Meantime Coffee Porter

Okay, what really drew me into this beer was the bottle. I know the picture sucks, but you can still see that this bottle doesn't really look like it contains beer. However, it was in the beer section, and it wasn't really that expensive, so I was sold. Also, I tried a sip of the Mill Street Coffee Porter a week ago and thought it was amazing so now I really want to get more into coffee porters! The one thing that does worry me a bit though is the coffee factor because on occasion I can be a little sensitive to caffeine and coffee seems to have the greatest effect on me. I go through periods where I am drinking coffee 1-2 times a day but then I go through periods where I almost never drink it. These periods are a few months at a time and they are always due to me being overwhelmed by coffee and then curious of whether it really does effect me badly. Blah blah blah.

Now, Meantime Brewing has a website. Looks like they make a lot of interesting beers. It is in fact based out of London, so that will give me a bit of an idea of what to expect. Unfortunately they don't give a lot of information on the Coffee Porter itself but the site is kinda cool and they seem to have a pretty serious selection.

The smell is nice, just a hint of coffee, combined with the usual smell of a porter makes for almost a mocha-like scent. Initially it tastes great, the coffee is perfectly subtle against the smooth dark flavours of the porter. However the aftertaste is kind of metallic and unpleasant. I just tasted the foam of the porter on my mustache and it tasted like pure coffee. It's a bit fizzy tasting and it's expectedly bitter. What I really like is the balance of the coffee flavour, it really doesn't over-or-under-whelm you. The metallic aftertaste seemed to disappear after a few sips, so that is good, although that taste is really the only downside to the flavour of the beer.

Now I've just had a few bites of a tuna salad sandwich and then took a sip of the Coffee Porter. Hmmmm. The metallic aftertaste is back. I really don't know what that is but it's unpleasant. It's really a shame because the beer is almost amazing. It's a hard recommend.

70%: This beer almost rules but is turned down by the metallic aftertaste that arrives after the initial sips and any sip after food. Other than that, it has a perfect balance of coffee flavouring and a good scent. It's a shame about the aftertaste.