{"id":20072,"date":"2016-03-10T09:30:33","date_gmt":"2016-03-10T15:30:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.guysdrinkingbeer.com\/?p=20072"},"modified":"2018-02-06T14:11:08","modified_gmt":"2018-02-06T20:11:08","slug":"hot-takes-quick-tastes-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.guysdrinkingbeer.com\/hot-takes-quick-tastes-1\/","title":{"rendered":"Hot Takes, Quick Tastes: Green Line, Summit Saga, Todd the Axe Man, Band of Bohemia, Pollyanna’s Lexical Gap"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/p>\nN<\/span>ot every beer needs a deep dive. Trust us, we can get pretty<\/em> detailed when it comes to drinking beer — see pretty much everything we published in the first few years of this site — but we also recognize that there are A) a lot of beers out there and B)\u00a0you don’t have a ton of time in your day.<\/p>\n So here, without further blithering on our part, are some quick snapshots of beers we’re enjoying in the world today. The internet would call these Hot Takes, or something like that. Anyways. Drink at your own risk.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n You may have seen us mention this on Instagram<\/a>, but at $5.99, it’s a really<\/em> damn good\u00a0pale ale for the money. 312 Urban Pale was a whisper of a beer compared to Green Line (which you may remember, the news of its nationwide release we broke here<\/a>), with zip for malt character and a quick flash of hop bitterness. Green Line, which we have been a fan of for years, comes correct with big rich chewy wheat-bready malts and a proper balance of bright, just-right-bitter hops that’s fairly easy drinking — I wouldn’t reach for this when it’s 90 degrees outside, certainly — but still immediately recognizable as\u00a0a beer<\/em>.<\/p>\n The\u00a0aggressive price makes me wonder if a battle is brewing — for the casual consumer, if you are looking for one of those hip new fancy craft beers you’ve heard about and you see Daisy Cutter for $9.99 on the shelf, and Green Line just inches away for\u00a0$4 cheaper, what do you think they’re likely going to pick? Sure, we<\/em> know that Daisy Cutter is the better beer…but for a $4 price difference, “pretty good” just might win the day more often than not.<\/p>\n We received a couple cans of this beer in the mail\u00a0with a note telling us that Todd the Axe Man was back, but we could have likely discerned that by the mad rush of hopheads flocking to any Surly-friendly bar in town looking for this massively, brutally bitter IPA. Even while people dial back their hop bills and tell us that the IBU arms race is over, no one must have told Surly — this is one thrash-metal jam of a beer. It comes on quick and rough (I’d say abrasive, but well, you know), blasts you quick like a Reign in Blood-era Kerry King solo and ends hard and fast — there’s next to no tail here.<\/p>\n Typographically, if a regular IPA\u00a0looks like this: maltmalthophop<\/em>HOP<\/strong>hopppppp<\/em>malttttttt<\/p>\n Then TtAM looks like this: hopHOPHOPHOPHOPHOP<\/strong>h<\/p>\n That might be the weirdest beer review I’ve ever written. Does that make sense? Who cares, it’s late.\u00a0Is this beer really good? Yeah. Is it $16 a four-pack good? Only you can answer that. Find one on draft first, and if you can’t live without it in your fridge, then buy ruthlessly and without remorse. (Our TtAM was received gratis, as mentioned above.)<\/em><\/p>\n Hey, had any beers from Summit lately? No? Could you even name<\/em> a Summit beer if I held a gun to your head and gave you 3 weeks\u00a0to think of one? Maybe?<\/p>\n Look, Summit doesn’t get a lot of discussion ’round these parts because for the most part, they make pretty middle of the road beers, that are pretty decent, but never really that exciting. And you know what? Sometimes that’s exactly what you need.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n I was sitting at The Green Lady recently and I just wanted an IPA. A plain old don’t-think-about-it-too-much IPA. Not a brett IPA, not a DIPA or an IIPA or a Triple IPA or a Black IPA or even an Extra Pale f’ing Ale. Just gimme a goddamn IPA. Saga fit the bill exactly. It’s a good beer. It’s a better than average beer. It’s an enjoyable beer. You should have one, if you’re not too busy ordering the weirdest thing on draft to impress your friends and tick it on Untappd.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n
\nGoose Island’s Green Line:<\/strong><\/h4>\n
Surly’s Todd the Axe Man:<\/strong><\/h4>\n
Summit Saga:<\/strong><\/h4>\n
Band of Bohemia’s Persimmon Honey Biscuit:<\/strong><\/h4>\n