Eleventh Hour
Rhinegeist Brewery

 

 

Pours a golden hue that settles into something a little darker and amber, bright but hazy with a solid foamy cap. I smelled the bitterness right away. I'm clearly not good at detecting fruit! The taste, though, is pineapple-forward. The melon is evident, too. Otherwise, it's up front on the hoppy bitterness. The bitterness lingers over top the slight sweetness from the fruit. Mid-full bodied with a gentle but noticeable carbonation.

Good stuff, hits the spot when the non-IPA guy inexplicably wants an IPA. Cheers to Rhinegeist on 11 years.

 

This offering pours a bright golden color with a little white head. Nose and taste is very much malt forward. Very little pine and citrus on palate. Again very little bitterness for this beer, maybe due to high ABV. Decent beer.

 

 

 

 

Kicking off their eleventh year, Rhinegeist is showing some serious maturity. Foregoing all the trends, hype and bazar character of the craft beer world, they opt for a more classic IPA taste but with some technical advancements,

Bright and slightly haze with copper and amber, Eleventh Hour wastes no time shedding a frothy white cap and a juicy host of hop aromatics. Citrus, tropical, stone fruit and orchard fruit fill the nose while a first sip of caramel, toast and nuttiness suggests granola-like character.

As the hops build upon the middle palate, the tantalizing taste of tangerine, mango and apricot are bold and on high display while a backdrop of pineapple, grapefruit and peach bring complementary hop flavors before turning bitter. Growing with a resinous bite in finish, the late taste is piney, peppery and refreshingly bitter. All wrapped in a taste of cantaloupe and the beer comes together at last.

Full bodied yet easy to drink, this classic balance of an IPA relies on Cryo-keeping for ripe, radiant and bursting fruit flavors without interfering with a stern but clean bitterness to close out the session.

Canned on: 5-20-24

A - Medium gold with nice clarity and a very thin layer of bright white lacing.

S - Mostly pineapple with a little bit of tropical fruit.

T - Pineapple, peach, apricot, bitter pine/citrus on the finish while leaving some residual melon buried deep in the background with lingering bitterness.

M - Medium body with prickly carbonation

O - Solid middle of the road.