Visit The Beer Nut site

Is Lineman eventually going to run out of telephone-themed beer names? Dial Tone feels like we're starting to get down to the hard core already. It's a pale ale of 5.3% ABV and steadfastly old-fashioned with its translucent orange colouring and big piney aroma. I expected a gum-curler but there's a lot of nuance in this. It opens on that hard west-coast bitterness, all grapefruit and lime, but it softens after a moment to a much more gentle mandarin and tangerine effect. Then before the sweetness can take hold it all fades out on a clean tannic dryness. Those who want their pale ales juicy get a modicum of service from this, while the elderly beardos also receive a polite nod in the direction of their tastes too. Sultana, Talus and Centennial is the hop combination which wins the day. Very impressive stuff.

It's a sad state of affairs when an imperial stout advertises itself as all-malt and adjunct-free. That's the novelty now. With Further, Lineman is sending out a signal to all the low-to-no-nonsense stout drinkers, of which I consider myself one. Let's go! At 8.9% ABV it's quite modest but it looks powerful: jet black, tar thick and with a loose head the colour of nicotine-stained pub walls. Classic. The blurb promises a coffee effect without the use of coffee and the aroma makes good on that: a heady cloud of stewed percolator vapours. That's followed in the foretaste by a big bitterness, very coffee-like, but again the old sort you could stand a spoon in; no latte art or aeropress frippery here. A fascinating complexity unfolds after it: raisin and cherry; rose petal and lavender and then a rich chocolate fudge warmth, turning almost to a solvent burn. It's superb, with a depth and density of continental imperial stouts quite a few points stronger. With Astral Grains and Gigantic, Lineman has already shown a real aptitude for big stouts, and I'm calling this as the best one yet.

Both of these do a great job of mixing modern multi-dimensional beer flavours with a polish of quality that too many young breweries leave out. If you've not yet made room for the Lineman in your drinking life, these two are perfect to start with.

More...