Newport Storm '00
Review Date 1/9/2005
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Re-buy?
Since the close
of the Narragansett Brewing Company in 1981, Rhode Island has had a
brewing history that can certainly be described as sporadic, but not without
its moments of glory. Narragansett, located in Cranston Rhode Island, was a
popular brand across New England. In addition to a standard light American
lager, they brewed flavorful seasonal beers such as porters and bocks. The
old brewery was torn down years ago, an occurrence that brought tears to the
eyes of more than a few of its former customers.
The next big thing in Rhode Island Brewing was Hope Brewing; a contract brewer that intended to eventually open a brewery in the Ocean State. Introducing Hope Lager in the late eighties, Hope went on to add some fantastic seasonal beers to their line: a Christmas Ale, Bock, Oktoberfest, and the tasty Red Rooster Ale. I still fondly remember them to this day.
Unfortunately, Hope made a severe tactical blunder: they invested in brewing equipment purchased from Molson in Canada, but then decided not to open their brewery here in RI. Instead, they focused on expanding the brand throughout New England, where it got lost on the shelves amidst a slew of other microbrews.
I am convinced a physical presence in the state, a brewery that could have been rallied around would have kept hope in business, but sadly the brewery folded in the mid nineties Towards the end, Hope sold the brand to a local doctor who, ironically, brewed draft Hope beers but did not bottle them. His operation was too small, however, and did not long survive the sale.
In 1994, the Emerald Isle Brew Works was founded and eventually built a brewery in West Warwick, a few miles from my home. Emerald Isle was located in an old mill complex, and their beers were highly regarded by noted beer critic Michael Jackson, and more importantly, me. The brewery specialized in cask-conditioned ales, and never bottled their beer, but did sell it in kegs across the state and in New York. Though their beers were among the very best I have ever tasted and I did my best to drink enough of their beer to keep them in business, they sadly ceased operations a few years ago.
The Great Providence Brewing Company was another contract brewer that hoped to build a brewery, but never did. They sold a draft pilsner that was truly exceptional, hoppy and authentic, but perhaps too much so for the average consumer. Stocks were sold in the company, but not enough to finance the brewery. Great Providence folded too.
That brings us to the present, and the first microbrewery in Rhode Island to brew and bottle their beer. Coastal Extreme Brewing Company opened here a few summers ago with one beer, their flagship Newport Storm Hurricane Amber Ale. That beer has become very successful here in little Rhody, the only state in which it is distributed. It’s hard to walk into a bar, restaurant, or liquor store without seeing Hurricane Amber for sale.
In the course of writing my column for the Yankee Brew News, in which I covered the Rhode Island beer scene, I had regular contact with the great bunch of guys at Coastal Extreme. Thus you can imagine my excitement when one summer they hinted at the possibility of a really BIG limited release brew for the holiday season. What would this beer be? A stout? Barleywine? The answer wasn’t clear.
Eventually, Coastal Extreme decided to follow no specific stylistic pattern. They brewed a big, beautiful, bold beer with an amazing alcohol content of 11.5% by volume. Now, many beers today achieve that level of potency, but generally with the use of specialty yeasts. The guys at Coastal Extreme managed to bring ’00 to this alcohol content with their house yeast, a truly astonishing feat! The beer was brewed with the following ingredients and to these specs:
Crisp Marris Otter Pale Malt
Durst Light Munich
Durst Light Vienna
Crisp Chocolate Malt
Crisp Torrified Wheat
Magnum (Bittering)
Northern Brewer (Flavor)
E. Kent Goldings (Aroma)
American Ale Yeast
Ferment @ 66 for 1 month
Rack Condition for 1.5 months at 42
bottle condition with krauesen from Amber Ale
SRM 38
IBU 30.5
Original Plato 26.4 (105.6 SG)
Final Plato 5.1
ABV 11.5 %
This bottle-conditioned beer is packaged in an attractive cobalt blue 750ML bottle with red and gold lettering and is corked. It retails for about $10 a bottle and will improve with age when properly cellared. The brewery describes it thusly on the back of the bottle:
When we decided to brew up our '00 we wanted to create something unique and completely different from anything else out on the market. So our brewers went in search of, and found, the best ingredients in the world to create what we like to think of as the ultimate beer. Without the shackles of traditional beer style guidelines, they were able to use the exact types and amounts of ingredients they wanted to create this brew. When it was finished, we hand bottled our 20 barrels of '00 in a package as unique and exquisite as the beer inside. This is the first and last time this recipe will ever be used. We have designed it to grow better with age so your patience will be rewarded, but if you can't wait that long to get a taste, we're sure you'll be counting the days until we unveil the '01. It is extremely limited, extremely strong, and extremely original, because as we like to say around here: "It's All About Extremes!"
Newport Storm ’00 pours to a dark brown color with a thick creamy head and a rich fruity nose. There are a lot of things going on in the nose: the rich fruity esters, chocolate hints, and a powerful alcohol suggestion that reminds me of a Belgian-style dubbel. The palate here is smooth and chocolatey, very chocolatey, incredibly chocolatey! The mouthfeel is very creamy on this beer, deliciously so, and gives the impression of a rich chocolate ice cream on into the finish, where the fruit becomes apparent once again and the alcohol emerges into a high-octane burn. A peppery touch of hops dances over the tongue but is hard-pressed to balance out the incredibly rich malt character. A very complex, warming, and wonderful beer for the cold winter months.
I tried some with a German Christmas Stollen cake, and the rich beer complemented the rich cake quite nicely. It’s also wonderful by the fire place, or after a big meal of turkey or ham. Try it in a brandy glass to arouse the appetite prior to a holiday meal. This is a once in a lifetime brew. Seek it out and enjoy!
In 2002 I took these notes:
Here it is a little over a year after this beer has been released, and I'm sampling a bottle to see how it has aged. The hops are completely gone now, leaving a beer of rich malt complexity and smoothness. The palate is rich and caramelish now, much like a barleywine. The beer is sweet with a touch of fruity ester, a little plum I find, but mostly a rich caramel sweetness. Wonderfully warming alcohol finish. The beer has mellowed nicely. A wonderful nightcap!
Today, you can still enjoy this brew, which is slightly changed from year to year. The latest release is (you guessed it) '04. There are still bottles of prior vintages floating around, too. They're worth seeking out.
The next big thing in Rhode Island Brewing was Hope Brewing; a contract brewer that intended to eventually open a brewery in the Ocean State. Introducing Hope Lager in the late eighties, Hope went on to add some fantastic seasonal beers to their line: a Christmas Ale, Bock, Oktoberfest, and the tasty Red Rooster Ale. I still fondly remember them to this day.
Unfortunately, Hope made a severe tactical blunder: they invested in brewing equipment purchased from Molson in Canada, but then decided not to open their brewery here in RI. Instead, they focused on expanding the brand throughout New England, where it got lost on the shelves amidst a slew of other microbrews.
I am convinced a physical presence in the state, a brewery that could have been rallied around would have kept hope in business, but sadly the brewery folded in the mid nineties Towards the end, Hope sold the brand to a local doctor who, ironically, brewed draft Hope beers but did not bottle them. His operation was too small, however, and did not long survive the sale.
In 1994, the Emerald Isle Brew Works was founded and eventually built a brewery in West Warwick, a few miles from my home. Emerald Isle was located in an old mill complex, and their beers were highly regarded by noted beer critic Michael Jackson, and more importantly, me. The brewery specialized in cask-conditioned ales, and never bottled their beer, but did sell it in kegs across the state and in New York. Though their beers were among the very best I have ever tasted and I did my best to drink enough of their beer to keep them in business, they sadly ceased operations a few years ago.
The Great Providence Brewing Company was another contract brewer that hoped to build a brewery, but never did. They sold a draft pilsner that was truly exceptional, hoppy and authentic, but perhaps too much so for the average consumer. Stocks were sold in the company, but not enough to finance the brewery. Great Providence folded too.
That brings us to the present, and the first microbrewery in Rhode Island to brew and bottle their beer. Coastal Extreme Brewing Company opened here a few summers ago with one beer, their flagship Newport Storm Hurricane Amber Ale. That beer has become very successful here in little Rhody, the only state in which it is distributed. It’s hard to walk into a bar, restaurant, or liquor store without seeing Hurricane Amber for sale.
In the course of writing my column for the Yankee Brew News, in which I covered the Rhode Island beer scene, I had regular contact with the great bunch of guys at Coastal Extreme. Thus you can imagine my excitement when one summer they hinted at the possibility of a really BIG limited release brew for the holiday season. What would this beer be? A stout? Barleywine? The answer wasn’t clear.
Eventually, Coastal Extreme decided to follow no specific stylistic pattern. They brewed a big, beautiful, bold beer with an amazing alcohol content of 11.5% by volume. Now, many beers today achieve that level of potency, but generally with the use of specialty yeasts. The guys at Coastal Extreme managed to bring ’00 to this alcohol content with their house yeast, a truly astonishing feat! The beer was brewed with the following ingredients and to these specs:
Crisp Marris Otter Pale Malt
Durst Light Munich
Durst Light Vienna
Crisp Chocolate Malt
Crisp Torrified Wheat
Magnum (Bittering)
Northern Brewer (Flavor)
E. Kent Goldings (Aroma)
American Ale Yeast
Ferment @ 66 for 1 month
Rack Condition for 1.5 months at 42
bottle condition with krauesen from Amber Ale
SRM 38
IBU 30.5
Original Plato 26.4 (105.6 SG)
Final Plato 5.1
ABV 11.5 %
This bottle-conditioned beer is packaged in an attractive cobalt blue 750ML bottle with red and gold lettering and is corked. It retails for about $10 a bottle and will improve with age when properly cellared. The brewery describes it thusly on the back of the bottle:
When we decided to brew up our '00 we wanted to create something unique and completely different from anything else out on the market. So our brewers went in search of, and found, the best ingredients in the world to create what we like to think of as the ultimate beer. Without the shackles of traditional beer style guidelines, they were able to use the exact types and amounts of ingredients they wanted to create this brew. When it was finished, we hand bottled our 20 barrels of '00 in a package as unique and exquisite as the beer inside. This is the first and last time this recipe will ever be used. We have designed it to grow better with age so your patience will be rewarded, but if you can't wait that long to get a taste, we're sure you'll be counting the days until we unveil the '01. It is extremely limited, extremely strong, and extremely original, because as we like to say around here: "It's All About Extremes!"
Newport Storm ’00 pours to a dark brown color with a thick creamy head and a rich fruity nose. There are a lot of things going on in the nose: the rich fruity esters, chocolate hints, and a powerful alcohol suggestion that reminds me of a Belgian-style dubbel. The palate here is smooth and chocolatey, very chocolatey, incredibly chocolatey! The mouthfeel is very creamy on this beer, deliciously so, and gives the impression of a rich chocolate ice cream on into the finish, where the fruit becomes apparent once again and the alcohol emerges into a high-octane burn. A peppery touch of hops dances over the tongue but is hard-pressed to balance out the incredibly rich malt character. A very complex, warming, and wonderful beer for the cold winter months.
I tried some with a German Christmas Stollen cake, and the rich beer complemented the rich cake quite nicely. It’s also wonderful by the fire place, or after a big meal of turkey or ham. Try it in a brandy glass to arouse the appetite prior to a holiday meal. This is a once in a lifetime brew. Seek it out and enjoy!
In 2002 I took these notes:
Here it is a little over a year after this beer has been released, and I'm sampling a bottle to see how it has aged. The hops are completely gone now, leaving a beer of rich malt complexity and smoothness. The palate is rich and caramelish now, much like a barleywine. The beer is sweet with a touch of fruity ester, a little plum I find, but mostly a rich caramel sweetness. Wonderfully warming alcohol finish. The beer has mellowed nicely. A wonderful nightcap!
Today, you can still enjoy this brew, which is slightly changed from year to year. The latest release is (you guessed it) '04. There are still bottles of prior vintages floating around, too. They're worth seeking out.
And remember, try a new beer today, and drink outside the box.
*Pricing data accurate at time of review or latest update. For reference only, based on actual price paid by reviewer.
(B)=Bottled
(D)=Draft
