Visit Date: September 2014
BREWERY NAME: Meantime Brewing Company
WEBSITE: http://www.meantimebrewing.com/brewery-tour/
DATES: Monday - Thursday 7pm Friday 7pm
Saturday: 2pm, 1:30pm, 3:00pm, 4:30pm, 6pm, 7:30pm
Sunday 2pm, 4pm
COST: £20.00 per head *£17.50 on Monday to Thursday and Sunday.
DURATION: 90 mins
CONTACT: +44 (0)20 3384 0582, or EMAIL: brewerytours@meantimebrewing.com
Meantime was founded back in 2000, the brainchild of Alistair Hook who actually trained at the world famous brewing school - Technical University of Munich of Weihenstephan. Originally located 0° 2' 12" east of the Greenwich Meridian, they soon moved to a site on nearby Blackwall Lane in 2010. T
Since their humble beginnings the Meantime Brewing Company has increased production and distribution at quite a rate, brewing well over 70.6 million pints a year while they have brewed almost54 different bber types since 2000.
Their present site at Blackwall Lane SE10 ( don't be fooled by their fab 'brewery tap' next to the Cutty Sark in the centre of Greenwich) is almost a 15 min walk from Greenwich railway station, located on the edge of an industrial park, and can’t be easily missed identifiable by the signage and placards displayed outside their premises.
We entered their reception area via a security intercom gate, only to discover a fair fare people already eagerly awaiting.
No sooner had we arrived than a door from the Brew House burst open with great gusto - our guide Alex had arrived!
It wasn't long before he herded us all up into the tasting room. The walls of the room housed a fair few bottled beers from breweries as far flung as South Africa, Brazil, America and of course Europe, a visual delight for any designer as well as beer geeks. Once sat down we were handed a London Pale Ale (4.3%), a popular ale that contains a combination of American Cascade and Centennial hops, giving it a citrus aroma, while Kentish Goldings provide the bitterness.
Alex is a larger than life character that really did bring the whole Meantime story to life. His passion was unbounded and infectious. Rather than ramble on, I will let some of the other people that have visited the brewery enlighten you further, so best have a look at TripAdvisor...
During his hour presentation we sampled a few other brews, noteably Yakima Red (4.1%) and London Lager (4.5%) a particular favourite of Meantime’s Brewmaster Alastair Hook.
After almost three quarters of an hour Alex took us out into the brewery itself, whereby he continued describng the ingredients which go into Meantimes beers - barly comes from East Anglia while the malt they use is Weyermann from Germany, and I think the only brewery in the UK that actually uses it.
We contnued through the brew house and concluded almost after an hour and three quarters in total with the customary questions and answers, once we had finally passed Maturation and the bottling and labelling plant.
What made this tour so unique was our hosts enthusiasm and humour, the beers not bad either mind!. Even on our exit you could see how they intend to expand their business and I can only see the Meantime Brewing Company going from strength to strength and second only to Fullers in Chiswick in terms of size and production, keep it up chaps... Now then! where is that Greenwich Union Pub?.... of course it is at 0' degress 0’ 36” west of the Greenwich meridian...
