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Tasting Notes

Typical of a Double New England IPA built around waffle-forward or dessert-adjacent hop character, expect a dense tropical and vanilla-tinged aroma with notes of mango, passionfruit, and a soft doughy sweetness underneath. The body is full and pillowy, with a hazy, almost creamy texture that softens the bitterness to near nothing. Flavor leans into ripe stone fruit and citrus zest with a lingering sweetness on the finish. The 8.3% ABV is well-integrated, showing little heat and adding to the impression of richness without heaviness.

About the Brewery

Tree House Brewing Company is based in Charlton, Massachusetts, and has built one of the most devoted followings in American craft beer since opening in 2011. The brewery is closely associated with the New England IPA style, widely credited alongside a handful of other Massachusetts breweries with defining and popularizing it. Their releases — often named with playful, offbeat titles — routinely draw long lines and sell out quickly, and their taproom operation has become a destination in its own right.

Food Pairings

The beer's tropical fruit character and full, creamy body make it a natural companion for spicy Thai curry, where the sweetness tempers heat without disappearing into the dish. Grilled shrimp tacos work well because the citrus and mango notes mirror the brightness of lime crema and fresh salsa. A waffle or French toast brunch plate — nodding to the name — plays into the beer's doughy sweetness and makes both the food and the beer taste more dessert-like. Aged Gouda is another solid match, as its caramel and crystalline nuttiness aligns with the malt backbone present in most Double NEIPAs.

Style Guide

The Imperial or Double New England IPA takes the hallmarks of the New England IPA — hazy appearance, low bitterness, heavy dry-hop aroma, soft body — and scales up the malt base and hop load to push ABV into the 8–10% range. The style prioritizes juicy, tropical, and stone-fruit hop character over resinous bitterness, distinguishing it sharply from West Coast IPAs and their clear, dry, piney profile. It originated in New England, particularly Massachusetts and Vermont, in the mid-2010s, with breweries like Tree House central to its development. The Double version retains the haze and smoothness of its standard counterpart but adds a fuller body and more pronounced malt sweetness to support the amplified hopping.