Meantime London Porter

Bottle. Clear, dark ruby, small off-white, nearly tan head. Head laces well, and looks like icecream on the top of the glass. Aroma is big on malts, bitterness, coffee, chocolate. Flavour is full of chocolate, bags of roasted malt, oodles of coffee, and as it warms up a bit, liquorice. Taste of sweet liquorice lingers, as well as some bite from that bitterness. One of the best porters I’ve tasted in a long time, and I do love my porters!

bottle obtained in trade with kramer17801. Pours a very clear, dark amber color with small tan head and lots of sticky lacing. aroma is full of banana and toffee, very smooth and sweet to the nose with definite malt hints. Flavor is slightly roasty with lots of smooth toffee hints. I wasn’t to impressed with the first few sips, but this is definitely a beer that grew on me as i drank more and gave it a little time to warm up. Not what i was expecting for a porter, but enjoyable nonetheless!

bottle. Pours a full, dark ruby with a perserverant tan head. I don’t know if I’ve made this clear, but my expectations for dark English ales are usually fairly low. The aroma here is of soy sauce and some coffee, chocolate. Pretty well rounded, actually, in the flavor. It’s nicely smoky, finishes with sweet cigar-like notes. The malts come across like caramel more than chocolate, but a little of both flavors are apparent. The hops make a nice appearance in a mild, palatable fashion to add a little brightness. This is a winner, afterall. It’s more balanced and more robust than many of its English brothers, but not on the level of say, Fullers porter, though.

Dark brown body, maybe a little lighter than most. Fairly large head, solid lacing. Aroma was chocolate and caramel with some nuts. Also roast. Light acidity in the mouth yet a smooth mouthfeel.. hard to explain. Like a much lesser version of the acidity in Stoudt’s Fat Dog 2003 or earlier. This had a fairly English feel to it. Solid porter, but at 8.50 bottle.. uh.. yeah.

A thick head sits atop a borwnish-red body with some lacing left behind on the glass. This porter is bitter sweet with a touch of roast, some malt and caramel. Pretty weak and flavorless for a porter. Thin for a porter, smooth and a touch dry.

As the legend goes, the youthful, amicable brewery masterminds behind Flying Dog and Meantime once attended the same school. These insouciant striplings socialized swimmingly, sauntering slowly through their school days, dreaming of silently sipping sipid suds. When they matured and became masters of the keg they found that while their beerological interest was mutual their brewery locations were not. One had opted for the bourgeoning city of Denver, the other for the bloated, bilgy city of London. Their respective beers were exclusively proliferated near or around their own breweries. These two brew masters then decided to make a pact betwixt friends. They would see to it that Denver would receive the fruits of Meantime’s brewing labors, and in exchange Flying Dog would ship a few bottles of local microbrewery beer to the U.K. With this history lesson in mind, really, I can think of nothing more appropriate to drink on the 4th of July. Once together (in a way that master and servant are bonded), the U.S. and Britain are now clearly separate and enjoying the fruits of each others labor. Brits enjoy U.S. exports like beef, steel and uh… flippancy in international affairs. And the British still won’t step sending us haughty literature. There could be no closer bond. And we can all see who the clear winner is in this Trans-Atlantic trade. When America rallied and called for Independence we inherited a vast (though claimed) territory rich with resources and rife with ethnic tensions in the making. And what did the British get? Humiliation. And that’s exactly how I think it goes down when some poor sot trots down to his local London liquor market and sees the crudely scrawled label of Flying Dog and buys it on a whim. Meanwhile I’m sitting on my porch enjoying the finest Porter I’ve ever had, saluting the overhead fireworks and mumbling a patriotic hymn or two. It’s dark and ominous color, like charred, rare meat smugly sits below a cushion of a beach sand colored head. This admirably comfortable looking beer belches out a flourishing and distinguishing blend of smells including yeast, cinnamon, heavy cream, hops, apple, pears and even asparagus. Its taste skirts relaxedly across the tongue with its rich, meaty feel and the burdensome but savory smoky, soy, raisin and peat flavors. The taste is consistent and smooth, guaranteeing a good seven seconds of unbridled elation, made all the better knowing some totally undeserving British academic is choking down “In Heat Wheat” somewhere on Holloway road. It’s an awful trade, I think, but the WTO hasn’t seen fit to strike it down. Britain hasn’t even filed a complaint! So, let this informal business practice between the good friends at Meantime and Flying Dog persist well into the future. The fruits of their friendship are being well reaped here, and if Meantime continues to produce beers of the same caliber as the Porter than I have a lot to look forward to in the next decade of American-Anglo relations.

Lovely dark colour with an inviting aroma. Lingering gentle itterness with more hops than is usual in a porter.Some traces of chocolate as well but no taste dominates as this is a well balanced beer.Easily the best I have tried so far from Meantime.

Deep brown, light passes through, good initial head fades almost completely. Aroma clearly of milk chocolate with a hint of a sour tang. Flavor is loads of milk chocolate, some roastiness, a bit of coffee, and a very pleasant hop bitterness. Much better than I had expected, this really was quite nice. Better than the numbers indicate.