Hazy IPA (New England IPA)

A hazy IPA pours straw to very light amber, often with an orange hue, and hazy enough to look almost opaque, under a rocky, meringue-like white head. The smell hits you first: mango, passion fruit, peach, citrus. The body feels soft and smooth, and the bitterness stays lower than in a classic IPA, though the hops lead every sip.

Where it comes from

Brewers in New England, in the north-east United States, developed it as a variant of the American IPA. The Alchemist’s Heady Topper is believed to be the original inspiration, and the style spread through the 2010s. It keeps changing, with a trend towards even lower bitterness.

The haze comes from the hops: polyphenols from heavy dry-hopping bind with proteins from oats and other flaked grains. The brewers add much of the hop during and after fermentation, where the yeast transforms the hop oils and adds to the fruit. They use less caramel malt than in a classic IPA, and chloride-rich water.

How to serve it

Pour it at 7–13 °C into a nonic pint, and drink it fresh, since the fruity hop aroma fades. It goes with sweet-and-savoury dishes such as a Hawaiian pork tenderloin.

Next to its neighbours

Against an American IPA, a hazy IPA feels fuller and softer, tastes more of fruit and less bitter, and looks cloudier. Versions with added fruit, lactose or vanilla, the “milkshake” IPAs, fall outside the style.

Hazy IPA (New England IPA) in numbers

Classic example

The Alchemist

Original gravity

1.060–1.085

Final gravity

1.010–1.015

Food

Hawaiian pork tenderloin; goat’s blue cheese; matcha crème brûlée

Classic examples

Alchemist Heady Topper (the inspiration); many regional craft breweries in the USA and beyond

BJCP style

21C Hazy IPA

Sources

Checked October 29, 2026.

1. 21C. Hazy IPA, 2021 Beer Style Guidelines — Beer Judge Certification Program
2. New England IPA — CraftBeer.com, Brewers Association