Breakside Brewery Introduces New Year-Round West Coast IPA
When Ben Edmunds tells us where IPA is headed, we should probably listen. When he says his new beer is what West Coast IPA should be, we should probably agree. He’s earned that right. Breakside Brewery‘s just-released beer — simply, confidently called West Coast IPA — might just serve as the new definition of the style.
That’s not a small claim, and it’s not an honor I bestow lightly. We’re talking about a brewery whose flagship IPA is now the most-winning IPA in Great American Beer Festival history, a title earned over more than a decade of Breakside showing up and kicking butt at the country’s most prestigious beer competition. Stack on 21 World Beer Cup medals, 31 GABF medals total, 100 Oregon Beer Awards medals, and multiple Oregon Brewery of the Year honors, and you start running out of room on the trophy shelf.
Our new Breakside West Coast IPA is not the IPA that got your parents into craft beer, but it might be the one that makes you reconsider everything you think about IPA.Ben Edmunds, Founding Brewmaster at Breakside Brewery
I hate using the word “best” when talking about beer. Too subjective, too easy to argue with. But at some point we have to concede that Breakside might just be the best IPA brewery in America — if awards and expert consensus mean anything at all. And I think they do.
So yeah, founding brewmaster Ben Edmunds gets to speak with some authority about where IPA goes next. You don’t have to listen, beer-drinking friend. That’s your call. But know that pretty much every other brewer in the country already is.
Here’s the thing about West Coast IPA — it’s not the beer it was 15 or 20 years ago. Remember when Green Flash dropped a beer simply called West Coast IPA back in 2006? If you can recall that original version, you already know how far the style has drifted. Understatement of the year. Today’s West Coast IPAs are drier, more aromatic, built on hop varieties that didn’t even exist back then. I can practically hear Grandpa muttering “kids these days” from the porch.
Breakside’s new release doesn’t just lean into that shift — it leans hard, dialing back the dank, resinous hop character in favor of the newest hop science available, chasing tropical and stonefruit aroma while keeping bitterness clean. That’s the pitch, anyway. I look forward to finding out if they nailed it. I’d bet on it.
“The new IPAs today should be so easily delicious and gloriously fresh tasting that they wow you with the full potential of hops,” Edmunds said — a brewer who also holds the Brewers Association’s 2023 Russell Schehrer Award for Innovation in Brewing, which tells you this isn’t someone dabbling. “Our new Breakside West Coast IPA is not the IPA that got your parents into craft beer, but it might be the one that makes you reconsider everything you think about IPA.”
That’s a bold line. Coming from most breweries, I’d raise an eyebrow. Coming from the brewery holding the title of most-decorated IPA in GABF history, I’m inclined to take it seriously. No — I’m compelled to.
As for what’s actually in the glass: three hops doing the heavy lifting. Mosaic brings sweet citrus and ripe tropical fruit. Oregon-grown Strata adds soft fruity notes and a clean finish. Krush contributes overripe stonefruit and fruit-cocktail depth. Underneath it all, a simple malt bill of crushed and flaked wheat alongside Pilsner malt, built to let the hops do the talking. This release also marks the debut of Breakside’s refreshed can design, with the brewery’s name front and center, rolling out across the full core lineup this fall.
If you’re anything like me, you’re excited to try this one. Curious about this one. Compelled toward this one. Breakside West Coast IPA is rolling out now in 6-packs of 12oz cans and on draft at all Breakside locations and throughout the brewery’s distribution footprint.
Go get you some.
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