8th Wonder NEIPA Review: Mountain Hops Brewhouse’s Casper, Wyoming Hazy IPA

I keep a running list of the hazy IPAs I actually want to drink again, not just the ones that were fine at the time, and 8th Wonder NEIPA from Mountain Hops Brewhouse out in Casper, Wyoming has stayed on that list since the first can showed up in a care package from a friend who moved out there for the elk hunting and never left. It is a small nano-brewery beer, the kind that never shows up on a shelf near you, which is exactly why I want to talk about it.

At a Glance

What Is Mountain Hops Brewhouse?

Mountain Hops Brewhouse is a nano-brewery in Casper, Wyoming, started by Eric Magnuson after the Mishap Brewing operation in nearby Buffalo closed and he bought the leftover equipment. He had been homebrewing for years before that (his father homebrewed back in the 1980s), and the original taproom opened at 612 N. Beverly Street in June 2020 as a 3-barrel system with a tree-covered outdoor patio that regulars still ask about by name. Five years later, in spring 2025, Mountain Hops opened a second location downtown at 101 E. 2nd Street, inside a 1930s building that used to be a jewelry store, giving the brewery more indoor seating and a smaller test system for experimental batches. Readers of the local paper voted it Casper’s best brewery, and it sits within walking distance of Black Tooth, Frontier, Bull Horn and Cygnet, which tells you plenty about how much the Casper beer scene has grown around it. If you want the full context on where American IPAs sit in the broader beer world before diving into this one, my hazy IPA breakdown is a good place to start.

ABV, IBU and What Is Actually in the Glass

8th Wonder NEIPA checks in at 6.6% ABV with 73 IBU, according to the brewery’s own tap listing. That IBU number is worth pausing on. Most New England IPAs sit in the 40 to 60 IBU range on paper (and taste far softer than that thanks to the late-hop, low-bitterness brewing method), so 73 is on the higher end for the style. In the glass it does not read as sharp or piney; it reads as a deeper, slightly resinous bitterness sitting underneath the fruit, which is the main thing that separates 8th Wonder from a lot of the cotton-candy-sweet hazies on the market right now. Mountain Hops has built a small family of variants off this same base recipe: a 9th Wonder NEIPA fermented with Norwegian kveik yeast at 7% ABV and the same 73 IBU, and a Double 9th Wonder NEIPA pushed to 8.8% ABV with a farmhouse kveik strain. If you are curious how a beer this hop-forward compares to a true imperial-strength release, my imperial-strength guide explains where double and triple dry-hopped beers start to diverge from a standard NEIPA.

The brewery has not published a full grain and hop bill for this one (it is a nano-brewery running a 3-barrel system, so recipes shift with what is on hand), but the hop character in the glass reads as a classic C-hop and tropical blend: think mango and orange peel up front with a grassy, slightly dank finish rather than pure candy sweetness. That tracks with the 73 IBU figure. If you want to understand what that number is actually measuring before you use it to judge a beer, my IBU explainer covers the science in plain language.

Tasting Notes: Pour, Aroma, Flavor, Finish

Pour: Deep, hazy gold shading into light orange, the kind of murk you want from a NEIPA rather than a filtration mistake. It builds a thick, rocky off-white head that hangs on for a while and leaves real lacing down the glass, which lines up with the 6.6% ABV and full-bodied oat or wheat-heavy grain bill you would expect from the style.

Aroma: Ripe mango and orange rind first, with a background note of fresh-cut grass and a faint pine resin that hints at that 73 IBU showing up before you even taste it. Less candy-sweet than a lot of hazies I have gone through this year, closer to biting into the fruit itself than drinking fruit juice.

Flavor: Juicy citrus and stone fruit up front, a soft, pillowy malt body in the middle (classic NEIPA mouthfeel, no real bite from carbonation), and then that higher IBU count shows up as a resinous, slightly bitter finish that keeps the whole thing from turning cloying. It drinks closer to a well-built West Coast-leaning hazy hybrid than a pure juice-bomb.

Finish: Medium-dry with a lingering grapefruit-pith bitterness. At 6.6% ABV it is sessionable without being watery, and the extra bitterness means it does not fatigue the palate as fast as some of the sweeter hazies I have gone through a full pour of.

Food Pairing

The citrus and light pine in 8th Wonder NEIPA plays well with grilled and smoked food. My go-to pairing is grilled chicken thighs with a citrus marinade, since the beer’s mango and orange notes echo the char without fighting it. Spicy Thai basil chicken or a green curry works too, the bitterness cuts the heat the way a good hazy should. On the smoked-meat side, this beer sits comfortably next to pulled pork with a vinegar-forward Carolina sauce; the acidity in the sauce mirrors the citrus-pith bitterness in the finish. For a full rundown of what beer styles work with what dishes, my beer and BBQ pairing guide covers a lot more ground than one beer’s pairing notes can.

How It Compares to Other Hazy IPAs I Have Reviewed

Against the wider hazy IPA field on this site, 8th Wonder lands in the middle of the pack for sweetness and toward the top for bitterness. Son of Juice from Maplewood Brewing leans much juicier and sweeter with almost no backbone bitterness, which makes 8th Wonder feel like the more grown-up version of that style. Mountain Haze takes a similar higher-IBU approach but pushes further into resin and dank hop character. If you want something closer to 8th Wonder’s balance of fruit and bite but from a New England address instead of a Rocky Mountain one, Pulp Truck IPA from Marsh Island Brewing is worth tracking down. And for a beer built on the same base-recipe idea (one house hazy IPA spun off into stronger variants), Thunderbird is a good comparison since it takes the same build-a-family-around-one-base-beer approach as Mountain Hops does with its 8th Wonder, 9th Wonder and Double 9th Wonder line.

Where to Find 8th Wonder NEIPA

This is the honest catch with a nano-brewery beer: 8th Wonder NEIPA is a taproom pour at Mountain Hops Brewhouse in Casper, Wyoming, split across the original Beverly Street location and the newer downtown 2nd Street spot. It is not bottled or canned for retail distribution, so it will not show up at a liquor store or ship to your door through an alcohol delivery app. If you are planning a Wyoming trip (or you live close enough to make the drive), go straight to the source. For everyone else, the five hazy IPAs below are all real, currently available beers you can order right now that land in a similar juicy-but-not-cloying lane.

5 Hazy IPAs to Try If You Cannot Get to Casper

Should You Try 8th Wonder NEIPA?

If you are ever in Casper, Wyoming, yes, without much hesitation. It is a well-built NEIPA with enough bitterness backbone to stand apart from the sweeter, more one-note hazies flooding the market, and it comes from a genuinely local nano-brewery that has earned its “best brewery in Casper” reputation the slow way, one taproom pour at a time. The catch is availability. This is not a beer you can order online or find at a bottle shop three states away, so the honest recommendation is either plan a trip or lean on one of the five alternatives above that chase a similar juicy-with-bite profile and will actually ship to your door. For more on what separates a good hazy from a great one, my hazy IPA guide is worth a read before your next tasting.

FAQs

What is the ABV of 8th Wonder NEIPA?

8th Wonder NEIPA from Mountain Hops Brewhouse is 6.6% ABV, according to the brewery’s own tap listing.

What is the IBU of 8th Wonder NEIPA?

It comes in at 73 IBU, which is higher than most New England IPAs. That extra bitterness gives it a more resinous, less purely sweet finish than a typical hazy.

Where can I buy 8th Wonder NEIPA?

It is a taproom-only pour at Mountain Hops Brewhouse in Casper, Wyoming, available at both the original Beverly Street location and the newer downtown 2nd Street location. It is not bottled, canned or distributed for retail sale.

Is 8th Wonder NEIPA the same as 9th Wonder NEIPA?

No. 9th Wonder NEIPA is a related beer from the same brewery using the same base recipe fermented with Norwegian kveik yeast at 7% ABV, and Double 9th Wonder NEIPA is a stronger 8.8% ABV version of that kveik variant. 8th Wonder is the original 6.6% ABV base beer.

What does 8th Wonder NEIPA taste like?

Ripe mango and orange citrus up front, a soft pillowy malt body typical of the New England IPA style, and a resinous, slightly bitter finish that comes from its higher-than-average 73 IBU.

What is Mountain Hops Brewhouse known for?

Mountain Hops Brewhouse is a nano-brewery in Casper, Wyoming, founded by Eric Magnuson in 2020. It was voted Casper’s best local brewery by readers of the Casper Star-Tribune and runs two locations: the original Beverly Street taproom with its tree-covered patio, and a newer downtown location that opened in 2025.