This Way to IPA

Start hopping around at Thin Man Brewery’s original location (492 Elmwood Avenue, 716-923-4100; thinmanbrewery.com), in Buffalo’s historic Elmwood Village. and their forward-thinking, hop-focused beers. Climb aboard the hazy IPA train with the smooth Trial By Wombat, which contains flaked oats and Australia’s melony, peachy Galaxy hops, or the fruity and lightly dank Bliss double IPA.

Resist the urge to order a second glass and decamp to downtown Buffalo’s Big Ditch Brewing Company (55 East Huron Street, 716- 854-5050; bigditchbrewing.com). It’s a former Verizon service center reborn as a bright, bi-level restaurant and brewery that can’t make enough Hayburner, an unfiltered, grapefruit-scented IPA with gripping bitterness.

Old Buffalo rubs shoulders with new Buffalo amid the towering grain silos of the Old First Ward, where you’ll find the massive second outpost of Resurgence Brewing Company (55 Chicago Street, 716-768-6018; resurgencebrewing.com). The industrial-sleek space, outfitted with chandeliers, offers seating feet from the gleaming fermentation tanks. Start with cloudy Cosmic Truth, which packs a huge tropical punch into a beer that’s about as strong as a light lager (just 4.3 percent ABV).