Newport Storm Spring Ale (Irish Red)

Brewed by Coastal Extreme Brewing Company
Style: Irish Ale
Middletown, Rhode Island USA

(12oz bottle) Small beige head atop clear copper body. Aroma is medium sweet, caramel, wisp of smoke. Taste is medium sweet, caramel, roast malt, light nut, light smoke/burnt. Watery light-medium body.

Bottle. Aroma of malt, nuts and caramel. Dark red pour with medium tan head. Taste of malt, burned nuts, and hops. Slight bitter finish. Nice spring ale.

bottle poured a red mahogany in color with a one finger head that was light tan and subsided to a thin layer that did retain well. aroma has malt, cocoa, muted hops, and caramel. flavor is well malted with light roast. hops again are muted, and there is a chocolate coffee thing going on that is interesting. body is medium and the beer is well flavored. there is more to this than i had anticipated which is always a nice surprise.

Aroma of roasted coffee beans, caramel and malt. Flavour is similar -- coffee with a hoppy finish. Light to medium bodied and a little too watery. Dry finish with a coffee linger.

Pours with a frothy, light tan, initially two-finger thick head that leaves some lacing on the sides of the glass. The beer is a deep, burnt red color, that shows a brilliantly clear, concentrated cranberry color when held up to the light. The aroma is quite malty with notes of berries, hints of roast malt, ample toasted grain, swarthy biscuit notes and a dusty crushed soda cracker notes. There is also a fair amount of hop aromatics here though. Aromas of sweet citrus and again some fruit notes that accent the berry aromatics.

Lightly sweet, but has a large malt presence in the form of caramelized malt sugars and ample toasty, deeply bready, biscuit-like malt character. A supporting hop presence provides flavors of orange peel, zesty grapefruit, a touch of astringent pine, and a solid, slightly biting bitterness in the finish. The malt and hop notes combined to provide an unspecified berry-like flavor here, which helps to round things out. The malt character and the hop bitterness tend to linger on in the palate quite a bit, but this beer is still fairly light. It has a medium heft to it, but only just enough, as it remains quite drinkable.

I don’t typically think of hops when I think of an Irish-Red, but I definitely think this beer is better for their presence. The hops might be a bit distracting if there was not such a large malt presence, but luckily there is and I really like how rich the malt character is. Despite this the beer is quite drinkable. A clean beer that drinks much better than I might have guessed.

Bottled. Poured a deep, coppery brown with a short off-white head. The aroma picked up deep, rich caramelization with darker fruits and chocolate.. very intriguing and enjoyable. The flavor had dark fruits and caramel again at the core with sharper alcohol notes and a solid dose of herbal bitterness.. sweet, toasty finish showed some stale oxidation notes. Light-medium bodied and too sharp at times. Not bad at all.

12oz bottle from alldaydrinker - thanks, Jeff! Typical looking red that benefits from a very lush malt character, with just enough hops to balance. Big, bold, creamy, it may not have the most distinctive flavors but it’s certainly a very fine example of a style I generally dismiss.

Name: Thunderhead Irish Red
Date: 04/21/2007
Mode: Bottle
Source: Tasting, 50 More Beers on the Wall

clear dark amber, fine off white head, drops of lace, chocolate and dry biscuit aroma, rich dry caramel flavor, rich chocolate provides balance and interest, nice earthy hops leads to a bitter finish,

Aroma: 6/10; Appearance: 7/10; Flavor: 6/10; Palate: 6/10; Overall: 11/20
Rating: 3/5.0
Drinkability: 7/10
Score: *4