Green River

Tuesday 28 July 2015. 3.2 footcandles lighting, 65 dbA noise. Very quiet, one other customer. 8 of the 14 beers listed are available, bartender could not care less, but gives samples and serves pints. Black IPA is a surprise, other good Italian beers, Bologna and Piedmont.

Once upon a time, getting a beer in Italy that wasn’t crap commercial lager meant getting a crap commercial «doppio malto» that added some caramel and maybe 1% ABV to their standard product. The alternative splurge, was finding a bar that served some pedestrian Belgian blonde, like Grimbergen.
Green River, though, is the hugest slam dunk triumph of craft brewing brilliance — — it is hard to imagine such a bold, amazing tap line up in this country. I stopped by other places in town and the more adventurous beer bars tend to have the typical «we are expanding our palate» approach — — they got a hefe, they got an amber, a pale ale, they may even have a stout (shrieks from the audience).
But Green River has a bitchin’ line up representing a full range of styles, from a low-​abv «salty ale» (a Gose?), to a fab imperial IPA, and three with ABV over 10%. This is not a cautious, milquetoast approach to «an introduction» to craft beers — — it is a slam down seizing it by the jugular. And most of this big-​time line-​up of taps are Italian! It is not soaking in atmosphere, this place, it is soaking in first-​class suds.
Totally, totally, the bomb for beer in Bologna.