Knowledge Is Rhinegeist’s Take on Imperial IPA

Experimentation runs deep in Rhinegeist’s ethos. Each day the brewery says it strives to make the best beer, focused on quality & consistency. That said, the creative act of coming up with new recipes and experimenting to see how different techniques and ingredients represent themselves in the final beer is one of the most compelling things it can do.

There is a degree of alchemy — yeast does its work behind stainless steel walls — and raw ingredients simply do not taste exactly like the final product, so the brewers must brew with them to find out how certain ingredients will express themselves.

One of the beer styles enjoyed most is IPA — the complex flavors and aroma hops imbue to beer proves a constant siren for those in the brewhouse. Each harvest (mid to late September) since opening, members of the brewery have traveled from Cincinnati to Yakima, Washington, to select the lots of hops that will ultimately end up in the beer.

In Yakima each year, co-founder Bryant Goulding and his staff meets with hop suppliers, farmers and watch the vines harvested down off the trellises, knocked off the bines, baled, dried, and finally pelletized.

“We rub and sniff each lot of each variety that will ultimately make it into our beer and it’s with these selected hops that we can predictably brew the same beer,” Goulding said.

The Experimental Double IPA Series the brewery began brewing this past year was a brewed essay on the expression of hops.

“We played with hops we had never brewed with before, in combinations we had not yet explored, and pushed in different directions with yeast and dry hopping treatments,’ Goulding said. “We learned a few things along the way — namely that we love to experiment and we want to keep this project rolling — but also that we specifically enjoyed one version (Exp. DIPA #004) that we felt was distinct enough from the rest of our portfolio to warrant life as a year round brand.”

This beer is Knowledge. Knowledge is an intensely hoppy Imperial IPA that expresses the deep pine and citrus tones that put American hops on the map. Columbus, Chinook, Simcoe & Centennial play a melody that fires on all pine & citrus cylinders.

“It’s in these experimental “aha” moments where we hear the secret music,” Goulding said.