Evening all. A couple of months ago, I was pondering a way in which I could add a festive feeling to the experience of beer tasting, whilst also having an excuse to have a beer every day in the build-up to Christmas. After stumbling upon the fantastic blog http://beeradventcalendar.blogspot.com/, I decided to shamelessly plagiarise this idea. Therefore, this inaugural Beer Advent Calendar post is indebted to Ketsbaia and my flatmate Luke Albutt, who convinced me to put my beer-related nonsense on the internet.
The first day of December, a day I've been looking forward to since this plan was put into motion. Opening the beer cupboard in my flat to reveal a myriad of lovely bottles, I lunged forward to procure a Meantime London Pale Ale. I've managed to try a few Meantime beers in the last year, both on keg and bottle, and have found all of them to be lacking in something. Maybe it's my bias towards the full-retard, amplified beers of the US and the rest of Europe, but they seem to be a brewery with a lot of potential but a diminished execution. For example, their IPA was lacking the fruity, citrusy taste and bitter finish that I've grown to love from that style, and their London Lager doesn't have a crisp, thirst-quenching finish like, say, Windsor and Eton Republika. Not to say they don't create some great beers though- London Stout is a fantastically sessionable, light stout, and Wheat can go toe to toe with some great hefeweizens. So I approached this beer with some trepidation but a great deal of anticipation that this might be a different experience.
London Pale Ale pours a golden colour with a small head that quickly dissipates. The aroma is lovely- light citrus, hoppy and with a malty background. Very subtle and reserved, but then that's what makes these beers a refreshing change from the hop bombs and imperials. The taste is very light- the bitterness hits first but quickly falls back to reveal a creamy, malty finish. No real sense of the aroma hops in the taste. Overall a pleasant experience, but unfortunately it hasn't done much to change my stance on Meantime Brewery at the moment. Not that it will impede my search to find a fantastic beer from them!
Thanks for reading the first day of this yuletide beerfest. Tomorrow, another beer and another discussion. Until next time....
No comments:
Post a Comment