The first thing you’ll notice as you walk into Linda’s Bar & Grill  on Franklin Street is wood. It dominates the atmosphere – wood bar, wood stools, wood booths – wood is the classic king of this barroom aesthetic. Look closer in Linda’s, and you’ll find initials and names carved all over the booths, conjuring up ‘70s After School Specials.

There are two parts to Linda’s: upstairs and downstairs. Upstairs has a sort of locals-only vibe for the lunch rush while downstairs after dark has more of a collegiate dive bar vibe, and if often populated by UNC students. Linda’s hosts events ranging from live music and DJ sets to trivia night – and sometimes even Beer & Hymns – best described as a non-denominational fellowship sing-along. With beer, of course.

For this Thirsty Thursday, I settled in at the upstairs bar and grabbed me a pint of Starpoint Brewing’s “Hipster or Hobo?” pale ale. Despite being dry-hopped, this beer isn’t a citrusy, bitter hop bomb. Rather, it is more in tune with the pale ale style featuring a grainy, bready finish brought on by Maris Otter malt (which has been used for decades to make English-style pale ales). This amber gem sits nicely in craft beer’s average ABV spectrum at 6.2 percent.

But it makes you ponder the question: am I hipster or hobo? I’m not sure but I can say. That’s an eternal questions for me. But I can say that it was a refreshing pint to have on what was a smoldering hot and humid summer day here in the South.

Starpoint Brewing is quickly becoming “the not-so-little brewery that could,” showing lots of promise along the way. Rising up from small batches in owner Tim Harper’s backyard brewery to a new spot nestled within Beer Study’s second location over in Durham in the Rockwood Shopping Center, Starpoint has the beer to back up the business. You can classified them as born and bred in Carrboro or you can say they now belong to Durham but, no matter what town wants to claim them as their own, good things will be coming our way from them in the near future.

What will you be drinking on #ThirstyThursday? What do you want to see us drink? Leave a message, send a tweet. We want to know what you think.