As recently as 2016, you couldn’t find a hazy IPA in Houston. Fans of the soft and juicy had to resort to beer trading or long-distance travel to get their fix. Given that the fourth-largest city in the United States was in the middle of a brewery boom—almost 30 breweries had opened in the previous five years—you’d be forgiven for assuming that at least one of them was leaning into the style that was starting to take the beer world by storm.
Yet, you’d be wrong. Sure, Lone Pint had its Mosaic-heavy Yellow Rose IPA, and Saint Arnold was selling its tropically hopped Art Car IPA—but for a lush, pillowy ode to citrus groves and mango orchards, there wasn’t anything on the market.
SpindleTap cofounder Brody Chapman says there was a void. He saw opportunity in some open square footage beneath the roof of his other business, Lightning Logistics, in the neighborhood called Homestead. A 2013 law allowing brewpubs to sell beer to-go also was encouraging.