Tapping in the Terrace: Good Line Beer brings 'Dust Coast' style to Lubbock

This dream has been brewing for a long time.

Chris Troutman and Shawn Phillips first tossed around the idea of starting a brewery more than a decade ago. When the pair opened Good Line Beer Co. in Tech Terrace in late June, the idea to bring “Dust Coast”-style beer to Lubbock became reality.

“We made up a style called ‘Dust Coast,’” Troutman said. “We’re not East Coast, we’re not West Coast, and we’re brewing it specifically for this area.”

Good Line Beer Co. is located at 2611 Boston Ave. and features a selection of craft brews with clever West Texas names like Range Life pilsner and Bitter Buffalo IPA. The taproom is decorated in a modern, clean and simple style, and the large stainless-steel kettles used to craft the beer sit off to the side in the open air. A comfortable patio jets from the south side of the building.

Phillips is the head of operations and Troutman serves as head brewer — “because I like beer,” he said. The two hope the new taproom brewery will be a place conducive to community where Lubbockites can enjoy quality local craft beer that encapsulates the flavor palate of West Texas.

That takes a team effort. Troutman handles the beer, and Phillips makes sure Good Line is “the most accommodating, comfortable, welcoming taproom that you can find around here.”

The experience

“We’re different than a large production brewery, and we’re different than a brewpub that has a huge focus on food,” Phillips said. “We’re focused on drinking the freshest beer right where it’s made, even watch it being made sometimes.”

“The beer philosophy we have is that it’s quality, consistent, drinkable and innovative,” Troutman added. “We want people to come here and get the full experience of the beer and the environment and the atmosphere all in one package.”

Phillips said the taproom is meant to be a space where all can be comfortable.

“We want to be a place for everyone. We know not everybody is a craft beer fan,” Phillips said. “We’ve got a little something for everyone. We’re family friendly. We really want to act as a community gathering spot for this neighborhood, so we’ve got juice boxes for kids and a dog-friendly patio and other beverages as well.”

Phillips said Good Line’s visual aesthetic is meticulously crafted, too. The co-founders enlisted the help of distinguished Lubbock artist and graphic designer Dirk Fowler to design the company’s logo, merch and taproom décor.

“Dirk Fowler is our creative partner … and he’s been amazing,” Phillips said. “He makes the place look so good. All the designs, the merchandise, anything that we’re putting out into the world has his fingerprints all over it.”

“Everything is kind of layered,” Troutman added. “The whole aesthetic of the visual stuff from Dirk, the atmosphere from Shawn, the beer that I’m putting together — it’s all layered so that the first time you come here you walk away with, ‘That was a good experience.’”

Fowler even helped them come up with the name, Phillips said.

“When we first met him, we didn’t even have a name, but we kept coming back to music references and lyrics, and we would say, ‘That’s a good line,’” Phillips said. “I think he was the one who threw it out there, ‘Why don’t we just name it that?’ So, it is a reference to good lines in songs.”

The backstory

Phillips and Troutman met back during their college days at Mary Hardin-Baylor. After graduating in the mid-aughts, the two and some other friends moved to Austin in search of jobs and opportunities. It was there they got started in the beer scene, starting a beer blog that eventually turned into a magazine.

“We did a print magazine called ‘Austin Beer Guide.’ Shawn was the photographer, and I was the editor-in-chief,” Troutman said. “We did that for a long time and saw the (beer) market grow from five to 50 to 75 breweries in a very short amount of time.”

During that period, Troutman and Phillips were also learning to make beer at home and thinking about how they might start a brewery of their own.

“We were homebrewing for all that time — making beer,” Phillips said. “We’d always talked about opening a brewery or brewpub down in Austin. We toyed with the idea of starting a business plan circa 2010, but families and other priorities got in the way.”

Eventually, Phillips and Troutman felt like “Austin didn’t have a whole lot more to give,” and family and friend ties brought them to Lubbock.

“We just realized Lubbock had a whole lot to offer family-wise in addition to the opportunity for breweries, so in 2018 we pulled the ripcord. I quit my job. We sold our home. My wife got a job here. We moved to Lubbock, and then Shawn and his family came up a couple months later,” Troutman said.

“We saw opportunity here,” Phillips said. “We saw the signs of that cultural turning point when beer and breweries start to really come about.”

“There was just a big void that needed to be filled, and we wanted to fill that. I think there’s a lot of others doing that here as well, so we’re pretty excited to be a part of that,” he added.

And, Phillips said, Lubbock is reciprocating the excitement, even in what is typically considered a slow season in the brewery business.

“The response has been awesome. We’ve been super happy,” Phillips said. “We’re already running out of product … and racing to build more of it.”

“The response from Lubbock I think has been overwhelming in all the best ways,” Troutman added.

“It’s taken us four years to get this place opened,” Phillips said. “It’s been a long time coming, so it feels really good.”

This article originally appeared on Lubbock Avalanche-Journal: Good Line Beer brings 'Dust Coast' style to Lubbock