'80s bedspreads

They're a colourful pair, the new ones from Lineman. Always a brewery for flipping between the beer styles, these are both hop-forward but quite different.

The first is a 4.6% ABV session IPA called Group Therapy. It's pale and fairly hazy though isn't softly textured or vanilla flavoured. In fact it's rather dry, with the tell-tale pith and minerals of what I thought was Nelson Sauvin but the label tells me is an antipodean mix of Motueka, Galaxy and Topaz. Regardless, the effect is similar and delicious. Zesty citrus spritz in the aroma opens proceedings while the flavour matches its pithy bitterness with soft stonefruit. The texture is sessionably light and the finish quick, leaving only a gentle buzz of peach skin and flint. I have a preference for more of a tropical softness in my session IPA (by which I mean basically Little Fawn) but I have a lot of time for this approach too.

The ABV zips upwards next, to 8.2%, with a gasp of Oh My! It's a double IPA, and here's a bit of that New England energy, it being pillow soft and packing the juice in. Mosaic, Strata, Ekuanot and Cryo Pop are the guilty parties. As well as the pineapple and peach nectar, there's a decent kick of bitterness, though still in the pithy fruit mode, plus a bonus aniseed pop. There's very little fault to find here. It draws on the good aspects of both New England and the west coast -- soft and fruity but also properly bitter. It has me wondering why more double IPA brewers don't cram in this amount of complexity, given the scope granted by the strength.

As usual, Lineman is all about the quality here. Both beers are creative examples of their styles yet hit the essential points perfectly. As with Third Barrel on Monday, however, it must be nearly time for some more dark stuff. Just asking.