Newport Storm Henry (Cyclone Series)

Aroma: 8 | Appearance: 8 | Mouthfeel: 6 | Flavor: 6 | Overall: 6

A vigorous pour into my 25cl tulip glass produces a fat-two-finger-thick, lightly browned, tan colored head. The beer is quite dark, and looks like a very burnt, amber tinged color, when held up to the light the beer shows a brilliantly clear, deep ruby color. The aroma smells of well toasted malt, a touch of roasted notes, a soft nuttiness, perhaps a touch of cocoa, a lightly sweet burnt raisin note, some notes of sweet plum and even prune. The aroma grows on me after a bit and seems a touch more complex than I at first thought it would be.

Lightly sweet tasting up front with a touch of dry roasted grain in the middle that starts to balance this, the beer finishes though with a fair amount of tartness that seems a bit out of place. The tartness is fairly tart, but definitely noticeable, the beer is pretty clean though. Flavors of raisin and light concentrated plum up front are then greeted by notes of lightly roasted coffee, well toasted grain husks, a lingering roasted nuttiness and of course the tartness that brings out some notes of tart plums and even some roast grain acidity. The roast character lingers on the palate after each sip with an almost nuttiness as well as a touch of burnt bitterness. This beer is surprisingly light (which should be another warning, along with the tartness) for a beer of this strength and percentage of Munich, the carbonation actually is somewhat high and contributes a bit of fizziness to the texture as well.

I am starting to think that this clean tartness is a house bug that has intruded into a lot of the Newport Storm beers. Not bad, but the tartness is definitely a bit out of place.