discern what really matters, what is truly good. Yes, Other Half is unquestionably the best overall IPA maker in New York, perhaps even the country. But on this particular day, with this particular flagship, it merely claimed the silver. This is an over-the-top Citra bomb — cloudy and fluffy, with grapefruit and slight pineapple on the nose. It’s balanced, it’s delicious, but it’s a hair one-note.
1. Grimm Artisanal Ales Afterimage
ABV: 8%
An upset at the top! If Other Half became the city’s most hyped brewery in the latter half of the 2010s, Grimm quietly went about its job putting out IPAs every bit as good (and often more readily available). This double IPA is tropical and juicy, with notes of melon, apricot, and lemon zest, but it’s hardly flabby in the way so many hazies skew. The balance of Mosaic, El Dorado, Citra, and especially Simcoe give the beer a slightly piney dankness. Even with some mild vegetal notes, it offers an intensity and complexity you keep coming back for. A beer that should be a lot more famous than it is.
