I love when other breweries come into Cincinnati to collaborate with our local spots (You guys are paying attention to that killer West Coast IPA that Fretboard and Fat Heads are releasing later this month, right?) – but as much as I love that for my own personal drinking purposes, from a birds eye view of things it might even be more fun to see our local spots heading somewhere else to collaborate with a brewery. For instance… this collaboration between Karl Strauss and Rhinegeist.

Karl Strauss Brewing

This brewery is one of the OGs, for sure. They started brewing (and have been independent) since 1989, cranking out really great beer ever since. In today’s world of craft beer, and the struggles that some of those mid-big sized spots have faced – it’s impressive to see how they’ve stayed true to who they have always been, while navigating an ever changing world of trendy… stuff.

They’ve expanded since they opened their doors in the 80s, bringing their brewpub concept to somewhere around 9 different locations in California, now – each one with their own personality. If you get the chance to try some of their beer… grab it. They’ve been cranking out some great stuff – bringing in more than 115 different medals including a best mid-size brewery of the year at 2016’s GABF.

Sounds like a good place to share some Cincy love, right?

The Collaboration Beer

It’s pretty impressive the growth that Rhinegeist has seen, and it’s certainly turned a few heads in the craft beer world. Karl Strauss being one of those. They wanted to help share some of what Rhinegeist does with folks on the West Coast, their stomping grounds and bring them into their collaboration series.

When they were deciding what that collaboration beer should look like, Karl Strauss made note of some of their more fruit forward offerings. Leaning into that they built out a recipe for a fruited IPA that seems like a perfect fit for the two spots.

The beer is called ‘All The Peels’ – and it launches this week on draft and four packs in all the Karl Strauss brewpub locations as well as retailers in California and Arizona. It uses a big blast of Blood Orange to give it a fragrant citrus note, and then follows it up with Cascade, Crystal, Columbus and Chinook hops for a big resiny, floral backbone.

While no… you won’t find it on shelves around town, I hope that it brings a little joy to you in the same way it does to me, knowing that somewhere, some craft beer geek across the country is taking a sip of a beer and asking their bartender about this brewery in Cincinnati – maybe planting a little seed.