Roughtail Brewing Co.

 

Arrived after a long day of driving through Oklahoma. Attractive mahogany bar with 24 selections on tap on the big screen tvs. Big airy place with lots of outdoor seating and a kitchen off to the left. Friendly and kind of relaxed, but maybe it was just a quiet Monday night.

I was famished and ordered a chicken Philly sandwich with fries and the kolsch. The sandwich was ready quick and was tasty with plenty of condiments at the kitchen.

After I inhaled both, I followed it up with Strength, their west coast IPA.

I was pretty impressed with the overall effort. Beer was high quality and I can imagine this place does sell later in the week.

 

Sprawling newish brewpub on the north side of town. Long straight bar opposite the entrance along the back wall seats about 20 with a variety of seating options about the room and a patio outside. Brewhouse visible through glass to the right of the bar. 24 beers on tap, also available in 16oz crowlers to go... personable bartender.

 

I visited Roughtail while in OKC a couple months ago. It’s a great big taproom, not really industrial, but high ceilings and the brewhouse visible behind some windows. Service was efficient and friendly enough; there seemed to be plenty of regulars in the house, and a couple TVs on the walls.

There were 24 beers on tap on my visit, including four (!) BBA stouts, eleven (!!) IPAs of various strengths and sub-categories (including a low-calorie IPA), a porter, amber, kölsch, “pub ale”, bock, hefeweizen, a pickle gose, a Mexican lager, and a fruited sour. So, kind of a huge and varied selection; I had a couple of their top-rated flagship IPAs and they were, indeed, quite good.

 

Oh, what a beautiful day… On walkabout, or driveabout as it is. Came way the hell up from points further south OKC and ain’t looking back. I’m not due in KC ‘til Tuesday and am running the 'anything but the shortest distance between two points' route. So, much to see today and some time ahead of me in the car (where are they keeping Tulsa these days?), but it’s early yet, I’m in no rush, and have heard some decent things about beerings here. Easy to spot standalone on the side of the road, Memorial. Could be the giant Roughtail Gecko on the front of the building…

Parked and headed past the outdoor seating to in. It’s a large open room, and I’m navigating it to the rear where sits a straight dark wood grain laminated topped bar, horizontal wood plank base, and no foot nothing. Seating for a dozen on steel framed leather chairs. 24 non-descript handles on a stainless panel on barback center, with glassware shelved to both sides, a can crimper here, a crowl crimper there, and a cooler on the end with chilled goods to a-go go. A pair of 4 X 8 horizontal letter boards above list beer & style, lit.

White walls, with a logo piece in the corner, and an Oklahoma shaped wood plank piece there (me, pointing). Large ass 30 bbl brewery behind glass on the far wall; they do some distribution, they do, uh huh. Concrete floors, black corrugated ceilings with blended ductwork, large loop chandeliers in 2 rows with filament baseball bulbs, spins down center, & some sprawling potted plants a-dangling. Large boxed merch zone up front.

A long row of 3 hightops with nearly 2 dozen leather stools tucked under it to pull out either way down the middleish of the room. 4 long picnics sit horizontally to one side, and 6 angled squares, a forward hightop barrel round table, 5 shorty booths along the far wall, & an 8 seat bar counter forward there on the other side. Secret side room holds 4 long picnics and can be all closed off via sliding barn door action. Its far far wall is done up with a bright colorful mural, and they’ve got a large projection screen for the viewing of things, I suppose. And the aforementioned outside space; hop vine lined wooden trestle & a dozen and a half steel mesh tables for the sitting at.

23 beers on tap, 1/3 of them hoppy (Frickin’ Hazer Beams!, NE PA, 5.5%; Facemask Penalty, NE PA, 5.1%; Lil’ Orange, Session IPA, 4.2%; Hail Jucifer, NE IPA, 6.66%; Everything Rhymes with Orange, NE IPA, 6.5%; You’re not My Real Dad – Batch 3, IPA, 6.5%; Enchanting Clouds, NE DIPA, 8.5%; Hoptometrist, DIPA, 9%), and the rest of them running the range from light to dark and malt to sour to roast everything (Lifeguard on Duty, Kolsch, 5.2%; Roam & Ramble, Blonde Ale, 5.8%; Outdated References, Pale Lager, 5.6%; Mom’s Spaghetti, Italian Pils, 4.5%; Lagartija, Mexican Lager, 5.3%; White Water Bae, Wit, 6%; Polterweisse, Hefeweizen, 4.9%; Road Toad Sour Ale, Berliner Weisse, 4.9%; Dill or no Deal, Pickle Gose, 6%; Aura of Relaxation, Imperial Fruited Sour, 10%; Cottage Core, Fruited Pastry Crisp Sour, 9%; Mean Muggin’, Amber, 5.5%; Patsy Porter, English Porter, 6.2%; Caviar Dreams, BBA Imperial Stout on Vanilla Beans, 13%; BBA Polar Eclipse 2019, BBA Imperial Stout, 14%) + a can or two (Lake Folk, American Light Lager, 5.3%; Aura of Vitality, Fruited Gose, 7.8%).

Beers are served in 4oz, 8oz, most in a 12oz + cans or crowls or not. I started with a sampler of 4, served on a stave (Patsy Porter, English Porter, thinnish & lacking; Mean Muggin’, Amber, meh; Outdated References, Pale Lager, good; Mom’s Spaghetti, Italian Pils, Win!), and then as clearly I’m apparently still here, I’m thinking another sampler to be in order (Polterweisse, Hefeweizen, a bit clovey; White Water Bae, Wit, coriander, sure; Everything Rhymes with Orange, NE IPA, the flagship IPA, Citra, Simcoe, & Mosaic, solid IPA; Hoptometrist, WC DIPA, thank you, damn that’s a whole lot of bitter, round 2 Win!).

The place is beginning to fill in nicely. I bring that. You’re welcome. Brandon & Cicely behind the sticks today. I ask for the beerz and they bring them directly to me. It’s a good relationship. Nice, friendly, attentive folks. Chatty motherfucker that I am, I’m talking to other people from not here. Someone’s from goddamn Johnstown, PA, eeesh (you got out, congrats), and Chicago Paul, and then the other lady, and the other other lady who dealt me that Lagartija. I like this place, good tunes. Excellent tap list with quite the range. Some very nice beers here.

Digging the new location, Still in an Industrial Setting, but in a way better area of the OKC Metro. Nice outdoor seating area. Some cool inside art & plenty of places to sit. Nice food truck there the day we were there . Quality of the beers are first rate & there were 20+ beers with a wide variety of styles, plus some seltzers. Worth a visit for the best beer in the area

Way over priced for me, $13 to $15 for four 4 ounce pours. I guess I'm missing something. Nice place with friendly service. But 10,000 other microbreweries offer that too.