12 Popular IPA Beers, Ranked Worst To Best

IPA, short for India Pale Ale, is a divisive beer style if there ever was one. Often boasting higher alcohol content and a generous helping of hops, these beers are known for their assertive bitterness and an equally bold range of flavors. Depending on the varieties of hops used, drinkers can encounter everything from pine and resin to tropical fruit, pineapple, and grapefruit. While lighter lagers and pilsners tend to favor a cleaner, more restrained profile, many IPAs and the occasional pale ale sit at the opposite end of the spectrum, delivering a much more aggressive punch of hops, bitterness, and aroma.

None of this, by the way, is necessarily a bad thing. In fact, the style's versatility has given rise to everything from piney, bitter West Coast IPAs to juicy, hazy New England varieties, not to mention stronger imperial IPAs and lighter session beers.

IPAs are hardly the new kids on the block, and beer enthusiasts have been arguing over their favorites for years. With that in mind, we at Mashed decided to sample 12 popular IPAs on the market and rank them from worst to best. We selected IPAs representing a range of brewing styles and flavor profiles from craft breweries across the country. We considered each beer's hop character, aroma, mouthfeel, finish, and appearance, along with its overall taste and how well it represented its particular style.

New Belgium introduced Voodoo Ranger in 2017 as a new family of hop-forward beers, establishing its instantly recognizable skeleton mascot as the face of its IPA lineup. The Colorado brewery, best known for its Fat Tire Amber Ale, had been experimenting with hop-heavy beers long before Voodoo Ranger became a household name. Imperial IPA was among the original offerings and remains one of the brewery's core beers, distinguished by its high alcohol content and aggressive hopping.

At 9% ABV and 70 IBUs — International Bitterness Units, a measure of beer's bitterness — Voodoo Ranger certainly doesn't hold back. Brewed with six hop varieties, including Cascade, Centennial, and Mosaic, the beer delivers pronounced bitterness and noticeable alcoholic warmth. Unfortunately, we found that all this intensity came at the expense of balance. While there's plenty to appreciate about its bold character, the bitterness and boozy warmth tended to overshadow the subtler flavors we were hoping to find.

In 2009, Founders brewmaster Jeremy Kosmicki had the idea of creating a session IPA — all the flavor, but with considerably less alcohol. After numerous attempts at perfecting the recipe and a name change from Endurance Ale due to a trademark dispute, All Day IPA officially launched in 2012. The beer uses four hop varieties — Crystal, Cascade, Amarillo, and Simcoe — alongside a diverse grain bill of wheat malt, flaked corn, flaked oats, and crystal malt.

At 4.7% ABV, All Day IPA certainly lives up to its intended goal of being a lighter, more approachable alternative to conventional IPAs. The combination of hops delivers citrus and floral aromas, moderate bitterness, and a crisp finish. However, compared with the other beers in our tasting, we found its lighter body and restrained flavors somewhat underwhelming. There's certainly a time and place for a good session IPA, but ultimately, All Day lacked the depth and intensity we enjoyed in several of its competitors.

Elysian Space Dust IPA began in 2012 as a small experiment at the Seattle brewery's taproom, eventually finding its way into Elysian's limited-edition Manic IPA series. By 2014, Space Dust had become a year-round offering, with its colorful, hop-chomping space creature becoming one of the brewery's most recognizable mascots. What started as an experiment had become one of Elysian's signature beers.

At 8.2% ABV and 73 IBUs, Space Dust packs a considerable punch, courtesy of Chinook, Citra, and Amarillo hops. The combination brings notes of grapefruit, mango, and pine, with a medium body and a relatively dry finish. There's plenty of flavor here, although its pronounced bitterness makes for a more demanding drinking experience than some of the other IPAs in our lineup. Still, Space Dust offers more than sheer intensity, with enough complexity to earn a higher place in our ranking.

Lagunitas IPA, the one that can be found at just about every market and pub across the country, dates back to 1995, when brewery founder Tony Magee decided to make a name for himself in Northern California's growing craft-brewery scene. At the time, pale ales were everywhere, but Magee wanted to brew something with a stronger, more diverse assortment of hops. The result was Lagunitas IPA, the brewery's flagship offering, which helped establish its reputation for hop-forward brewing.

At 6.2% ABV and 51 IBUs, Lagunitas IPA offers a more restrained drinking experience than some of the stronger beers in our ranking. Brewed with Cascade, Centennial, Chinook, and Simcoe hops, alongside a combination of crystal, caramel, and Munich malts, it strikes a welcome balance between hop bitterness and malt sweetness. Rather than overwhelming the palate, there's enough character to let you appreciate each sip without making every drop feel like a challenge. It's a dependable IPA that doesn't need to push everything to the extreme to showcase its personality.

Stone IPA made its debut in 1997, when the brewery of the same name decided to celebrate its first anniversary with a much hoppier brew. Back then, IPAs were still unfamiliar territory for many American drinkers, and Stone even had to do some legwork explaining to bars and retailers what made the style different. All that hard work paid off when Stone IPA caught on, eventually becoming the brewery's flagship offering and helping popularize the bitter, hop-heavy West Coast IPA.

At 6.9% ABV and 71 IBUs, Stone IPA isn't shy about its bitterness. Brewed with a generous assortment of hops, including Chinook, Centennial, and Azacca, it delivers plenty of citrus and pine, with a medium body and a dry, lingering finish. At times, it almost tastes like hops for hops' sake, and we found its lingering bitterness less appealing than the more balanced beers further up our ranking. It's a good example of a classic West Coast IPA, even if it wasn't quite our favorite of the bunch.

When Sierra Nevada introduced Hazy Little Thing in 2018, the classic West Coast brewery was already well known for its hop-heavy Pale Ale and Torpedo IPA. But instead of cranking the IBUs up another notch or staying in familiar territory, Sierra Nevada took a different approach. Hazy Little Thing brought the juicy, cloudy character of New England-style IPAs to a much wider audience, offering drinkers a taste of a beer style that had largely been the territory of smaller craft breweries in the American Northeast.

At 6.7% ABV and just 35 IBUs, Hazy Little Thing takes a gentler approach to bitterness without sacrificing flavor. Brewed with Citra, El Dorado, Magnum, Mosaic, and Simcoe hops, alongside oats and wheat, it delivers plenty of citrus and tropical fruit with a soft, almost creamy mouthfeel — a signature of the hazy IPA style. Unlike some of the more aggressive IPAs in our lineup, Hazy Little Thing leads with its fruit-forward character. It's a refreshing change of pace, with plenty of flavor to keep you sipping without leaving your palate caked with bitterness.

Fiddlehead Brewing Company opened its doors in Shelburne, Vermont, on New Year's Eve in 2011. Brew master Matt Cohen had one goal in mind: Brew a dependable, approachable IPA that people would want to order on draft. Starting with a modest 15-barrel brewing system, Fiddlehead quickly found an audience, with more than 50 accounts lined up before opening. By 2016, Fiddlehead IPA had become the best-selling draft beer in Vermont, proving that a small brewery could make quite a name for itself with one flagship beer.

At 6.2% ABV and 53 IBUs, Fiddlehead IPA doesn't exactly knock you over the head with bitterness. There's an earthy, piney character to it, with a little resin on the finish that hangs around after each sip. We could easily imagine ordering another round, but when it came time to compare notes, there wasn't much that really stuck with us. Nothing about Fiddlehead was particularly unpleasant; we just found ourselves reaching for some of the other IPAs instead.

Cigar City Brewing opened in Tampa, Florida, in 2009, taking inspiration from the city's history and culture, right down to the names of its beers. Jai Alai IPA pays tribute to the fast-paced Basque ball game that once drew enormous crowds across Florida in the '60s and '70s. The beer itself became one of Cigar City's signature offerings, bringing a distinctly Floridian character to the American craft beer scene with its citrus-heavy personality.

At 7.5% ABV, Jai Alai IPA has a little more muscle and tropical flavors than some of the other IPAs in our ranking. Brewed with several hop varieties, including Amarillo, Cascade, and Simcoe, it brings plenty of orange and tangerine to the nose, followed by citrus and a touch of caramel on the palate. There's a welcome sweetness beneath the hops, and we found that the flavors worked surprisingly well together. It's certainly not lacking in character, making it a solid entry in our top five.

Dogfish Head's 60 Minute IPA traces its roots to an unusual brewing experiment involving a cooking show, a bucket of hops, and a vibrating tabletop football game. After watching a chef gradually add pepper to a pot of soup, founder Sam Calagione developed a makeshift device that could feed hops into a boiling brew at a steady pace. The technique eventually became the foundation of 60 Minute IPA, introduced in 2003, and helped establish the Delaware brewery as one of the country's must-visit craft beer producers.

At 6% ABV and 60 IBUs, 60 Minute IPA makes a convincing case that plenty of hops don't necessarily equate to a punishing bitterness. Calagione's hopping process gives the beer a citrusy, grassy character, with enough bitterness to keep its classic IPA backbone intact. What impressed us was how well the beer's appearance, flavor, and aftertaste all came together. While no single characteristic was a true showstopper, it's a well-rounded beer that earns its place near the top of our ranking.

Other Half Brewing Company opened in Brooklyn in 2014, founded by Sam Richardson, Matt Monahan, and Andrew Burman. They began experimenting with hazier styles of beer straightaway, making hop-heavy brews a core part of the company's identity from the very beginning. Green City would eventually go on to become its flagship IPA, helping introduce drinkers to the juicy, fruit-forward side of American craft beer.

At 7% ABV, Green City's double dry-hopping process puts much of the emphasis on aroma and flavor rather than sheer bitterness. Brewed with Centennial, Citra, and Simcoe hops, along with a generous helping of oats, it offers notes of peach, grapefruit, and mango with a soft, creamy body. The brew has a pleasant richness without becoming overly sweet, while its hazy character brings those fruit flavors together nicely. It's bold without being exhausting, and we'd gladly order another round or keep a few cans stocked in the fridge.

Before there was Sip of Sunshine, Sean Lawson already had a problem: Customers were scrambling to get their hands on bottles of his original Double Sunshine IPA. That demand eventually outgrew what his tiny brewery could produce, prompting Lawson to partner with Connecticut's Two Roads Brewing to develop a new beer. The result was Sip of Sunshine, introduced in 2014, which quickly became a flagship offering and eventually helped finance the opening of Lawson's Finest Liquids' own brewery and taproom in Waitsfield, Vermont.

At 8% ABV, Sip of Sunshine isn't the gentle IPA that its name might imply. Citra hops give the beer its tropical fruit character and bright floral aromas, with layers of hop flavor that come together to provide a smooth, yet robust, drinking experience. What truly impressed us was how well the fruity notes worked alongside the beer's bitterness — plenty of hop character without becoming overwhelming. Its sheer drinkability was reason enough to earn the number two spot in our ranking, while the balance of flavors speaks to Lawson's mastery of his craft.

At number one in our ranking, we have Bell's Two Hearted Ale. Is it really that much of a surprise? The now-famous IPA began humbly as a winter seasonal at Bell's Brewery in Michigan in 1997, eventually becoming a year-round offering in 2003. By 2013, Two Hearted had even surpassed the brewery's beloved Oberon Ale to become its best-selling beer. It has since cemented its reputation as one of the heavyweights of American craft beer, even earning a spot on Mashed's list of the 40 best beers you should be drinking.

At 7% ABV and 60 IBUs, Two Hearted doesn't rely on an elaborate assortment of hops to make its point — and that's the beauty of it. Bell's exclusive use of Centennial hops gives the beer its signature grapefruit and pine character. There's a delicious malt backbone that brings a welcome sweetness, naturally rounding out the bitterness without compromising the flavor of the hops. What won us over was the brew's harmony, from its floral, yet sweet, aroma to its clean, lingering finish. Other IPAs in our tasting might have offered more unusual flavors or greater intensity, but Two Hearted delivered the balance, character, and sheer enjoyment that earned it our number one spot.

For this ranking, we selected 12 IPAs representing a range of brewing styles and flavor profiles from craft breweries across the country. We considered each beer's hop character, aroma, mouthfeel, finish, and appearance, along with its overall taste and how well it represented its particular style.