diff --git a/pkg/logentry/stages/multiline.go b/pkg/logentry/stages/multiline.go
new file mode 100644
index 000000000000..032af529ac9c
--- /dev/null
+++ b/pkg/logentry/stages/multiline.go
@@ -0,0 +1,93 @@
+package stages
+
+import (
+	"bytes"
+	"regexp"
+	"time"
+
+	"github.com/go-kit/kit/log"
+	"github.com/mitchellh/mapstructure"
+	"github.com/pkg/errors"
+	"github.com/prometheus/common/model"
+)
+
+const (
+	ErrMultilineStageEmptyConfig  = "multiline stage config must define `firstline` regular expression"
+	ErrMultilineStageInvalidRegex = "multiline stage first line regex compilation error: %v"
+)
+
+const MultilineDropReason = "multiline collapse"
+
+// MultilineConfig contains the configuration for a multilineStage
+type MultilineConfig struct {
+	Expression *string `mapstructure:"firstline"`
+	regex      *regexp.Regexp
+}
+
+func validateMultilineConfig(cfg *MultilineConfig) error {
+	if cfg == nil ||
+		(cfg.Expression == nil) {
+		return errors.New(ErrMultilineStageEmptyConfig)
+	}
+	expr, err := regexp.Compile(*cfg.Expression)
+	if err != nil {
+		return errors.Errorf(ErrMultilineStageInvalidRegex, err)
+	}
+	cfg.regex = expr
+
+	return nil
+}
+
+// newMulitlineStage creates a MulitlineStage from config
+func newMultilineStage(logger log.Logger, config interface{}) (Stage, error) {
+	cfg := &MultilineConfig{}
+	err := mapstructure.WeakDecode(config, cfg)
+	if err != nil {
+		return nil, err
+	}
+	err = validateMultilineConfig(cfg)
+	if err != nil {
+		return nil, err
+	}
+
+	return &multilineStage{
+		logger: log.With(logger, "component", "stage", "type", "multiline"),
+		cfg:    cfg,
+		buffer: new(bytes.Buffer),
+	}, nil
+}
+
+// dropMultiline matches lines to determine whether the following lines belong to a block and should be collapsed
+type multilineStage struct {
+	logger log.Logger
+	cfg    *MultilineConfig
+	buffer *bytes.Buffer
+}
+
+// Process implements Stage
+func (m *multilineStage) Process(labels model.LabelSet, extracted map[string]interface{}, t *time.Time, entry *string) {
+	isFirstLine := m.cfg.regex.MatchString(*entry)
+
+	if isFirstLine {
+		previous := m.buffer.String()
+
+		m.buffer.Reset()
+		m.buffer.WriteString(*entry)
+
+		*entry = previous
+	} else {
+		// Append block line
+		if m.buffer.Len() > 0 {
+			m.buffer.WriteRune('\n')
+		}
+		m.buffer.WriteString(*entry)
+
+		// Adds the drop label to not be sent by the api.EntryHandler
+		labels[dropLabel] = model.LabelValue(MultilineDropReason)
+	}
+}
+
+// Name implements Stage
+func (m *multilineStage) Name() string {
+	return StageTypeMultiline
+}
diff --git a/pkg/logentry/stages/multiline_test.go b/pkg/logentry/stages/multiline_test.go
new file mode 100644
index 000000000000..3c6f16dbb9b5
--- /dev/null
+++ b/pkg/logentry/stages/multiline_test.go
@@ -0,0 +1,43 @@
+package stages
+
+import (
+	"bytes"
+	"testing"
+	"time"
+
+	"github.com/cortexproject/cortex/pkg/util"
+	"github.com/prometheus/common/model"
+	"github.com/stretchr/testify/require"
+	ww "github.com/weaveworks/common/server"
+)
+
+func Test_multilineStage_Process(t *testing.T) {
+	// Enable debug logging
+	cfg := &ww.Config{}
+	require.Nil(t, cfg.LogLevel.Set("debug"))
+	util.InitLogger(cfg)
+	Debug = true
+
+	mcfg := &MultilineConfig{Expression: ptrFromString("^START")}
+	err := validateMultilineConfig(mcfg)
+	require.NoError(t, err)
+
+	stage := &multilineStage{
+		cfg:    mcfg,
+		logger: util.Logger,
+		buffer: new(bytes.Buffer),
+	}
+
+	stage.Process(model.LabelSet{}, map[string]interface{}{}, ptrFromTime(time.Now()), ptrFromString("START line 1"))
+	stage.Process(model.LabelSet{}, map[string]interface{}{}, ptrFromTime(time.Now()), ptrFromString("not a start line"))
+
+	nextStart := "START line 2"
+	stage.Process(model.LabelSet{}, map[string]interface{}{}, ptrFromTime(time.Now()), &nextStart)
+
+	require.Equal(t, "START line 1\nnot a start line", nextStart)
+
+	nextStart = "START line 3"
+	stage.Process(model.LabelSet{}, map[string]interface{}{}, ptrFromTime(time.Now()), &nextStart)
+
+	require.Equal(t, "START line 2", nextStart)
+}
diff --git a/pkg/logentry/stages/stage.go b/pkg/logentry/stages/stage.go
index 144e006ee14f..8d299601d51f 100644
--- a/pkg/logentry/stages/stage.go
+++ b/pkg/logentry/stages/stage.go
@@ -25,6 +25,7 @@ const (
 	StageTypePipeline  = "pipeline"
 	StageTypeTenant    = "tenant"
 	StageTypeDrop      = "drop"
+	StageTypeMultiline = "multiline"
 )
 
 // Stage takes an existing set of labels, timestamp and log entry and returns either a possibly mutated
@@ -118,6 +119,11 @@ func New(logger log.Logger, jobName *string, stageType string,
 		if err != nil {
 			return nil, err
 		}
+	case StageTypeMultiline:
+		s, err = newMultilineStage(logger, cfg)
+		if err != nil {
+			return nil, err
+		}
 	default:
 		return nil, errors.Errorf("Unknown stage type: %s", stageType)
 	}