Rhinegeist Brewery (Cincinnati, Ohio) - 1 February 2014

Rhinegeist Brewery  tap room

Rhinegeist Brewery brewing equipment

Rhinegeist Brewery is located in the Over the Rhine section of Cincinnati, Ohio.  The name means "ghost of the Rhine".  The tap room and brewery are located on the third floor of what was once the old Moerlein bottling plant (built in 1895).  This unique space provides plenty of options.  To the right is the tap room portion of the space, a small bar with a number of long tables where you can mingle with friends or meet new ones.




Just off the tap room is the brewery.  Rhinegeist is  a production brewery and their beers can be found on tap all around Cincinnati and occasionally in Dayton. They have recently begun to can some of their  beers. When we were there yesterday, we saw some cans at the brewery and their Facebook site shows them on sale.  We haven't seen them yet in Dayton.

I've really enjoyed the beers that I have had from Rhinegeist, especially Truth, their flagship IPA.  Gramps, their Barleywine, is also very enjoybable.  Most recently I had Panther, their American Porter.  It was much better than the highly hyped Deschutes Butte Porter that just made its way into Ohio.

The space is large enough to host corn hole and ping pong

The view to the right is open space that dominates Rhinegeist Brewery.  It's large enough for a couple of corn hole games and 4 ping pong tables (2 shown here and more in the back right hand corner), more seating, and special event space (they were seating up for a Lunar New Year party when we were there last night.  (NB - there was a $10 cover charge for the event).   I have also heard that they have started in indoor whiffle ball league. There is definitely no shortage of fun at this place.

Mad Tree Brewing Company (Cincinnati, Ohio) - 1 February 2014

Overflow crowd at Mad Tree Winter Bonanza

After weeks of below freezing weather, we took advantage of an unseasonably warm first day of February to visit  Mad Tree Brewing Company in Cincinnati, Ohio. Mad Tree pulled out all of the stops for their Winter Bonanza to celebrate their First Anniversary.  In addition to their tap room, they had a heated tent, and, because the weather was so nice, the parking lot was also full of people.  Mad Tree had all of their regular beers on tap as well as a number of their own and other brewery special brews.  In an interesting twist, new ones were tapped each hour keeping the interest level high.

Mad Tree tap room

The Mad Tree tap room is always a welcoming space with the wrap-around bar, high top tables, and the view of the brewing equipment (see below).  It can get quite crowded, as it was this day, but it still feels comfortable.  Every time I have been there, I am always surprised at the mix of people who are at Mad Tree.  This day, as all the times before, there were the young (babies in arms, children playing with toys), singles and couples of all ages.    Everyone is welcome here.

Mad Tree brewing equipment

Cans ready for filling 

In addition to the tap room, Mad Tree is a production brewing and one of the first in the area to can their beers, which they do exclusively. Distribution has just begun to expand beyond the Cincinnati area and we are grateful to have it here in Dayton now.




Mad Tree has an excellent selection of beers.  Hopheads  will definitely rejoice in PsycHOPathy their flagship IPA.  Just recently I had their Imperial IPA Galaxy High and on this trip I tried Y?PA, a session IPA.  It had great hop aroma, but wasn't dominated by high Alcohol by Volume (ABV).

Mad Tree is one of my favorite breweries to visit.  They have great quality beers in a welcoming environment.