Recent Tasting Notes - Meantime Brewing

Very excited to get these beers in. Very progressive modern brewer based in London that is punching out contemporary versions of very traditional English styles. Our views on the beers below............

Organic Pilsner (15/20)
Full bodied style with no shortage of drive from the malts. Good levels of bitterness, herbal spice and drive from very well handled hops. Balance is near perfect, making this extremely quaffable. Well made and well worth a look. Not unlike a top flight Kiwi pilsner.

Coffee Porter (16/20)
This is good kit and shows great leverage off the base porter, which in itself is a very good beer. massively expressive nose of cork / wood, wet hessian, bitter coffee roast and chocolate. Flavours are so friendly, thickening chocolate, sweet coffee, faint astringency, but perhaps a touch too cloying on the finish. Easily the best coffee based beer I’ve drunk.

India Pale Ale (14/20)
Soft, fruity nose, very aromatic with confectionery characters. Soft flavours to taste, fruity early before a rapid sharpening-up from a bitter and hoppy finish. Some thickening on the finish with aniseed, possibly from the ABV. Amazingly well packaged.

London Porter (16/20)
I like this. Porter on a mild dose of steroids perhaps? Although the recipe purports to be very authentic (and I have absolutely no reason to doubt this) this porter is certainly a stronger, bigger souped up style. Chocolate and dry roast / metal shavings on the nose. Palate weight is high for the style and shows plenty of chocolate and malts, although there’s a clear dry kick late that serves as a reminder that this beer is a porter. Awesome packaging too.

Wheat Grand Cru (13/20)
Simple style that does the job. Plenty of aromatic banana lolly to smell and a faint hint of sweet spices. Soft palate structure with banana and cloves early before moving a fizzy and slightly spicier finish. A touch one dimension but I guess that’s the style.