West Coast or New England IPAs: You're probably in one camp or the other. If you're in neither, here's a quick guide to two local examples. If you're firmly entrenched, one of these will likely make you very happy.

2 Row - Coastal Collision: You don't see a lot of Triple IPAs out there in the market, and even fewer tend to be made locally. It's a tough style; when you think about big ales like this, people often think of barleywines and Belgian tripels. But let there be no doubt, these are all IPA. This example is in the West Coast style, with big caramel-like malts and equally big citrus forward hops.

Coastal Collision pours a mostly-clear, medium copper-amber color, with three fingers of puffy, loosely foamy and bubbly head, which leaves some stellar webbed lace around the glass. It smells of bready and doughy caramel malt, biscuity toffee, mixed domestic citrus rind, a further indistinct tropical fruitiness, mild chalky notes and more leafy, herbal and gently perfumed floral green hop bitters.

The taste is grainy and bready caramel malt, cold toffee pudding, generic citrus vodka, red grapefruit zest and weedy, herbal and soused-up floral verdant hoppiness. The carbonation is fairly laid back in its plebeian frothiness, the body a solid heavyweight and generally smooth, as the malt wields a mighty sword to keep the 11.0 percent alcohol at bay. It finishes well off-dry, with the lingering caramel, citrus and alcohol colluding as such.

Verdict: This is indeed highly evocative of the West Coast DIPAs that first lured me into the game all those years ago: big, challenging citrus and forest-floor-detritus hops, with a sturdy-ass malt backbone. Great stuff, and warming to boot, so I just think I'll kill the rest of this one by taking a further walk down memory lane.

Saltfire - Big in Japan: While not a new brew by any means, this is the first time I've taken a crack at it for the Beer Nerd. This one screams New England-style IPA, with its turbid nectar appearance and high tropical fruit profile.

This cool-looking can pours a big, cloudy, frothy solution and appears to be unfiltered. Lots of white foam develops, with an average amount of carbonation; the color is light gold with orange highlights. A big-time aroma suggests lots of dry hops, with orange, melon and some piney/grassy notes, too. It's delicious to whiff, and I could smell this for a long time and be happy.

Some serious juiciness hits up front in the taste—a lot of orange, tangerine, some nice caramel sweetness and light alcohol. It finishes clean, and not harsh or astringent, like many citra-forward beers can be. Head Brewer Don Moore really pulled off the showcase of hops across the board; this one is truly wonderful, and one of the most enjoyable IPAs I've had from Saltfire in some time. Big in Japan boasts a big, creamy mouthfeel that lingers on the palate. The 7.0 percent ABV is spot on, and the unfiltered nature of this beer really aided with that impression as well.

Verdict: This is a big, hoppy, juicy IPA for hop-heads; I'd put this up there with some of Saltfire's best IPAs. The big juicy smack of hops, well-integrated and clean balance of this beer, as well as the awesome mouthfeel really designate this as an excellent NEIPA. I'm going back for more soon.

Find these at their respective home bases, and compare the distinct IPA philosophies that keep India Pale Ale on top of most breweries' beer portfolios.

As always, cheers!