Pilgramage: Rhinegeist Brewing Co.

After Winterfest, I had basically fallen in love with Truth, an IPA by Rhinegeist, so on our way back from Lexington, the Little Lady and I decided to make a stop in Cincinnati, OH to check out the brewery in person.

The brewery is located in an area that used to be called "Over the Rhine" which was host to much of Cincinnati's German immigrant population, at one point getting over 43,000 people strong. People spoke German, ate German and most importantly drank German. Rhinegeist is a nod to the German heritage of the area. The name translates Ghost of the Rhine, remembering the people that came before and really helped bring that rich brewing tradition to the Midwest.

Rhinegeist pulls from the area's incredible German heritage and is obviously one of many businesses that seem to be helping to gentrify the beautiful old buildings in this part of Cincinnati. So often, when you go to a brewery downtown you're stuck with street parking, but Rhinegeist hooks it up with a lot across the street from their building.

Rhinegeist is housed in a beautiful old brick building that housed a bottling facility at the end of the 1800's. When we went through the door, I was surprised to see a set of stairs in front of me. There wasn't a lot of indication that the brewery was upstairs, but there really weren't any other options, so I started walking up. When I got to the next floor, I was surprised to see that there was no door on this floor, but there were more stairs. Up I went for three floors before finally finding the brewery, but when I did I was in awe of how amazing the space was.

The brewery occupies the top floor of this beautiful old building. The room is an easy thirty feet tall with huge windows all around and skylights that let tons of natural light into the room. There are hand made picnic tables made out of pipes and reclaimed wood. This created a bright contrast to all the old brick and concrete that form the rest of the building. Tanks and brewing equipment were right there in the middle of the open tap house space. The tables were all huge, which encouraged you to sit with someone you may not know and have a chat. This really is one of the biggest things that I think we're missing in Indy. All of our breweries that do pint sales have intimate drinking spaces. There are small tables that don't encourage any interaction. This place looked a lot like an old school German beer hall.

The bar had a great industrial vibe to it and about ten beers on tap. They had their three staple beers and some outstanding seasonals on the chalk board menu. Beers were being served in tasters, pint glasses and snifters, giving Rhinegeist options for any beer that they're bringing to the table.

I was pretty disappointed that they didn't have any cans available. There weren't even coolers that would say that cans would be there in soon. Since they just started canning a few weeks ago, I will give them the pass for now.

I got their Gramps, American Barleywine. It came in at 8.8 ABV and had a wonderful bitter American hop profile. It poured out a red orange color with a thin layer of off white head on top. There was a big hop aroma right up front, and the hops continued nicely into the flavor. The beer had a huge sweet candy malt flavor but was cut nicely with the strong citrus flavor of the American hops. This brew was missing some of the big dark fruits and sherry notes that I look for in a barleywine, but that could be because it was fresh. I prefer most of my barelywines aged at least a year or so. All this flavor did an awesome job hiding the taste from the big alcohol. This was a wonderfully balanced brew and if it wasn't so boozy and it hadn't been noon I probably would have had a few more.

It's exciting stuff because these guys have just started selling cans at the end of January to their local market. They started with two styles: Cougar Golden Ale an easy drinking, very accessible beer and Truth IPA. Truth IPA is a big, flavorful, hopped beer that I fell in love with at the first sip.

I'm really impressed because these guys just came to the market in June of 2013. That means in just about eight months they've gone from not existing to canning beers and the cans look awesome. If they keep up the quality, these guys are going to be a driving force here in the Midwest. I can't wait for them to add Indiana to their distribution foot print. 

If you have time to make the drive this Friday, Rhinegeist is releasing their Saber Tooth Tiger Double IPA. It should be a great beer and a great party! Cheers.

Behemoth 2012

Three Floyds recently put out their Behemoth, American Barley Wine. You should be able to find it in liqueur stores around the city. It is 12% abv and 80 IBUs. This has huge flavor and tons of booze. They also released a barrel aged version. I am giving it a year to age before cracking it open (aging hoppy beers is tricky because as it ages the hop flavor gets less strong. You want to allow the booziness to mellow without letting the hops die out so I talked with someone much more experienced than I am and he recommended giving it about a year).

It pours out a hazy dark orange brown color... sort of a burnt sienna, with a nice light cream colored head that turns into slight lacing. It smells like pine and citrusy American hops mixed with alcohol... lots of alcohol. It is medium to heavy bodied with a nice amount of carbonation. So often you don't get much effervescence from thees bigger beers. It was great to get some good head and tasty bubbles.

This beer has a huge caramel flavor right up front. Big sweetness with a hint of roasted malt flavor. It is almost syrupy sweet. There is a great hop character to it all that balances the malt really well. I didn't notice it as much at first but as I drank the beer, the hops started overwhelming the flavor of the rest of the beer. It wasn't necessarily bad, actually I should have expected it from FFF. It was good enough that I picked up two regular bottles to age and the barrel aged version. I will make sure to post about the differences after giving it a bit of time to mellow out.

Go grab two of these. Drink one now and set one aside. This beer has a 100 rating on ratebeer and anything that scores that well is worth waiting on a bit. As it is I give the beer a 4 and I am hoping that with a bit more time it could be a solid 5. Check out my post on aging beers at home to get more details on how to let your beers sit right too.

Bourbon Barrel Johan

Sun King just released 250 bottles of Bourbon Barrel Johan, which is about as limited of a release as it gets. It was the first beer they brewed when Sun King started up in '09. The beer released on Jan 28th, but there were 125 bottles that were available for preorder on the 21st. I was out of the state for the week but my wonderful, beautiful, gracious wife was able to get on the list. Preorders sold out in about sixty seconds, so she was good.

It was easy to pick up. They gave anyone who preordered a week after it was released to get it, but it did set me back $25 for a pint bottle and I was only able to grab one. I got it home and decided it would make the perfect start to my Super Bowl beer extravaganza. From what I was able to find on the net, BB Johan is 10% abv with 60 IBUs. It is an English Style Barleywine.

When I poured it out it was a dark mahogany with almost no head, just a bit of tan lacing around the edges that lasted for most of the beer. It smelled like vanilla and oak barrels, which is pretty standard for something that has been bourbon barrel aged for three years. There were also scents of dark dried fruits and a heavy lingering boozy aroma.

The first sip told me this was going to be a big beer. It was sweet and intoxicatingly boozy. It had a nice round caramel flavor with dried fruits and some winterish spices. These mixed great with the oak and vanilla flavors that came from the barrel aging process. I wish that the barrel flavors had been a little bit more laid back, because they were starting to overtake the sweetness of the beer itself. It finished off with an alcoholic sharpness that helped cut through the sweet malts and barrel flavors.

The beer itself was a sweet and syrupy mouthful with almost no carbonation. It was like drinking a true wine.

Whenever I get my hands on one of these super rare beers, I feel obligated to give it a five without tasting it. There are a ton of beer heads out there that all of a sudden go nuts trying to find these diamonds. I really have to sit back and think about the beer so I don't go crazy with my review. Rarity does not guarantee an outstanding beer. This was a very good beer, totally solid and I would gladly drink it again, but I liked the Velvet Fog better.

I give it a 4

RisGoop

This was a very interesting gift from a friend. It is a collaboration by Three Floyds and Mikkeller. It was brewed in the US by Three Floyds and across the pond. I got the one brewed here.

RisGoop is a 10.4% abv and 80 IBU barley wine, but the catch is they used rice in the malts. Rice is commonly used for some of our favorite exciting, unique and innovative domestic beers like Miller Lite, Bud.... This is just not an ingredient I expected to see going into a craft beer. RisGoop poured out a clear orange color with a light head that faded away quickly. The nose was heavy on the orange and grapefruit, so I knew that I would be in for some serious hops.

I was surprised to find that I liked the beer as much as I did. It had a crisp taste from the rice malts that gave it a dry finish. There were hints of caramel but they were drowned out by the hops in a mostly acceptable way. The malt profile was really just a clean stark backdrop for some serious hoppy action.

The hops mixed and mingled their unique flavors together to give me a wonderful experience. Upfront there was a grapefruit flavor with some heavy pine tastes. It mellowed out into more of the orange peal and pine flavors as it sat on your tongue. Sometimes that first in your face blast of hops can just scorch your taste buds making the rest of the beer only taste bitter. This brew did it right. Everything married well together and you are able to taste all of the unique hop profiles. If you like hoppy beers or are just feeling adventurous give this one a try. It is well worth it.

This is a limited run collaboration, so get out there and try to find a bottle.

Not normally my style of beer, but I was very impressed. I can't wait to crack open my second bottle.

I give it a 4

500 Monks

So I have had some stuff from Triton Brewery at bars and festivals, but I had never made it out to Fort Benjamin Harrison to check them out. For this post I decided to make the drive.

When I got there it was totally warm and welcoming. I sat up at the bar with about five other drinkers and asked the guy next to me for a recommendation. He told me I had to try 500 Monks, so I did. I had it there, and liked it so much that I brought a bullet back for my wife and I to enjoy that evening.

This is a fresh pour at home

500 Monks is a barely wine produced by Triton. I like everything to be bigger, and this one is. It has jacked up alcohol and jacked up taste. The ABV was 9.5% and the IBUs were 29.

The beer was a dark amber color. It had a light head and a fruity malty scent. It had a strong malt start. Heavy caramel taste with a creamy feel and a hint of pear. It had a light hoppy finish that added to the complexity. It was a strong flavor that was totally in your face in all the right ways. It was full bodied but drinkable (again it should have been done in an 8 oz tulip or snifter glass, but I have no class). This is one to sit down and enjoy in front of a fire on a fall day or outside with a cigar.

Probably my favorite part of this was the aftermath. My lips had a sweet fruity taste for at least the next five minutes and that was outstanding. After trying a half pint of this at the tap room, I had to take a growler home for later. It stood up even days later as a great beer.

Great job Triton. I will be back. 

I give it a 4

Killer Whale

More from the STL...

By this time O Dog was not in the greatest shape, so I offered to get this put up after he did 6 Row Brewery.

ABV is 9% IBU's 62.8

On the right we have the Whale. On the left we have the Killer Whale. In the center we have a really creepy Prof. Beer. 

We had had a beer or two at this point, not sure that it makes it any better.

The Whale is a mash up of ten different beer grains. 6 Row actually discovered this brew by accident. It is highly acclaimed and has become one of their flag ships. I did not love it. It had a weirdly complex yet flavorless flavor to me, but life is too short to spend it dwelling on things we did not love, so lets move on to the Killer Whale.

The Killer Whale is a jacked up version of their Whale. It has been turned into Barley Wine. This was great. It came out with a deep red color and had just a hint of head, that dissipated quickly. It had a fruity smell with some floral hops mixed in for good measure.

The taste reminded me of a Belgian or German beer. It had a nice fruity flavor, strong an yeasty with a nice hoppy bite. Tons of sweet malt and boozy flavor that you get in a barley wine, white just a bit of spice. The jacked up flavor helps give the Killer Whale a bit more guts than its predecessor the Whale. 

I give the Killer Whale a 4

Sadly I give the Whale a 2.5