Let’s not pretend 2025 behaved itself. This was a year that pinballed between triumph and faceplant, between communal joy and late-night doomscrolling, between “we’re so back” and a long, exhausted sigh. Rather than file a complaint with the universe or scrawl a manifesto on a cocktail napkin, Peaks & Pints suggests the older, sturdier solution: hops, turned up, administered with intention. Before we shut the doors and let the glitter finally settle, we revive a favorite end-of-year ritual with a lineup of unapologetically boozy IPAs, each one built to warm, steady, and carry us across the threshold. This all-day-until-we-close-at-9 p.m. New Year’s Eve flight isn’t about erasing the year so much as fortifying ourselves for what comes next — a lupulin-heavy sendoff to 2025 and a raised-glass welcome to whatever strange, radiant nonsense 2026 is already sharpening its knives for. Sweatpants or sequins, lone wolf or full wolfpack, the instruction remains the same: breathe in, sip deep, begin again.
Peaks & Pints NYE Imperial IPA Countdown Flight
Block 15 Hoppy New Year
8.8% ABV | Imperial IPA | Corvallis, Oregon
Fireworks arrive in hop form here, a celebratory rush of pine resin, citrus peel, and a flicker of dank green confidence that arcs bright before landing clean and dry. Block 15 Brewing brews this like a toast raised at full volume, warming without weight, assertive without chest-thumping, a New Year’s IPA designed to escort the old calendar out and usher the next one in with lupulin swagger and a knowing grin.
Russian River Pliny the Elder
8.0% ABV | Double IPA | Santa Rosa, California
Time has a way of turning things into monuments, but Pliny the Elder still moves with dancer’s grace, all pine snap, grapefruit rind, and immaculate resin trimmed to a razor finish. Russian River Brewing treats hops here like a discipline rather than a dare, saturating the palate without drowning it, a double IPA that proves power can be precise and legends can remain light on their feet.
Boneyard Beer Hop Venom
9.0% ABV | Imperial IPA | Bend, Oregon
Straight to the point and unapologetic about it, this is lupulin confrontation at working speed, pine sap and grapefruit pith crashing into dank evergreen grit that sticks around with intent. Boneyard Beer brews Hop Venom as a no-frills imperial IPA, muscular but controlled, a Bend-born reminder that big hops don’t need haze, sweetness, or excuses to get their message across.
Van Ewing Can I Get A Witness
10.0% ABV | Triple New England IPA | North Haven, Connecticut
Mid-sermon and glowing, this pour hums with hop gospel, Freestyle Hops and Mega Terps amplifying Nelson Sauvin’s white-grape flash and Elani’s tropical pulse into something dense, aromatic, and dangerously smooth. Van Ewing builds Can I Get A Witness as a triple IPA that keeps its footing, saturated without sloppiness, a Connecticut revival that asks the question loudly and answers it with another easy, confident sip.
Avery The Maharaja
10.0% ABV | Imperial IPA | Boulder, Colorado
No knocking, no warning — this one enters in full regalia, a towering decree of pine resin, grapefruit pith, and assertive bitterness that still feels daring after all these years. Avery Brewing designed The Maharaja as a test of will and balance, a big IPA that carries its alcohol with authority yet finishes cleaner than expected, reminding you that true imperial strength isn’t about volume alone, but command.
LINK: Peaks & Pints beer and cider cooler inventory
