Best West Coast IPAs
The West Coast IPA is the style that taught the world what American hops could do: crisp, dry, bitter, and aromatic, with the malt pulled back so Hops take center stage. The beers below are critic's picks for the style done right: clean, assertive, and resin-bright.
These are recommendations from structured tasting, weighed by the criteria in How These Were Selected. West Coast IPA in particular fades fast, so chase freshness above all.
#The picks
| Beer | Brewery | Location | ABV | Why it's notable |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pliny the Elder | Russian River | Santa Rosa, CA | ~8.0% | Genre-defining (technically a Double IPA); the benchmark for balance |
| Sculpin | Ballast Point | San Diego, CA | ~7.0% | Bright apricot/peach hop character; widely distributed |
| Union Jack | Firestone Walker | Paso Robles, CA | ~7.0% | Textbook citrus-pine West Coast bitterness |
| Two-Hearted Ale | Bell's | Comstock, MI | ~7.0% | All-Centennial showcase; a Midwest beer in a West Coast spirit |
| Resin | Sixpoint | Brooklyn, NY | ~9.1% | Dank, resinous Imperial from an East Coast brewery with a West Coast soul |
| Racer 5 | Bear Republic | Cloverdale, CA | ~7.5% | Long-running, dependable Northern California classic |
Bell's Two-Hearted Ale is brewed in Michigan and is, geographically, a Midwest beer. It earns a place here because its dry, balanced, Centennial-forward profile is West Coast in character. Style is a flavor description, not a postal code. That's a useful reminder that the West Coast IPA label travels.
#What links these beers
Every pick shares the West Coast template: a pale, dry malt base, firm-to-aggressive bitterness, and citrus-pine-resin aromatics from classic American hops like Centennial, Simcoe, Cascade, and Amarillo. The clarity is deliberate: these beers are filtered or well-settled, the opposite of the New England IPA. Their roots run back to the Rise of the West Coast IPA and the broader The American Craft Beer Revolution.
West Coast IPA rewards correct handling: see Serving Temperature (a touch warmer than fridge-cold opens the hop oils) and drink within weeks of packaging.
#Honorable mentions
Many breweries make excellent versions, with Stone, Alpine, Green Flash, and Knee Deep among them. The style's bitterness is no longer fashionable everywhere, but a well-made West Coast IPA remains, for many critics, the purest expression of the American IPA.
#Continue Reading
- West Coast IPA: the full style profile
- Best Double IPAs: when you want more intensity
- Rise of the West Coast IPA: how the style emerged
- Best IPAs by Region - United States: the regional picture