My latest article for The Bulletin came out last week, and in it I reviewed Tropicano IPA from Crux Fermentation Project—labeled as a “tropical IPA” so I explored a bit of what that means. It’s also one brewed with experimental hop HBC 586, so I touch on that as well.

Some highlights:

Generally, these IPAs are brewed with hop varieties known for tropical fruit characteristics rather than spicy, herbal, piney, or resinous ones. Tropical fruit or juice may be added as well, though this seems to be less common. I reached out to Crux to find out if fruit or anything unusual was added to Tropicano.

“(The name is) simply based on the hops we used,” said head brewer Cam O’Connor via email. “We do use leaf hops in our hop back and dry hop in the fermenter.” But no fruit.

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HBC 586’s descriptors include “mango, guava, lychee, citrus, with slight sulfur and herbal notes,” according to the company — a great choice for a tropically inspired ale.

“It seems to be a good hop for these kinds of IPAs. Nice clean tropical notes that come through well in the finished product,” O’Connor said. “It’s a potent hop! Think Mosaic without some of the dank that Mosaic can bring to a beer.”

Read on to find out more!