London Stout - Meantime Brewing Company Limited

Suds

Pennsylvania

3.9/5  rDev +6.8%
look: 4 | smell: 4 | taste: 4 | feel: 3 | overall: 4

This beer is a beautiful blackish-brown color (ruby hues if held to the light). The head is a dense tan with tightly packed bubbles. Great roasted grain aroma. Coffee and cocoa and a little burnt wood-like character. The smell, though, besides the roast, is quite clean. the taste is dry and full of roasted malt and barley flavors. The malt comes first, with a hightly roasted sensation...not quite burnt. Not much hop flavor, and very little bitterness (just for balance). I think that more bitterness comes from the roast than the hops. The mouthfeel is disappointingly light...a bit too watery. If the light body is for drinkability, I think it was overdone. A little more heft would have added a lot to the experience. Still, this is a very flavorful stout.

Serving type: bottle

05-13-2009 19:18:41 | More by Suds

wl0307

United Kingdom (England)

3.95/5  rDev +8.2%
look: 4 | smell: 4 | taste: 4 | feel: 3.5 | overall: 4

BB 22/05/09, served cool in a straight imperial pint glass. Note: The back label says this beer "reverts to the original malt only recipe...", but then it is also "made with barley & wheat"...? All-malt AND wheat in the same beer? I don't quite understand it.

A: pours a deeply dark brown hue almost close to ebony, the lively carbonation comes in abundance to result in a well-lasting, huge, dark beige frothy head.
S: dark chocolates, sweet cold filtered-coffee, coffee liquor, smoked red beans, a really smooth touch of bitter-sweet roasted walnuts, and lots of semi-lively resinous hops with a touch of earthiness... All's creamy and smooth on the nose, aromatic with plentiful chocolatey notes, well-shaped and... just... delicious!
T: slightly too fizzy upfront, but quickly the palate is overwhelmed with lots of light-bodied, smoked/roasted/tobacco-ish black malts with a belated aroma of real dark-roast coffee beans, lightly-charred walnuts, a delicate touch of sour dark fruits. Aromatic and a tad earthy actually in the end, the finishing touch is only moderately bitter but full of delicious dark malts' licorice-like aroma, and it's chewy dry-ish due to the good-bodied hops and malt's roastiness. What's mild, but impossible-to-miss here, is the trace of syrupy fruity sourness that is typical of a fine, balanced stout or porter.
M&D: the texture proves slightly too fizzy for my palate, while the light body and an evolving black-malt flavour profile have nevertheless rendered a decent drinkability. All's well-balanced, all's delicious for an English Stout. With or without wheat, "only-malt" or 80% malt, this dark ale evinces Meantime's craftsmanship yet one more time. In my opinion, this bottle-conditioned ale (or "pasteurised but non-filtered" - like a hefeweizen?) could well be really irresistible if the carbonation was much milder like a true real ale.

Serving type: bottle

03-30-2009 19:30:08 | More by wl0307

mdagnew

United Kingdom (Northern Ireland)

3.73/5  rDev +2.2%
look: 4 | smell: 4 | taste: 3.5 | feel: 3.5 | overall: 4

500ml bottle bought from Sainsburys...

Poured a dark brown almost black colour. Dark mocha head poured big thick and foamy with a pock marked, meringue like topping then faded quickly to thin covering... light patches of lacing...

Aroma - Lots of toasted bready maltiness, weak cold black coffee, some bitter chocolate, light liquorice, dark fruits (blackcurrents, plums, dates), some light sooty notes, faint muscovado sugar sweetness..

Taste - Quite a lot of roasted malt bitterness (maybe a touch harsh ?) mixed with liquorice, strong dark chocolate, definite sooty charcoal notes, some toffee / brown sugar sweetness, cola traces, roasted nuttiness, dried dark fruits (raisins, prunes, dates), peppery, some floral hops...

Feel - Smooth initially then a good sharp bite comes through... medium bodied... a very quaffable stout - i could easily down a few of these...

Overall - A pretty decent stout although maybe a little rough round the edges... recommended though...

Serving type: bottle

11-13-2008 15:33:00 | More by mdagnew

brendan13

Australia

4.22/5  rDev +15.6%
look: 4 | smell: 3.5 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 4 | overall: 4.5

A - Poured into a pint glass a very dark brown with bright ruby red highlights when held up to light. An inch of dense beige head that slowly falls away.
S - Vanilla, slight chocolate and roasted maltiness. A vauge appley note...
T - Bitter sweet chocolate is the first obvious character, followed by some roasted bitterness and a very slight floral hop hint.
M - Medium bodied, pretty low carbonation, lingering roasty and chocolate taste.
D - Apart from the apple note in the smell this is a top drop. Quite a sessionable stout. Some fresh, plump oysters went down nicely while sipping this.

Serving type: bottle

11-02-2008 09:34:53 | More by brendan13

hunteraw

China

3.5/5  rDev -4.1%
look: 3.5 | smell: 4 | taste: 3.5 | feel: 3.5 | overall: 3

Sampled at the Cambridge Beer Festival 2008. Surprised this isn't in the directory yet, as someone commented that it was "great in the bottle" which means it's being served in at least two ways, and has likely been around for a while.

Appearance: not opaque (surprisingly), brown/cola in color, with a small head

Smell: overwhelming toffee/caramel notes, with some roast and vanilla underneath

Taste: heavy diacetyl, this one. my tasting note was "caramel and chocolate covered popcorn with a bit of vanilla"

Mouthfeel: medium body

Drinkability: average, not subtle at all which hurts drinkability when the flavors happen to be so intense

Serving type: cask

05-24-2008 21:22:18 | More by hunteraw