Newport Storm 04

Formerly brewed at Coastal Extreme Brewing Company
Style: European Strong Lager
Middletown, Rhode Island USA

Bottle as an extra from hopdog. Muddy amber, no head. Aroma oxidized caramel malt, and nothing else. Flavor much the same. Tons of alcohol. Thin body and mouthfeel. Appears to be past it’s prime. Still thankful of the rare bottle Steve!

Bottle... Murky amber ale with no head. The nose is subtle, but includes apple, epoxy and fuzzy fruit esters. Sweet, medicinal, cough syrup flavor. Lots of hot alcohol and very resinous... NyQuil. Full-bodied and syrupy with a rumor of carbonation. Finishes boozy, fruity and medicinal. Not at all good. Thanks to growler for picking this bottle up during his travels! ... for what it’s worth, he poured his half out... I drank mine... I’m not entirely proud of that!

Bottle: Courtesy of Styles. The aroma has lots of apple, yeast, raisin, and moderate alcohol. It pours a cloudy dull reddish-orange with a minimal ring for a head. The flavor starts with light caramel and yeast. The middle contains lots of apple. The finish has notes of banana bread and raisin with light alcohol flavor, but moderate alcohol burn.

Well, I’m going to be the odd man out that actually enjoyed this one quite a bit. I would admit it’s rather strange of a beer that probably won’t appeal to a lot of people. The aroma comes on like brandy from a sunken pirate ship, or is it olde cidre? cinnamon and sugar... It looks as a scary murky flat golden brown, just like hazy cider. Big caramello chocolate apple whiskey. quite unique and I had a blast. It’s the pilsener version of barleywine. Lightly sour (bisgute thought it tasted like vinegar, though nancy liked it as always), there is some sour vinegar in there, but sweetness too. This is fun beer, if any of you haters have this lying around I’ll gladly take the burden off you and enjoy this one at a variety of ages ;) Completely unbalanced I agree but a change of pace that you might enjoy if your head isn’t screwed on right.

For 14% ABV, this coulda delivered a lot more. It wasn’t bad, but boy, it was potent and the alcohol didn’t hide in the aroma or flavor (although, I didn’t feel the effects like I thought I would). The flavor was really sweet, somewhat carmel and wine like. There was no balance, contrary to what the bottle says (4 "noble" hops). Carbonation was low and the appearance completely lacked any head or lacing (dark and cloudy amber in color). Somewhat yeasty and bready to the sweet malty base. Alcohol is prominent in the flavor and "burn" with each sip. Would probably be much better aged.

750ml bottle. This beer is suppose to be an Imperial Pilsner by style, with a whopping 14% abv. Sadly, this beer while well intentioned, was an utter disaster. Pours to a murky, muddy, deep golden color, with no head, and no carbonation. Any hop aroma in this beer is crushed with a big, astringent smack of alcohol, and band aids. The palate is flabby and muddled with sweet pale malt flavor, on a slick, oily body. Really can’t get anything else, as the palate is so muddled, it is a blur. This beer finishes with more sweet pale malt up front, then ends with a harsh smack of alcohol heat and more band aids. This beer was a total failure. The astringent alcohol was just so over powering. All I got was alcohol, muddled, pale malt flavor, and more alcohol. Sadly ’04 is a real black mark, on a series of one off releases, that have been truly outstanding. Coastal Extreme is a mediocre brewery in my opinion. Their flag ship brews are bland and boring. One thing they did get right however, were the one off seasonals. Until now. If you want to try ’04 just so you can say you have had the complete line up of the one offs? Got for it. If not, don’t waste your money or a beer trade on this one. You will be very dissapointed if you do.

750 ml bottle with a near-impossible-to-pry cork, from Julios in Westboro, MA (Feb 2006), consumed a bit above cellar temp from a Michelob glass. An oily, translucent very still medium amber liquid with just a smidgeon of quick-dying fizzy head.....a nose at first just huge fuesal alcohols, but softening fairly quickly with the addition of caramel and a dry graininess, a touch of maple and raisin....takes a little effort, but some interest is there under the hard liquor.....body is quite syrupy, with a strong rum-raisin character that I find rather appealing, though the alcoholic strength mirrors that on the nose....unfortunately there is little malt character, just that rummy dried fruit quality and the syrup turns to watery weak liquor at the finish, though an oaky cast gives some vaguely interesting notes. On the whole a misfire and far too expensive to be the tipple of winos, which it is.

"Poured an orange color with very little head. Aroma of alcohol and sweetness. 14%abv and you knew it during this beer. tasted sweet and of alcohol. Overall not bad."