Twisted pair

Things are not what they seem with today's beers, both from Dublin brewery Lineman.

The draught-only Love Buzz had me wearing out some shoe leather for a trip across to Tapped on Nassau Street, not a part of town I'd be in regularly, at least since the Porterhouse discontinued Wrasslers. There I found a 4.5% ABV session IPA which was an unappetising murky ochre, with a slightly sickly sweet cordial aroma. It's smoothly textured, feeling much bigger than the strength, while the flavour is bizarre. I hadn't twigged that it had added passionfruit, although the brewery did warn us, in fairness. Anyway, it's very passionfruit, with a concentrated syrupiness that somehow manages to be more spicy than sweet, giving me cinnamon and sandalwood, while still also being tropical. Like I say: bizarre. It's fun, and certainly different. I can't imagine it works as an actual session beer, however. My palate was gumming up at the two-thirds mark and my next beer was definitely going to be something cleaner. Still, a worthwhile experiment, and worth trying if you see it, if only for the weirdness.

I gave an approving nod recently to the Saul Bass homage on one of Tiny Rebel's cans. Lineman is at it too, referencing Bass's Hitchcock poster work on Vertigo. Double black IPA is a rare treat indeed, and this one is a prize-winning homebrew recipe, which is another signal that there's a good time to come. It poured a little murky, with a brackish brownish tint to the black body. A raft of rocky ivory foam tops it off. The aroma is quite subtle, but I do get the suggestion of mocha and pine, which indicates it will be stylistically accurate. It is, I guess, but in an understated way. The unspecified American hops manifest as a sharp citric bitterness, like a squirt of lemon juice. That sits up front, and is quite brief. The middle section is all about the dark malt, and it's more chocolate-forward than I would prefer, holding back on the roast. There's a hint of dankness on the finish, but you don't get a lot of bang for your buck here, and there's no intimation at all that we're dealing with an 8.2% ABV whopper. Black IPA is a daft, clownish beer style, and double-black doubly so. That gives brewers a licence to make something loud and silly, but that's not what's happened here. Maybe the homebrew judges preferred a bit of nuance and balance in theirs, because you absolutely get that. I would have liked something more head-spinning, however. 

I'll say this for Lineman: they know how to keep things interesting. It's quite the gift to the beer blogging community.