Inside the loop, Garden Oaks – Oak Forest
Pilsner
ABV: 5.2%
IBUs: ?
Packaging: Draft, Growler, or 32 oz Crowler delivered by Hop Drop
It ain’t pretty when you face a bad truck wreck. Greedy insurance companies play dirty.
Bring it on!
I’m Jim Adler, The Texas Hammer!
Who wants it!?
I hammer and hammer to get what you deserve! The tough, smart, lawyer!
If none of this is familiar to you, you’re either not a Houston native, or you’ve been living with your head COMPLETELY under a rock for the last 2 decades.
I fondly remember his flame-filled tv commercials that featured him standing atop the cab of an 18-wheeler, shouting at the top of his lungs. Nowadays, I hear him more on radio commercials than anything, but you know what I don’t have fond memories of?
The commercials with his son.
Every time you hear a Jim Adler commercial, you instinctively clear your throat. There’s just something super gritty about his voice. But his son? Dude’s not quite there yet.
What in the world does any of this have to do with beer, you ask? Somehow, Great Heights was inspired by this guy and named their latest Pilsner Great Heights Tough Smart Lager.
We’re 100% here for that. Patrick at Great Heights shared, “It’s one we came up with before the brewery ever opened and have just been sitting on for a few years. This was our first lager beer, so we went with it. Sean and I both grew up in Houston in the 80s and 90s so the Jim Adler commercials have been ingrained in our heads, right there along with Gallery Furniture.”
The Great Heights Crowlers sport a trendy white, navy, and bright green label, same as their Taphandles.
Great Heights Tough Smart Lager poured the color of apple juice with a tan head that dissipated so quickly, I couldn’t help but wonder if something was wrong. It fizzed down audibly revealing a brilliantly clear lager with zero lacing.
After I cleared my throat a few times, I stuck my nose in the Teku, and it revealed biscuity malt notes.
The rich, biscuity malt notes are front and center on the sip as well, but there’s a rollercoaster of other flavors. Each sip starts off crisp, then the malt shows up, and the finish is a pronounced bitterness of graininess and spicy hops. The medium body and light-ish carbonation added some weight to each sip, making it drink like a beer that’s a bit heavier than it really is.
A lot of the time, you can get the beers we write about delivered to your door from Hop Drop, and you can save 10% with code “BEERCHRONICLE”, and that’s the case for Great Heights Tough Smart Lager. Either you get it delivered, or you gotta go straight to the source for this one!
Patrick confirmed about the distribution, “We won’t be distributing this first batch. It was kind of a test run to see how it turned out, so with limited kegs, we’ll keep this one in the taproom. We’re brewing batch 2 with a couple of small tweaks and plan to send this one out in about 6-7 weeks.”
My Overall Rating
3
Great Heights Tough Smart Lager
This ain’t ya mammy’s Pilsner, as is the case with many craft-a-craft-beer. This one’s on a whole ‘nother level, though. A style that’s usually pretty tame and approachable gets a facelift with Great Heights Tough Smart Lager. The sharpness on the finish is what surprised me the most about this one. Crisp as ever, bright as ever, and perfectly named as ever, this beer’s still being worked on. I can’t wait to try the next batch.
What’d you think of it overall? Let us know with a single click of the stars below, or drop us a comment to share your opinion. We’d love to hear it. Beers to you, Houston!
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Anthony's a Houston native, a Creative Strategist at https://ledgeloungers.com/, an adjunct instructor of Visual Communication at Lone Star College, and a UH Coog that loves good beer almost as much as he does his city. Anthony lives to help others and that's found a home helping some of the coolest breweries on earth with creative and marketing projects that can be seen on our Portfolio page. Fueled by hoppy lagers, sessionable IPAs, and gangster rap, he's ticked his way through H-Town, rocking the most unusual Nikes he can find. When he's not writing for us, he's with his family or very patiently rooting for the Rockets.
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