The name Outer Reaches perfectly symbolizes Rhinegeist Brewery‘s mission here to experiment and to take its time doing so. The Cincinnati-based craft brand just announced its newest sour program — a lineup of Brett Culture, Mixed Culture and Fruited/Cuvée Sour suds that it says is “light-years in the making.” Bryant Goulding, co-founder of Rhinegeist, notes in the video above: “Sour beers are complex, slightly mysterious and utterly delicious and compelling,” but they also take a lot of time to get correct. It can take months or even years to allow lactobacillus and other bugs to naturally sour beer in a barrel program, and Rhinegeist has been dabbling with sours for years before this launch.
Today, Rhinegeist’s basement workshop houses four foeders (each with a 120-bbl capacity) and hundreds of barrels aimed at aging and sours. The first handful of sour brews will emerge from the ether over the next few months, starting with Infinite Dawn, a Sour Blonde Ale. Each beer in the Outer Reaches series will be available in 500-ml bottles in very limited quantities in Ohio, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Indiana and Pittsburgh. The video work above captures the impressiveness of the program with some beautiful imagery. It’s definitely worth a watch.
