Rhinegeist Celebrates A Year Of Cincy Light

By: The Gnarly Gnome

7/18/24

Light Beer. American Light Lager if we’re going to start getting specific about it. For a very, very long time, craft beer drinkers saw the world’s best-selling style as “the enemy.” Drinkers joked about people who chose this style at bars, and no craft brewery would have been caught dead making the style.

However, things have changed somewhere along the long journey of craft beer. Drinkers have loosened up a bit, they’ve become a little more willing to try things that at one time they might have made fun of, and people have started to understand and embrace the old adage that “there’s a time and a place for everything.”

Well-crafted, well-marketed, light American lager is having a moment right now – and here in Cincinnati, there’s nothing quite like Cincy Light.

What Is Cincy Light, And Why Is This A Big Deal?

Cincy Light wasn’t the first Light American Lager produced by a Cincinnati brewery. It wasn’t even close. The explosion that Rhinegeist saw with this release, though, is something that Cincy hasn’t seen before. To call the beer a “success” doesn’t quite even scratch the surface of the impact that this has seen around town.

Cincy Light is a beer that gives back to student-athletes via its collaboration with Cincy Reigns. It’s a beer that has taken tap handles in bars that would have NEVER put on a local beer before. Cincy Light actually competes with other light lagers—and it does it by focusing on Cincinnati.

Light Beer Has Never Been About Local

There are other successful light beer brands that have cropped up over the last few years. Some of them were started by small craft beer brands, and others were started by companies that wanted to take a piece of a very big pie.

The thing that has tied almost all of these light beer brands together is that they focus on a very big picture. They focus on national brands, it’s big brands that connect with big ideas that are designed to sell from coast to coast. The path to success for one of these light beer brands is through wide distribution through many states, lots of beer, lots of people.

Rhinegeist gave that idea a very friendly middle finger and did things the exact way that they were familiar with. They looked to Cincinnati, their home, and stuck with the people who already knew who they were… and it worked.

The Success

Over the last year, Cincy Light has become the brewery’s second-top-selling brand by volume and third-best seller by sales. It’s a massive success because it’s a brand that understands who Rhinegeist is… and sticks to it.

This is a lesson that I hope a lot of craft breweries are learning by watching the success and failure of the places around them.

Who are you?

The Celebration Event

Rhinegeist is throwing a big event on Friday, July 19th, to celebrate this beer (and the collaboration that made it possible). The event will take place all day long, from 11:30 a.m. until 7:00 p.m., in the Rhinegeist taproom in OTR. It’s free and family-friendly.

During the day, they’ll have all sorts of fun stuff going on:

• Tony Pike will host a live radio show from noon until 3 p.m. with special guests like Dan Hoard.
• An NCAA 25 Tournament will go down to celebrate the official release of the video game from EA Sports. You could play against your favorite Bearcat with a few guest participants in-store.
• Performances by UC Bearcats: Members of the University of Cincinnati’s band and cheerleading squad will add some school spirit to the celebration with pop-up performances throughout the day.
• Local food: Enjoy some great food from some of your local favorites.
• Games and activities

I think it should be clear now: I have a lot to say about Cincy Light’s growth and why it’s worked so well. I will probably be talking a lot more about light beer in the coming months, so stay tuned.