REVIEW #3: Greenwich Hospital Porter (Meantime Brewing Co.)

 

Pours a ruddy, oaky brown with a cream coloured head that has staying power. Both peat and Christmas pudding notes come through on the nose. Succulently sweet cherry and blackcurrant flavours are present at first in the taste, which quickly make way for a long dry finish; slightly sour, phenolic, peaty and medicinal. The barrel conditioning has left its stamp on this beer. However the average-to-low alcohol content for the style means that ethanol doesn't play a prominent role in the taste, which may be a pro or con depending on your disposition. As such its eminently drinkable not to mention mouth-wateringly delicious!

Greenwich Hospital Porter, redolent of the English porters of the early 1800s, is a blend of two beers; a 'stock' and a 'mild'. The stock has been matured in Islay whiskey (famously peaty) casks for 4 months whereas the mild is added directly upon production. Meantime brewed this in their new brewery (their home  since 2010), ironically called the 'Old Brewery', based in an old Royal Navy Hospital. It is available in 150 Marks & Spencer's stores in the form of a 75cl bottled at an ABV of 6% priced at £9.99. The porter can also be bought on draught at Meantime's brewtap in an 8% form and one in which the stock has been barrel-aged for 12 months; three times that of its bottled counterpart!

• MALTS: ?
• HOPS: ?
• IBU: ?
• ABV: 6%

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