Hop Tongue IPA - Karbach Brewing Co.

“How Come You Taste So Good?” I’ll tell you why.

I was very happy to find this IPA to showcase some more unique Chinook beers. Hop Tongue is a classic IPA with some serious West Coast IPA vibes. West Coast IPA’s are known for their strong hop aroma, high bitterness, and citrus and pine aroma and flavors. Hop Tongue definitely has piney and resinous flavors with some forward fruit flavors that make it easy to drink. 

This beer surprised me! With Chinook being such a strong hop, it really didn’t overpower the other flavors, allowing the pine to come forward with tropical fruit flavors like pineapple and mango. 

Hop Tongue IPA has a beautiful golden orange color and carries a complex flavor profile. In addition to the pine and tropical fruits, it has nice malt sweetness and dense and resinous hop flavors from the Chinook, Simcoe, and Centennial hops that were used. This beer is a great fit in Karbach’s lineup with that old school West Coast IPA flavor. 

It was nice and sessionable, even at 7.5% ABV and 70 IBUs, with a really great balance of all the above flavors to help it go down so smoothly. 

Karbach suggests pairing Hop Tongue with yellow curry (pictured right), grilled pork, fajitas, and fish tacos (I can confirm that it goes very nicely with curry). Karbach has some great mainstays with German and Texas roots including one of my favorite Texas beers -- Hopadillo. Karbach also has some fantastic seasonal varieties and a lineup of hard seltzers. 

Visit Karbach in the Houston area if you ever have the chance. They have a biergarten and restaurant with a delicious menu. We make it a point to stop every time we’re in Houston.

Cheers!

Mr. Brew