The World’s Best Hazy IPA, According To The U.S. Open Beer Championship

The gold medal for best hazy IPA at The U.S. Open Beer Championship went to Chasing Broncos IPA from Save The World Brewery in Marble Falls, Texas. Save The World Brewery also tied for a bronze medal for the same category for Hunt For Hazy, another hazy IPA offering. The competition results were announced in early July by the Ohio-based competition that receives beer submissions from around the globe.

I’ve recently written about the best brewery award given by the competition, as well as the best pilsner, and the best IPA awards. However, I’m taking a closer look at the hazy IPA subcategory by itself because of their popularity. Hazy IPAs, aka New England IPAs, remain a dominant force in craft beer in the U.S. Critics may mock haze bros but if the IPA remains king of craft beer then hazies are the king of kings. For evidence of this just look at Sierra Nevada’s Hazy Little Thing, the first nationally available hazy IPA it surpassed the brewery’s flagship pale ale in sales in 2022. Or just go to your local brewery and ask the brewer what their best seller is — in the vast majority of cases whatever it is will be a hazy juice bomb.

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My personal feelings have gone back and forth on hazies. I loved the first hazy beers I tried coming out of Vermont and later Massachusetts, but then the style’s popularity led to copy cat beers. Some of these were also great, but many were terrible. Over time I became burned out on the style—in some cases, quite literally, as when made poorly the unfiltered beers can give off a yeast burn flavor that’s as unpleasant as it sounds. Recently, however, I’ve fallen back in love with certain hazy IPAs. I recently wrote about one made in Connecticut that has become one of my favorite beers this summer.

Of course, honoring quality beers is what a reputable beer festival is all about, and the U.S. Open Beer Championship is one of the best respected in the U.S. For the 2024 festival, judges blind taste-tested more than 9,000 beers across 170 styles submitted from a global slate of breweries. The Hazy IPA style saw more beers entered than any other category. In addition, to the gold medal winning Chasing Broncos IPA, three other beers medaled. Here’s a closer look at these award-winning hazy IPAs.

GOLD: Chasing Broncos From Save the World Brewing, Texas

Save The World Brewing describes Chasing Broncos IPA as a “experimental juicy IPA exploring the world of tropical hops” designed to showcase “an array of southern hemisphere hops.” This refers to hops frequently found in places like Australia and New Zealand, which are often celebrated for their tropical aromatics.

SILVER: Fogbringer 8 From Wandering Monsters Brewing, Ohio

The latest version of the brewery’s rotating hazy IPA Fogbringer 8 is made with Citra and Strata hops, among others, and then dry-hopped with large amounts of Citra hops. The process results in a beer that is described by the brewery as a “sweet and hoppy IPA that pushes citrus, stone fruit, and a bit of coconut.”

BRONZE: Tie between Seeing Colors Hazy IPA, From MadTree Brewing, Ohio And Hunt for Hazy, From Save The World Brewing, Texas

The two-way tie for the bronze medal in this category was split between Ohio and Texas. Seeing Colors Hazy IPA is made with El Dorado and Citra hops. Meanwhile, Hunt for Hazy is brewed to be smooth and juicy, per the brewery.

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