Ivee and Sister Golden Hair presented me with tickets to a Cincinnati Reds baseball game this year as their Mother's Day Gift to me. Not just any Cincinnati Reds ball game, however. A Friday night home Cincinnati Reds game which features a fireworks display at game's end. Ivee, knowing how I love fireworks, chose this game particularly for me. In our discussions about the game, we decided to spend the entire day in Cincinnati together, then make our way to the stadium in the evening. Sister Golden Hair works on Fridays and could not join us. While I loved the idea of the game and fireworks, I loved the idea of spending the whole day with my son even more.
With an hour or so to kill in the afternoon, Ivee asked if I would like to visit one of the breweries in Over-the-Rhine for a craft beer before the game. Because I enjoy craft beer and because I have never been to Over-the-Rhine, he received an enthusiastic "Yes" from me.
It is my nature to digress as I write, when I think an explanation might be necessary. I so want to tell you how Over-the-Rhine got its name. I found it fascinating.
Over-the-Rhine is a historic Cincinnati neighborhood. It is listed in the National Register of Historic Places and is one of the largest urban historic districts in the country. Over-the-Rhine was populated by German immigrants in the mid 1800s. The neighborhood was separated from downtown Cincinnati by the Erie and Miami Canal. Bridges spanned the canal.The German immigrants, many of whom worked in downtown Cincinnati, crossed the canal to walk to work downtown. The canal was nicknamed "the Rhine" for the river in Germany of the same name. The neighborhood to the north of downtown then became known as "Over-the-Rhine".
Over-the-Rhine fell on hard times as the number of industrial jobs plummeted and the German immigrants moved to the suburbs. It became a poor inner city neighborhood. After the riots of 2001, developers began to purchase and renovate the Italianate buildings. Revitalization continues to this day. The neighborhood is thriving.
Back to the story.
Ivee directed me to park in front of a warehouse which housed Rhinegeist, "Ghost of the Rhine". The building originally served as part of the Moerlein Brewery early in the century. Visit the website to read about this venture. Theirs is an interesting story, beautifully told.
We entered the building and walked up half a flight of marble stairs. The smell of stale beer greeted my nostrils. This building in no way met my expectation of a brewery. I expected some slick, dark, gleaming woody type of environment.
Our feet clattered up the old decorative iron staircase. New cement blocks were laid right next to the old concrete portions of the building. Each landing featured terrazzo floors, though there were visible cracks. While there were elements of beauty, the whole building felt confusing, a little lost. I eyed Ivee suspiciously as we walked up flight after flight of stairs. Surely, this couldn't be a brewery. Finally, we exited the stairway at the very top of the building to walk into a huge open room, unlike anything I had ever seen.
The immense room had enormously high ceilings and was flooded with natural light. Rhinegeist offices lined the perimeter of the room to the west. Light strands hung haphazardly from one concrete post to another.
At one end sat the bar, a tap for each of the 14 beers. The man in the red straightbill is Ivee, buying us a pint. I selected A-side, "India Pale Ale brewed up with flavor beats of dank baritones, sticky-icky pine and citrusy high notes for a symphonic hop explosion". Ivee selected another India pale ale named Truth, "brewed with a nod to the Pacific, hops sizzle with tropical fruit aroma, grapefruit and mango notes and a dry finish."
While I waited for Ivee to return with my beer, I began to take note of the room. Remnants of moldings from a century ago remained. Gleaming stainless tanks filled the north end of the room, next to the bar area. Beautiful heavy long pine tables were set up around the room, as were both corn hole boards and ping pong tables. People of all ages gathered in groups around the tables and games. Music filled the air This was a place where people came to have fun.
Two enormous ceiling fans kept the room from being stifling, as there was no air conditioning.
Artwork covered the walls, where blocks had been laid to block up old openings. This was surely a work in progress, as posters around the room announced, but what an interesting work. We took it all in as we sipped our beer.
Ahhh! What a gorgeous glass of beer in the late afternoon sunlight! Cheers!
Should you find yourself in Cincinnati, Ohio, with a hankering for an exquisite adventure, drive yourself to Over-the-Rhine and visit Rhinegeist. You will not be disappointed.
By the way, Cincinnati beat the Washington Nationals, 5 - 2.
The fireworks were the best I have ever seen!
