Meantime London Stout

Meantime London Stout

Style: Stout

Alcohol content: 4.5%

From: Greenwich, London, England

Purchased from: Waitrose

Normally i would begin each blog by writing about the brewery. However, as i have review Meantime's Chocolate Porter earlier in this blog, i thought i would write a bit about the origin of the stout (I promise i will keep this brief).

If you lived and worked in the London Docklands during the 18th and 19th centuries, you would of most likely of known a porter. A porter (much like today) would help move your bags between the ship and your hotel. Eventually (and simply due to the sheer volume that they consumed), Porters would lend their name to a strong dark ale. Before 1700, London brewers sent out their beer very young and any ageing was either performed by the publican or a dealer. Porter was the first beer to be aged at the brewery and dispatched in a condition fit to be drunk immediately. The stout first appeared in the 1730's. Stout where first classed as strong Porters, but as time evolved, they became there own unique style. For example, Guinness Extra Stout was originally called "Extra Superior Porter" and was only given the name Extra Stout in 1840. Stout is now enjoyed the world and Guinness has become one of the biggest players in the commercial beer market.

Brief history lesson over. Now onto the tasting.

Colour: Dark as the knight or jet black like all good stouts should be. On the pour you notice a large head is formed. The head takes on a whitish brown colouration that is rather bubbly (not like the creamy head that normally accompanies a Guinness). 

Smell: From the bottle, you are hit with scent of toasted biscuits with a hints of vanilla and milk chocolate. These aromas come from the mix of dark malts and hard water used to brew this beer. This beer is very inviting. 

Body: Very similar to that of a Guinness but without the creamy edge. This beer has a velvet/silk mouth-feel.  It definitly feels a bit heavier than the chocolate porter that i reviewed earlier in this blog. However, that being said you would be able to have a couple of these before you would noticed how full you where.  

Taste: This beer is full of earthly complex flavors. On your first sip, you are greeted with a mild filter coffee taste. You also get some sweetness which will make you think someone has slipped a sugar into your coffee, i mean beer. Also on the palate, you get notes of hazelnut with a slight mineral finish. I can imagine that this finish comes from the hard water that is used to brew this beer. London has traditionally been know as a hard water area. Hard water, is water that is high mineral content as opposed to soft water which has a low mineral content. Good examples of soft water style beers would be Pilsner. One thing i will note is that the hops used are not overly powerful creating a very mellow flavor  This is a sipper beer which would be best enjoyed by the fire on a rainy winters day.

Hello Guvnor !

Follow me on Twitter for the latest news on reviews @BeefsBrewery