Meantime Coffee Porter

Brewed by Meantime
Style: Porter
London, England

Medium brown with a tan head. Coffee, light roasted malts, cocoa powder, in the aroma. Very nice, actually. Medium body. The flavor is a bit off. If this beer tasted like it smells it would be a much better brew. Burnt coffee, some cocoa, and a bit of roasted malt. It’s just sorta there.

Sampled on 11/13/2009. This porter pours a medium brown color from a 330ml bottle. Small sized, quickly diminishing, white foamy head. The aroma is coffee, some chocolate and some roasted malts. Medium bodied porter. The malts are roasty, coffee and chocolate. Touch of vanilla. The hops are earthy. A nice mild coffee flavor. Not overwhelming in its intensity. Perhaps sitting in the fridge for a couple years mellowed this one some. A very nice, very drinkable beer. Mouthfeel is full. Finish is clean and smooth. Aftertaste is slightly bitter.

This comes in a very handsome bottle, I love it already! Pours dark brown, not as dark as I’m used to, with a thin head. Very fragrant, with a strong presence of coffee grounds, and an underlying sweetness of toffee. They need to learn how to brew better coffee at Meantime brewery. Still, I think the toffee aroma makes up for the bad coffee. The flavor, however, is a bit thin. Mostly watery, and then a strong coffee aftertaste. Very fizzy on the palate. Not my idea of a tasty porter. Sorry.

Bottle. This beer has a distinct, strong coffee taste and aroma. Pours deep and dark with a little brown head that leaves brownish white rings of lace. If one is a coffee lover, this is the beer for you.

Sampled from a 12 oz brown bottle this beer poured a red tinged brown-black color with a trace tan head. The aroma was brewed coffee, light nut and a touch of vanilla. The flavor was strong brewed coffee, nut, caramel and a touch of vanilla. A bit dry and a touch tangy the overall flavor profile reminded me of coffee ice cream. There was a long coffee finish. Medium body. Interesting.

Pours a dark, translucent, brown color with nice ruby tinting. A little on the pale side, stylistically speaking, but still looks nice. Almost three-fingers of creamy, light tan foam sits on top. Retention is quite good. Lacing is in small clumps and fairly sticky. This has the coffee smell going on strong. It’s not an over powering smell, but it’s filled with different levels of coffee. Dark-roasted beans, fresh ground beans and even ’spent’ coffee beans all show up in this nose, at various points. A subtle hint of malts is about the only other thing I get from it. It’s all about the coffee. Taste follows the nose. Lots of coffee flavors here. From deep and earthy, all the way to bitter and twangy. I find it to be slightly too broad-spectrumed, for my taste. I like just a little bit for focus. It has a medium body, with a mild-to-medium level of carbonation. This does help it have a mild creaminess to it, which is nice. The body, overall, is a touch to the thin side, as far as my expectations for a porter go, though. It lacks a certain focal point, which I think takes away from it’s drinkability and enjoyment level. It’s a low enough abv to enjoy several of, but I’d like to have some other bottle when I want a coffee beer.

Pours a huge 4 finger beige head. Body is black in color. Head retention and lacing are good Aroma is of bitter coffee and chocolate. Copper and roasted malts are also there. No hops are present First taste is abit bitter and sour. Reminds me of cheap ground coffee. Not getting any rich bold flavors I love from coffee beers. Not much hops coming through but there is enough bitterness from the coffee grounds.Vinegar/sour taste really takes away from flavor. Mouth feel is decent. Good balance of carbonation, body is very light almost watery. Head doesnt really contribute to the mouth feel Over all it is decent. Beer is session able but the off flavor gets to me. Dont know if this beer is infected but looking at other reviews other people have had this problem. Wish I would have had a normal bottle, I love coffee beers but dont know if I would buy other for fear of contamination.

Serving date: 2009-03-23. Served in snifter. Dark brown but paler than expected and certainly paler than a lot of other porters. The liquid is very clear. A small beige head that settled very quickly and leaves a minimal ring of lacings around the edges. In the nose, there’s lightly roasted coffee, sweet chocolate, some vanilla. The coffee aromas dominate, as expected, but they are not as deep and powerful as I would have wanted. A pretty sweet taste. Light roasted coffee beans and freshly ground coffee dominate. Pleasant flavors of light chocolate. The taste is very similar to chocolate covered coffee beans. Some vanilla. A decent backbone of roasted malts and a milk-like smooth flavor. Hops are very restrained throughout the experience. The finish has a minimal bitterness and some sweet malts, woody flavors and chocolate syrup. Semi-full body, slightly creamy texture. Plenty of carbonation, but this probably prevents the beer from being too sweet and sickly. Initially, I thought this was a very good beer with great coffee flavors. However, it’s somewhat to sweet and the coffee flavors lack some depth. Would have liked a richer, not as, sweet coffee profile. The sweetness and taste of chocolate covered coffee beans become a little overpowering after a while. One bottle of this is almost too much. Would probably be a good dessert beer or a digestif, though. Serving type: bottle (Copy of old Beer Advocate review)