Lightness into dark

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, displaying the 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.