Rhinegeist "Streaker" IPA

I'm not sure what made them decide to call this Streaker. Furthermore, I'm not sure why this one gets blessed with the red, white, and blue color scheme, but I'm not complaining. I was very happy with the last beer I had from this Ohio brewery, and I'm expecting this to be more of the same. This is also an IPA, and the most noteworthy beer from this brewery had been a pale ale. I'm thinking ales are the way for these guys to go.

The copper tone of this beer is very similar to that of its most recent stablemate. The lacing that the monumental head leaves is a bit more scant, but it's still pleasing to the eye in spite of the lint-stuck-to-a-black-shirt look. The sticky, clumpy bubbles floating on top of the beer are as close to beer has to icing on a cake. Underneath those bubbles are a bread malt with a dank mixture of tropical and citrus fruits. I think the dank is really going to set this apart from its sister.

First sip has a problem. The problem is that the dank really seems to have overcome the fruits. As a result, the impression of the beer is not a lot of bitterness, not a lot of sweetness, not a lot of fruits, and a fairly restrained dank. This means that, despite the fact that the dank has virtually taken over, the beverage gives the impression of being very watery. So far, this is not an improvement over the notably good previous beer.

Tip-in is dank and funk with grapefruit and mango at its heels while carbonation lightly sizzles. The middle demonstrates that this is how this beer was intended to be imbibed; plums, pineapple, apple, and orange join the fruit mixture above a quiet yet reliable honey and caramel malt. The finish is dry with dank rising up joined by bitterness before trailing off with a funky cloud.

Bottom Line: Drink this right, and it is worth the drink.

3.0/5