Tasting Notes: Meantime London Porter

Meantime London Porter, 750ml bottleBrewery: Meantime Brewing Company
Location: Greenwich, London
ABV: 6.5%
Version: 750ml bottle
Source: Sainsburys

I have to admit to still being a little in the dark with regard to the precise dividing-line between ‘porter’ and ‘stout’ (although I’m working on it… as often as I can). Meantime have thoughtfully provided a micro-site at www.london-porter.com, which includes a selection of rather fascinating articles on the origins and history of the porter style, but still nothing definitive on where that dividing-line lies. More research needed on my part, clearly…

Meantime London Porter (not to be confused with either Meantime London Stout or Meantime Coffee Porter) is the brewery’s flagship dark beer and they supply it in exceedingly generous 750ml wine-bottle portions. Now then, I’m a big fan of the 750ml approach, if only because it gives you longer to appreciate a particularly fine beer such as this one. You can pour yourself a full pint and leave a decent half in the bottle for an ongoing top-up, or let it breathe for a while and try it again as a stand-alone second helping.

Meantime London Porter is a beer that definitely warrants that second helping: it pours a rather lovely dark ruby red, with a thick, bubbly head and gives off enticing scents of liquorice and treacle. Strong coffee notes come to the fore, alongside more treacle and molasses, with that ever-present liquorice providing the lingering after-taste. The second measure has an even more richly complex flavour, one that demands to be savoured.

All in all, it’s a big bottle, full of a very big drink indeed. If a pint of Guinness is meant to be a meal in a glass then this one is something of a six-course banquet, complete with liqueurs and brandy to finish. But to come back to the original point: except for the higher alcohol content (and the larger bottle) I’m not entirely sure what the essential, key difference is between the London Porter and the Coffee Porter, or even the London Porter and the London Stout. I reckon I’ll just have to drop Meantime a line and ask the experts. I’ll let you know what they let me know in due course.

  • http://www.edash.wordpress.com Ed Ashby

    I’ll be interested in what they have to say. Stout was originally called Stout Porter, if that’s any help. CAMRA have a couple of paragraphs on the subject at http://www.camra.org.uk/page.aspx?o=180680.

  • http://www.darrenturpin.me.uk Darren Turpin

    I think the key might be: “the darkness [of Porters] comes from the use of dark malts unlike stouts which use roasted malted barley.”

    I’ll include this in my email to Meantime, see if they can confirm that one. Cheers, Ed! :)

  • http://www.realaleblog.co.uk RealAleBlog

    “I’m a big fan of the 750ml approach”

    I like the cut of your jib!

  • http://www.darrenturpin.me.uk Darren Turpin

    Well, thank you! I like the look of the Real Ale Blog and the Real Ale Network – have added those to the sidebar links… :)

  • http://thebeerdiary.blogspot.com Tim

    I also had ths recently after reading about it here. A nice drop!

  • http://www.edash.wordpress.com Ed Ashby

    Having finally got around to trying this I can say that it certainly benefits from being left to breathe. The lovely coffee/toffee nose wasn’t followed up in the initial taste, with there being a bit too much fizz going on. But give it all time to settle and there’s a marked improvement. I reckon the cask version of this would be much better from the off.

    • Peter

      I agree with there being too much fizz to start with, seems to be in common with other Meantimes like the Pale Ale.

      It’s not too thick or heavy though so I think makes a good introduction to Porters.

      I’m keen to try the Meantime Hospital Porter they sell at the Old Greenwich Brewery now.

      • http://www.folkale.com Darren Turpin

        I think it might be worth decanting this one… I read an article on Mark Dredge’s Pencil and Spoon site a while back in which he recommended decanting these sort of big-bottle beers into a jug – mainly as a way to avoid disturbing the sediment at the bottom of the bottle by repeated pour-and-rest manoeuvres – but the other benefit is that it helps knock the initial fizz out a bit and, as Ed says, let it breathe for a while.

        I seem to remember trying it this way last time I had a bottle of London Porter a few months back, but I could be thinking of something else. Sounds like an excuse for further experimentation…

  • http://thankheavenforbeer.com Michael Reinhardt

    I really enjoyed this Ale. As far as the precise division between Porter and Stout…that’s a hard one. Seeing as how Porter can be pretty broad its difficult to get at the precise definition. Of course, Stout is actually a stout version of Porter (at least in its historical context). Yet, it seems hard to know what that is when porter it sort fo hard to pin down as a category. For myself, I tend to draw the line of demarcation along grain lines. Most stouts will use roasted barley in the grain bill, whereas Porters generally use chocolate or black patent malts. However, I do admit that I’ll drink that occasional Porter and wonder whether it should be called stout.

    • http://www.folkale.com Darren Turpin

      Since posting this one a while back, I’ve learned to defer to Martyn Cornell’s Amber, Gold and Black – a rather excellent history of British beer styles – for any and all style-based definitions, deliberations and historical diversions :)

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