Hands down, the coolest location & building to date
housing a local Cincinnati brewery is Rhinegeist. If you haven’t had the opportunity to check
out their brew digs, do so as quickly as you can. I was fortunate enough to have been at
BrewRiver one night when Bryant came by a couple of weeks ago to let the folks
at BrewRiver determine what beers from Rhinegeist they wanted to first have on tap. Yep, that really did happen….how cool am
I? OK…I’m not really cool…just right
place at right time.
I have to admit; out of the gate I am always a bit skeptical
about how well a beer presents itself in a growler. As it turned out, a few of
the beers had fallen a bit because they had been in the growler a tad too long.
However, that was NOT a reflection on the beers at all, because after having
them on tap in person at their launch of their Imperial IPA SaberTooth Tiger on
site, they all stood out as great beers!
The beer that took front stage for me was their Spikelet
beer. This is an American Wheat ale that is dry hopped with Bravo and Centennial
hops. The color on this beer is more
amber than golden. The nose is
immediately refreshing, presenting a zesty hopped whiff. What’s most interesting about the taste on
this beer is how the hops build on the aftertaste that is also slight grassy. The wheat is not very present nor is the zest
in the taste. It finishes with a very dry
and clean finish. This is a
fantastically sessionable American Wheat that is an absolutely perfect summer
beer. It is unfiltered with great head
retention and is 40% wheat. This beer is
going to pair well with anything from the grill, particularly grilled
seafood.
Session Warning: Spikelet will NOT be denied! This beer will lock you in into a
session. You might try to fight it, or
you might try to ignore it. However you
will not be able to escape the lock this beer will put on you. Nor should you deny yourself a session with
this beer. Just accept going into it, if
you are out already have your “ride” set up. You will tumble, willingly or
unwillingly, knowingly or not into a session tango with this delectable dance of
a brew. Spikelet will toy with you, it’s that simple. Spikelet will taunt you, mock you, mislead
you, tempt you and ultimately be your best friend. Just when you think that you’ve have your last
pint, that little “Spikelet -session-devil” will pop up on your shoulder and
whisper in your ear; “come on-just one more, nobody’s counting!”
The brew digs at Rhinegeist are unparalleled. Located at 1910 Elm St., just about a block
north of Findlay Market, the building used to be part of the original Christian
Moerlein brewery. This space is impressively cavernous. The only downside for the brew digs is that
it can get a bit balmy. They could use a
few more “big-ass fans”. (That’s really
the name of a fan…look it up). Not surprisingly,
one can also find cornhole here like many other Cincinnati Breweries. Now I
understand that Cincinnatians like their cornhole (why do I feel like I need to
whisper that?). But why can’t we just
have only dart boards in the local Cincinnati breweries???? Can’t we make that
a “beer-law”? Now, I’m not “hating” on
corn-hole…but….could you imagine our Irish Brethren darting over the pond to
partake in the brewing magic beginning to unfold here in Cincinnati? We must prepare ourselves, lest they return
to Ireland and tell stories, fables and tales of the bean bag riddled breweries
in Cincinnati with nary a dart to be found!
(uh, oh, sorry…now stepping down of my soap box). Now horse-shoes…that’s a completely different
story….that would be an admirable undertaking for a brewery! Horse-shoes for
everyone!
I have heard a few people comment that the folks at
Rhinegeist must be rolling around in funding because of the size of their brew-digs. Granted its huge…but don’t let the size of
their facility fool you. This brewery,
like many others, has tall tales that are boot strapped adventures that were
necessary to launch their dream. In
fact, they located much of their equipment used at a closed brew facility
in Mexico and were purchased on the cheap.
Just smart people making smart business decisions.
5
Cool Brew Clues:
(Things to talk about and impress with whoever will listen with while partaking…)
1. IBU: 40 ABV 5.5%
2.
The tables at the brewer were constructed from
old discarded lumber left at the facility
3.
The keg washer was also brought over from Mexico
and was purchased for $300.
(normally $20K piece of
equipment)
4.
When they started they found a ton of Simcoe
cheap, so they were able to leverage the size of their facility to store and
keep it cool long enough.
5.
Brewery was initially built in 1895.
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