Meantime London Porter

75cl. Very dark reddish brown, fizzy beige head. Lactic sugary nose, roasted malts, licorice root, hint of vegies, mild coffee, earth. Flavor is roasty malts, dark sugar, earthy licorice, a bit hollow at start, but gets a nice old apples and tarry character later on. Light bodied, thin and coarse palate, doesn’t fit in here at all. Get’s a lot better when the carbonation wears off. Nice, though mild old world flavors.

750ml : I would have given this like a ’4.1’ six months ago, but Porters don’t do it for me like before..I find them a bit one dimensional or mundane these dayz. This is flavoursome but then so is a chocolate milk shake- and that does not give me wet dreams : A biege bubbley head above ruby i’d guess i’d say it is. Roasty accents ,with lots of chocolate malt character, becoming bitter and then powdery. Earthy dark fruit ,maybe plum and lightly refreshing fuggle’y hops.
A well made drink. If you dig this style a lot then you’ll wanna dive right into the glass.

Sampled on 10/14/2009. This porter pours a deep copper brown color from a corked 750ml bottle. Medium sized tan foamy head with decent retention and nice lacing. The aroma is roasted malts, touch of chocolate and a touch of smoke. A light to medium bodied Porter. The malts are roasty, semi-sweet chocolate, fruity and a touch of toffee. The hops are earthy. Nice balance. Decent carbonation. It’s definitely on the lighter side for a porter, but I like the flavor mix. There is a touch of vanilla at the finish. Mouthfeel is full. Finish is clean and smooth. Aftertaste is slightly bitter.

75cl bottle. Pours a dark brown with a medium sized and mostly lasting, frothy tan head. Notes of roasted malts and nut, milk chocolate and coffee on the nose. The flavour profile is dominated by milk chocolate and light hints of spice. There are some dark fruit notes and a base malty sweetness, which does become a touch monotonous. Quite fizzy in the glass and the mouth with a medium body and dry finish.

Smokey, chocolate, coffee, roasted. Lots going on, tastes great. Too light for my liking. Thin mouthfeel.

Bottle, dressed up as the new M&S London Porter. Clear ruby/dark brown. Huge roasted aromas with hints of coffee and chocolate, strong and straight-forward. Perfect hints of carbonation waft big chocolate malts and almost smoky roasts across the palate. The is something almost spicy here to in a mace/cinnamon/nutmeg twist. This is pretty bloody excellent drinking.

I hope this was a bad bottle because this was pretty bad. More a dark brown ale than anything. Thin body and little presence. Pass.

Deep, dark brown with a good aroma. This is good but perhaps expected more from a porter. The taste was there and was good, a woody, burnt taste with hints of coffee and fruit, but the mouthful was thinner than I was expecting and it’s less satisfying than the Fullers version.