Tuesday 3 December 2013

Beer #135 - Marks & Spencer Greenwich Black IPA

When I first heard about this new brew from Meantime, produced exclusively for Marks & Spencer I was very eager to try it having recently come across the concept of a black IPA in this article. Unfortunately my first visit to an M&S to pick one up saw me coming away empty handed, the shelves had been stripped bare. Due to my own laziness it took a while before I finally obtained and drank a bottle this weekend. A dark pale ale obviously seems a bit oxymoronic in name, it combines an initial strong hoppy hit with the toasted malts more familiar in a porter. This Greenwich Black IPA did exactly that. It pours a very dark brown with a tan head. The aroma and initial taste is smokey coffee with the hops providing a robust yet not over-powering citrus aftertaste. I felt that the smokey malts (which I'm generally a big fan of) tempered the bitter hopinesss (which I'm generally less of a fan of) delightfully. This is a really good beer and hats off to Marks & Spencer for working with breweries such as Meantime. If anyone would like to recommend other dark IPAs for me to try I'd love to hear about them, leave a comment or tweet @alovelydropblog.

Brewery: Meantime Brewing Co.
Country: United Kingdom
ABV: 5.7%

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