2beerguys beer blog

History of Coastal Extreme Brewing – Newport Storm

Here is a brief history of the Coastal Extreme Brewing in Newport, RI.
Original source

Enjoy!!

Sean
2Beerguys.com

The brewery was started in 1999 after Ryan and several friends began homebrewing while attending Colby College in Maine.

They decided to start a brewery and chose Rhode Island because there were no craft breweries in the entire state.

The Hurricane Amber was the only beer the brewery brewed for its first three years. The brewery added seasonal beers, called Storms of the Season, in 2002. In the fall they brew an Oktoberfest beer, in winter there’s a porter, in spring they make an Irish red ale, and for summer, an IPA.

In 2004, the Coastal Extreme started a new series of experimental, higher-in-alcohol beers, the Cyclone series.

“Those are a series of limited-release beers,” said Ryan. “They’re non-traditional styles, usually between 7 and 9 percent alcohol (by volume). Sometimes they’ll be a lot hoppier than traditional styles, or maltier.”

The current Cyclone series beer is Hurricane Henry, a 7.6 percent ABV beer. The style is hard to describe. Ryan calls it a Munich-style dark ale, but it is definitely not traditional.

Other beers that were part of the Cyclone series included Hurricane Frank, which was a Belgian-style witbeer, and Hurricane Gloria, which was a Pumpkin ale.

The one problem is, if you really like any of the Cyclone series, you better stock up. Once they are sold out, they will never be brewed again.

Once a year, the brewery releases a special beer in 750 milliliter, cobalt-blue, corked bottles. The beers are simply named after the year, such as ’06, ’07, etc. (Julio’s Liquors in Westborough still has several ’06s on the shelves.)

Each year is something completely different, and they are typically high in alcohol; between 11 percent and 14 percent ABV. The beer is brewed in the winter, aged for a year, and released the following November.

The ’07 was an imperial stout, while the ’06 was a strong ale aged in oak barrels. The ’08 has been brewed, but no details will be released until November.

The only other beer Coastal Extreme brews year-round is the Rhode Island Blueberry. It is brewed using real Rhode Island blueberries, rather than just flavoring, he said.

Visit Norman Miller at http://blogs.townonline.com/beernut/