Meantime Chocolate Porter

 Meantime Chocolate Porter

Style: Porter

Alcohol content: 6.5%

From: Greenwich, London, England

Purchased from: Waitrose

Last week i was due to go to a craft beer pub in Richmond called the Pig's Ears with my good friend Mala. Now i had not seen Mala for quite some time so i was very excited about the evening. Whilst on the train i heard that a signal had failed in Barnes and that no trains where running to Richmond. I hopped of the train at Twickenham, crest fallen. Firstly i was not going to see my friend but secondly i was not going to have any tasty beers that evening. After talking to the staff at south west trains, i worked out that i had a one hour wait ahead of me. Gasping for a beer i decided to head to a near by Waitrose to see what they had in stock. Lucky they had the Meantime Chocolate Porter in stock, so i picked up a bottle and headed back to the station to wait for my train.

Meantime Brewery was founded by Alastair Hook in 2000. The originally Greenwich brewery was originally located 0° 2' 12" east of the Greenwich Meridian, moving to a site on nearby Blackwall Lane in 2010. This mission driven company aims to help the consumer rediscover their cultural and culinary beer heritage, which it believes has, in the UK at least, largely been lost as beer manufacture has been concentrated in the hands of a smaller number of ever bigger brewers, who do not wish the consumer to have any great understanding or appreciation of beer. Since opening the brewery has gone from strength to strength and their Coffee Porter won a gold medal at the world beer cup in 2008.

Now i will admit that i have tried this beer before but i drank it very chilled and it spotlit the taste some what. Make sure you serve your beer at the correct temperature people. Now onto the tasting.

Sexy Boy!

Colour: This brew is a dark as the night (like all good porters should be). On the pour you notice a white/brown head a bit like a latte. The head is not very thick and disappears after a couple of minutes.

Smell: As soon as you pour the drink you, get hit with a smell that is similar to a chocolate hobnob. This comes from the four roasted dark malts and the real dark chocolate that they add during the maturation process. Now you may think that as they have used real chocolate that the smell might be quite bitter but its actually very sweet on the nose.  

Body: Light and actually quite refreshing. Normally, i would associate porters to be quite heavy so it was a pleasant surprise that this beer was not like that at all.There is low level of carbonation and pours very smoothly. Here, i will also mention the body of the glass that the Meantime Chocolate porter is served in. It looks very sexy indeed and helps it to stand out from the crowd.

Taste: Just like the smell you get a taste of chocolate hobnob on your first sip. As you enjoy your first sip, you get an aftertaste of an espresso or black americano with a slightly mineral finish. This finish actually helps to cleanse you palate by removing the bitterness of the coffee taste. Now i actually drank my Porter with a Chili Con Carne. The sweetness of the beer helped to balance out the spicy of chili. Very good match indeed!

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