Meantime India Pale Ale

750 ml corked and caged bottle purchased at Royal on 103rd Street in Kansas City, Missouri. This is one heavy bottle. 81154 1112 stamped on side of the bottle. Opens with a very loud pop. Pour is cloudy cheddar cheese orange with a big off white head. As the head slowly falls, lacing is revealed. Pretty in the glass. Aroma is pretty mild, some earthy hoppiness, some floral and grass notes. The malt is present in the nose, mildly sweet. Taste is orange fruit, the grassy earthy hoppiness and a dose of honey caramel sweet maltiness. The finish is sugary sweet and then bitter. Palate is medium, decently mouth coating. This beer was fine, just a bit sweet for my tastes in an IPA/EPA.

Bottle conditioned. They don’t hide their alcohol that well in the aroma - it smells like a doctors office. Having said that, the flavor is nice and sweet - with some good hop notes. Upon pouring the thing went into foam overdrive - but poured golden copper with biscuit head. They must have put too much bottle conditioning yeast in it. The nose is alcohol and grassy hops. They need to calm down the alcohol in this one - its pretty invasive. Otherwise it’s a pretty standard Euro IPA.

It is sometimes hard to be objective about a beer that costs nothing, when in fact it was clearly one of the more expensive beers in the bar. After our first beer at Transport in Melbourne on the deneoument of SBIX, Shag and I were about to wander off to Mrs Parmas and have a last beer before going to the airport to wait for our invariably late running Qantas flight to Sydney. We looked outside and the rain was quite enough to keep us there for another. So, after a review of the extensive but not necessarily exciting beer list I was asked by our lovely barkeep Roxy, who later introduced herself as the bar manager, what I fancied. My reply took her aback as I indicated I had tried all of the numbered beers and wanted something new. Her look of disbeleif changed as soon as I indicated I was a ratebeer member. "OK, sure. Of course you have, these are all pretty mainstream beers even though 90% of the punters have not even tried a tenth of them". Of the new and unnumbered beers was a good selection of the Meantime beers. I had heard good reports about the IPA and so asked for a bottle of it. Shag was going to shout and pulled out his $50 until Roxy said she wanted us to enjoy it with her compliments. So, given that she has no vested interest in my rating what do I think? Fantastic! A rich warm coppery hue with a large fluffy head that adheres to glass all the way down. A tribute of course to the delightful viscosity provided by the ample hop contribution. The nose is sweet and bitter all at the same time. Caramel and malt dominating. For me, what sets this apart is the departure from the usual hop profile of cascade and amarillo that most of the recent American style IPAs have presented. The traditional English hops are a fine addition to this beer and if we are to believe the blurb, the beer is a real throwback to the old days. The complexity of this is noted in the rich mouthfeel, delicate ABV presence and the citrus aftertaste with toffee and caramel in the blend. A really fine beer and a great way to round out another great Stinky Boys.

Bottle. Pours a nice orange with small bubbles and a rocky head. Aroma does not speak of dry hopping as it as a bit slight, but pleasant. Nice caramel malt flavors with some bracing bitterness, different than most American IPA’s, but nice hop profile. Finishes clean AND sweet.

Unfortunate sweet nose and tongue feel. Too bad, as I was excited to see an authentic take on an IPA. Just don’t like it, I suppose, perhaps a bad bottle even, as this was truly not the beer that is described here. One-sided and sticky-sweet.

Pours with a decent head and large bubbles which hang around awhile. The aroma is subdued but very pleasant. Wild flowers, lemons and oranges. Although, it doesn’t have that pine scent that American IPA’s have. Flavor is also subdued. Definitely different from most of the IPA’s on this side of the pond. Nowhere near as bitter and has a nice, sweet aftertaste. Although its decent its nowhere near as hoppy as I would like.

Mouthfeel is this IPA’s best trait. It’s super smooth feeling and nice to drink. The hops are nice citrus flavors and aromas of fruits. One of my favorite IPAs from across the pond.

Are you all mental? Just because there are no hugely aromatic American hops providing those classic citrus/piney flavours you’re used to doesn’t mean this isn’t hoppy. Fuggles offers a real earthiness with Goldings offering more floral and citrus characters. But of course you know that. A big sweetness (traditional) and huge bitter finish (traditional) with lots of fruit, earth and spice. Gorgeous. Don’t get me wrong, I’m a huge fan of the American IPA style and it has done wonders for the world brewing scene and the US is often way ahead of the British brewing scene (not always of course), but let that not detract or distract from the beauty of this beer - the hops are wonderful and in amounts of this proportion, I’m glad to be English.