It’s the Sunday after the 10th Norman Music Festival and I’m exhausted. After a big brunch of leftover chicken, bacon, and brats from Klemm’s Smoke Haus, Kate and I are settling in for a nice day of lounging around the house while a cold wind is blowing around all the trees outside. This may not be the perfect setting for a juicy, tropical double IPA, but I really don’t care because I had some freshies in the fridge and I couldn’t let them sit there a minute longer without knowing how they were. Avoiding a “Homie Hookup” joke, thanks to our buddies Shea and Andy for grabbing me a 4-pack while Kate and I were at the Norman Music Festival on Friday.
Homie Hookup is the most recent brewery-only offering from Roughtail Brewing Co. and was released this Friday in a limited run of 4-pack cans. The beer is the second collaboration of the same name with Central Standard Brewing of Wichita, Kansas. The first was released by Central Standard and was a Double IPA with Comet, Azacca, Denali and Idaho 7 hops with the English yeast London III. Pineapple was added to that base beer and I was lucky enough to get a hold of one and it was absolutely incredible. I’m a sucker for pineapple and that beer was something special.
Well now Homie Hookup is back, and this time it’s being released by Roughtail. The base beer is the same, but they’ve changed up the fruit by adding pink guava, mango, and apricot after fermentation. If this is anything like the pineapple variation we are in for a real treat.
Company: Roughtail Brewing Co.
Location: Midwest City, OK
Style/Description: Double IPA with pink guava, mango, and apricot
Price: $13.00 per four pack
Appearance: Like a hazy sunrise with a fluffy white head and some sticky lace.
Nose: It’s not a surprise that this stuff is bursting with tropical aroma. The guava and apricot jump out the most to me with a hint of spicy mango, grapefruit bitterness, and dry pine.
Taste: Tropical juice comes out swinging. On the first taste it was the guava that stood out the most, which isn’t a flavor I get to enjoy often so it was very welcome. On subsequent sips, a different fruit seemed to jump out each time. The mango compliments the rich texture of the beer and the apricot helps highlight the small amount of dryness in the beer. The London III yeast does a great job of bringing all of those different elements into balance while highlighting the hops and keeping the fruit in check.
Finish: For me the guava and mango fell off fairly quickly leaving grapefruit bitterness, a welcome dryness, and some apricot notes lingering. Ultimately the sweet, juicy vibes are left in the dust with pithy bitterness and dry pine notes remaining resulting in a very well-rounded sip.
Overall: Alright, so this stuff is good. While the pineapple version released by Central Standard wins in my book as it’s probably one of the best IPAs I’ve had in quite some time, this one is close. I’m not normally a huge fan of apricot beers but the sweetness of the mango and guava balance it out and don’t allow it to overpower everything, which it normally does. While the combination of fruit is really nice, I would love to see a straight up guava variation as that is the flavor that really got my attention on this one. Or, bring that pineapple juice back. Either way, I hope they continue to play with this beer and release more in the future.
For now, you can still get this one on tap and as a crowler fill in the Roughtail taproom. It won’t last long and you won’t want to miss it.
Rating: 4.5/5