Meantime - India Pale Ale

A family camping trip is on the cards in a few weeks so I put the tent up in the garden as a trial run, to make sure it was working ok. One slip of the tongue later and I had somehow agreed to spend the night in the tent with my three-year old son. Every other bloke in the land would be watching the first Match of the Day of the new season and I had volunteered to spend the evening sitting in the garden on a beanbag.

As I couldn't sleep in the house, I figured eight Ace might be an appropriate choice of drink but Waitrose don't sell it so I opted for one Meantime IPA instead.

This comes in a big 750ml bottle with a cork/wire cage. It was well over five quid and the price nearly put me off, which doesn't happen very often. It was quite highly carbonated, which I think it would have to be, as the bigger bottle will spend more time sat open. The first pour resulted in a big rolling head rising up, which I had to allow to recede before topping up. I still don't know for sure how I feel about the bigger bottle and the cork stopper. I really wanted it to not be a gimmick but I can't think of any compelling reason for it and sadly suspect it might be.

I had high hopes for this IPA but my first impression of the nose was that it was just too malt-forward for my liking. It's a very strong beer at 7.4% and although it was extremely drinkable, I just constantly wanted there to be more hops. I suspect this is a very traditional IPA though, and true to type in a way that other IPAs perhaps aren't.

This is a very fine beer indeed, just not quite what I was expecting and not to my taste. I could happily have another bottle at some point in the future but there are just so many other beers I want to try first.