Beer Nerd Alert! (Me...lol)
There's so many quality beers in cans now ....it's awesome, great for on the yak and the outdoors. I don 't consider $14 for a sixer all that much...it's 72oz of highly hopped , higher alcohol beer that requires more ingredients per batch and also more expensive ingredients than lets say a pacifico that uses corn or rice as a cheap filler. A growler from most breweries runs about the same for a fill.
That being said i would say pizza port cans either swamis at 8% abv or ponto at 5% abv are some of the best tasting and best value beers around $12 or $10 for a sixer of TALLBOYS....thats 96 oz of beer.
If you see "Booming Rollers" by Modern Times...I highly recommend it...It's a seasonal one by them so wont be on the shelves long...insane tropical hop aromatics bursting out of the can...about $10 for a four pack of 16ozers.
Lastly, make sure your IPA's are somewhat fresh...look for the dates and preferably kept in the fridge...a two week refrigerated sculpin is gonna taste way better than a six month old one thats been sitting on a warm shelf.
Good bottle shops that curate/ rotate stock are popping up all around..find a couple in your area. Heres a start.
http://www.beeradvocate.com/place/city/9/
Buy Local, buy American...good for the economy...screw InBev
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/AB_InBev_brands