Meantime India Pale Ale

Brewed by Meantime
Style: India Pale Ale (IPA)
London, England

0.75 l bottle. Copper color with good head. Sweetish, fruity and dull aroma with marmelade, apricot and tobacco. Bitter-fruity flavor with marmelade. A bit sticky palate.

Date: 05/20/2006
Mode: Bottle
Source: Tasting, Noog II

amber with a slight chill haze, sweet carmel malt aroma with light floral hops, easy drinking balanced sweet carmel malt with nice hop flavor, light bitter finish

Aroma: 6/10; Appearance: 6/10; Flavor: 7/10; Palate: 6/10; Overall: 13/20
Rating: 3.2/5.0
Drinkability: 9/10
Score: **+/4

Bottle. Pours an attractive hazy orange with a nice head. Excellent retention and lacing. Definitely not a west coast IPA by any means. Very aromatic nose: floral and grassy. Creamy on the palate with notes of grass, honey, hay. Fairly bitter but balanced by some bready malt. Good IPA.

I’m not a big fan of IPAs, but this one was fun because it claimed to be an authentic reproduction of the style. The hops is lemony and produces a bitter aftertaste.

Deep hazy and orange as papaya, Meantime’s IPA develops an attractive creamy off-white head before slowly dissipating with a thin coat of lace. The light and primarily noble hop aroma indicates at the outset a decidedly European approach though notes of sweet grapefruit are nonetheless noticeable. The nose is tight at first but over time develops beautiful airy fragrances of orange blossom honey, pineapple, apricot and banana. The fruit derives partly from hops and partly from esters lending an almost Belgian quality to the aroma. An ounce of grain is also apparent and pulpy apple juice adds a certain density. On the palate the texture is full-bodied and the flavors candid, though clearly one-dimensional. Creamy vanilla, hop, banana and pineapple are all spread on well-buttered toast. The long honey and pineapple finish is smooth and satisfying, refreshing, and thus easy-drinking. Not a world-class brew, but a very quaffable ale, and a nice rebuttal to the overindulgent American IPAs.

Pour is a hazy orange with a large white head. Aroma is a little bit citrus hops, a little bit wet grass and a little bit caramel malts. Flavor is a nice mellow hop with some a little barnyard and yeast. Hops aren’t way over the top on this one, like some of the American versions, but that is what the brewer was going for. A decent IPA.

750ml bottle. Lightly fruity, citric and sweet aroma, some very light suggestions of yeast detected, overall slight in effect but fairly well-balanced, perhaps some light cedary notes as it warms a bit. Hazy medium golden color with a lasting, foamy, uneven head. Flavor profile begins with a touch of spicy bitterness, becoming sweeter and fruitier throughout, touches of bready dough and toast with honey combined with some herbal lemon tones, finishing on a semi-dry note, showing a refreshing quality, again nicely balanced and with a burst of juicy, leafy hop flavor right at the end and lingering orange character. Creamy and smooth on the palate, some pleasant crispness late, and with a medium body. Really pretty nice.

Again, not my favourite style, but this one was agreeably restrained just the way one would expect of the English doing a style that the Americans have managed to royally screw up.