Brewery – Rhinegeist with Pipeworks
Beer – Astro Dwarf
Style – Hazy IPA
ABV – 6%
IBUs – 60

Astro Dwarf, our astronomically awesome Hazy IPA collab with Pipeworks, layers tropical and citrus notes upon an oat and wheat base. Dank with a delightfully soft mouthfeel, this brew may take you to a distant realm…

Rhinegeist teamed up with their friends out of Chicago, Pipeworks, for this one.  The breweries each had their own version of the collaboration, with Astro Dwarf hitting Cincinnati and Astro Giant hitting Chicago.  The beer was marketed as a ‘Hazy IPA’ – though some drinkers here in Cincinnati took a little offense to that… stating that it wasn’t hazy “enough” or didn’t have the soft fruitness that they wanted.

The brewery added a bit of flaked oats and wheat to soften the mouthfeel of the beer up a bit, and massive amounts of dry hopping was utilized to boost the fruity, citrusy and tropical flavors, without kicking up the bitterness.  They used a combination of Bravo, Galaxy, Mosaic and Hallertau Blanc hops, and got this city all riled up with the thought of another great NE IPA when they announced it.

My Thoughts On Rhinegeist Astro Dwarf

I get the gripes a little bit… I recognize that this isn’t as “hazy” as it might have been.  I can understand the expectations that some of the people who were complaining had.  It’s a light golden orange color, with a nice thick white foamy head on top but it’s a fairly clear IPA.

The aromas are lifting off the top of the beer from nearly the minute that you crack open the can of beer.  I get a nice blast of tropical fruit, and citrus backed up with a light breadiness that I like.

The flavor is a little more bitter than I was hoping for a beer that I (not the brewery) classified as a NE IPA.  After I resign that this beer isn’t what I was expecting, I can take another sip and find a really great beer.  It’s got all the fruitiness, and tropical fruity flavors I love, a wonderful soft mouthfeel that is then punctuated by a medium bitter bite that cuts through nicely.

I like this, and It’s going to hold a solid place in my memories of the summer of 2017, when it seems like the haze took over the Cincinnati Beer scene!

Leave a Comment.