Mountain IPA you say? It’s a rather romantic way of describing a beer that falls somewhere between the two in-vogue extremes (geographically speaking, that is) of West Coast IPA and East Coast IPA. The former, righteously bitter and brightly clear, the latter as furry and fuzzy and full of fruit juice flavours. Somewhere in between, again geographically speaking, is Colorado where Oskar Blues produced Dale’s Pale Ale (sweet and piney 6.5 per cent pale ale) and Odell created Mountain Standard, juicy fruity with some haze and a hit of late bitterness and thus a regional genre was a born. A handful of Kiwi breweries have played with the “style” including Deep Creek and Ground Up. Given the loose boundaries of Mountain IPA, it’s hard to say a brewery has nailed it as such, but Laughing Bones Treeline IPA (6.3 per cent) gives you exactly what it says it will: a beer that’s juicy, fruity, a little hazy but with an underlying bitter kick. Utilising a load of the tropical-meets-pine Sequoia hop blend, it truly is east meets west and a good waypoint for anyone who finds West Coast IPA too bitter or Hazy IPA too sweet.