Roughtail’s Adaptation IPA series has become quite the thing here in Oklahoma. Those damn “beer geeks” start going apeshit when Roughtail social media posts start hitting with pics of empty cans ready to be filled. Why? Well, because the dudes over at Roughtail make some bad ass IPAs, and the Adaptation series seems to be their outlet for experimentation and hopping the shit out of things.

So let’s talk about this Batch #5. This one is a single-hopped IPA with Mango and was canned earlier today, August 2nd. This afternoon in a response to someone else’s question on Facebook (this is pro journalism, guys) Tony Tielli stated the beer is “100% comet. All whirlpool and dry hop, no bittering/kettle hops.”  Well that sounds delicious. Tony quickly followed that response with another saying “oh and a pound of mango puree per gallon of beer.”  Alright, I’m on board.

Before I start drinking this thing, let’s talk about some other goings on over at Roughtail. IPA Day is this Thursday, August 4th, and to celebrate Roughtail will be brewing up 6 different one-off IPAs. Brewer Matt Denham gave us the list of beers and we can’t wait to give them a try. Here’s they are:

• Oats and Ho’s – Ton of Oats and Idaho 7 Hops
• Galaxy session IPA
• WhEaT Dreams – Wheat IPA with Mosaic Hops
• WhEaT Dreams with Boysenberry Purée
• IPA with Simcoe and Azacca hops
• Above IPA Simcoe, Azacca, and Citra Hops with Plum Purée

These 6 brews will be available at IPA events around the area with 2 being available at the TapWerks IPA Day event this Thursday and the other 4 available at The Patriarch’s Beer Cinema and IPA Day event on Saturday. We don’t know which beers will be where yet (although it looks like the plum one will be at TapWerks), so you might as well just go to both things and drink ’em all! TapWerks will have WhEaT Dreams and the Plum IPA on Thursday while The Patriarch will have the other 4 on Saturday.

Alright, with the newsy stuff out of the way, let’s dive into this beer.

Disclaimer: This product was provided at no cost to Barrels and Mash with no strings attached.

Company: Roughtail Brewing Co.

Location: Midwest City, OK

ABV: 6%

IBUs: 60-ish

Style/Description: Single Hop IPA with Mango

Price: $16 (4-pack, 16oz cans)

Appearance: Just straight up orange juice with a medium white head

Nose: Herbaceous and dank with tons of sweet juicy mango and some light citrus. There is a real fruit cocktail vibe to it with a hint of grassy earthiness stuff going on.

Taste: The hops are the first thing that jump out at me with a nice, mild grapefruit bitterness and a real earthy, piney quality. The mango isn’t overpowering at all, and is in fact is more subtle than I expected. It adds a great body to the beer and some nice fruity sweetness to help balance out the bitter citrus.

Finish: I don’t feel like I just drank a beer. The finish is straight juice. It bounces back and forth between orange juice and the delicious syrup in your fruit cocktail. Towards the end some of the dankness comes back in and really makes for a super complex ending. Call me crazy, but there is also a touch of carrot in there…no? Anybody?

Overall: One of these days Roughtail will release an Adaptation that I don’t dig…but today is not that day. There is so much going on with the combination of straight Comet hops and the mango that give this beer a little bit of everything. Sweet, bitter, fruity, earthy, dank, all in nice balance and all very delicious and refreshing.

Rating: 4/5