Rhinegeist Brewery is stretching its Cincy Light brand beyond beer, rolling out a new vodka soda called Cincy Splash that will hit shelves across the Dayton, Northern Kentucky and Columbus markets in late August. The Over-the-Rhine brewery is pairing the launch with a fresh sponsorship deal that makes Cincy Splash the Cincinnati Bengals' official local vodka soda partner, giving the drink a presence at Paycor Stadium once the NFL season kicks off.
The new drink is a mix of vodka and fruit juice available in three flavors — black cherry, peach and pineapple — according to Cincinnati CityBeat. Rhinegeist plans to widen distribution further in September. Adam Bankovich said the company is adding Cincy Splash to its Cincy family of products, and that Cincy Light has become an important part of Rhinegeist's overall portfolio, per the same CityBeat report.
Cincy Splash will ship in single-flavor 12 oz. four-packs of Black Cherry and Pineapple, plus an eight-count variety pack that adds Peach, according to Rhinegeist Brewery. Each can carries 100 calories and 2.8 grams of sugar, undercutting the 110 calories in Rhinegeist's flagship Cincy Light lager, a comparison highlighted by Brewbound.
A Bigger Play for Bengals Fans
The vodka soda launch lands alongside a broader expansion of Rhinegeist's relationship with the Bengals. Brewbound reports that Rhinegeist has become an Official Hometown Beer Partner of the team, rolling out specially packaged 12- and 24-packs of Truth IPA and Cincy Light to go with Cincy Splash's stadium debut at Paycor Stadium this season.
Cincy Light itself has roots in college sports fundraising rather than pro football. The lager was created in May 2023 through a partnership between Rhinegeist and Cincy Reigns, the University of Cincinnati's Name, Image and Likeness collective, with $2 from every case sold going toward supporting UC student-athletes, according to On3.
Chasing Drinkers Who Skip Beer Entirely
Cincy Reigns Board Chair Brian Fox said introducing Cincy Splash lets the NIL collective pull in funding from consumers who don't typically drink lager or beer at all, as reported by Brewer Magazine. That logic tracks with a broader industry shift: spirits-based ready-to-drink cocktails have become the fastest-growing segment of the U.S. alcohol business, helping spirits overtake beer in overall U.S. alcohol revenue in 2025, according to Vinetur.
The global canned alcoholic beverage market reflects that same momentum, reaching $8.92 billion in 2025 and projected to nearly double to $17.38 billion by 2030, per The Business Research Company. Rhinegeist's move into vodka sodas positions the brewery to capture some of that growth without abandoning its beer lineup.
A Regional Trend Rhinegeist Helped Start
Rhinegeist and Cincy Reigns were early movers in tying craft beverages to NIL fundraising, and other Tri-State schools have since followed suit. Miami University, Xavier and Northern Kentucky University all launched similar co-branded craft beer partnerships by 2025, according to WVXU.
Rhinegeist has built plenty of scale to support that kind of regional footprint. The brewery opened in June 2013 inside a historic 25,000-square-foot Over-the-Rhine building that once served as the bottling plant for pre-Prohibition Christian Moerlein Brewing, according to Wikipedia. By 2020, industry rankings placed Rhinegeist as the 26th largest independent craft brewery in the country and the second largest in Ohio by sales volume, per 24/7 Wall St.
