Hitachino Nest Espresso Stout

Brewed by Kiuchi Brewery
Style: Stout
Ibaraki, Japan

Bottle at home ... <b> From a trade i forget who SORRY</b>Deep black ... big coffee roast ... deep roast malts low level bitterness and huge coffee kick.

12oz bottle poured into an English pint. HNES pours black, not dark brown, not dark amber but black. The head is minimal and consists mostly of a ring of dirty white loitering around the edge of the glass. The aroma is...... wait for it...... drum roll...... ESPRESSO! I knew you’d be surprised. The body is nice and chewy. I actually sliced a piece off for my wife to try. The taste is....oh never, mind, it’s espresso too. It has a very nice malt chocolate sweetness and great coffee bitterness, a dichotomy of happiness. The finish lingers around as a bitter reminder of how good your mouth just felt.

Pitch black, thick, with a fantastically tall and creamy tan head. Strong aroma of coffee, with hints of chocolate, roasted barley, burnt wood, caramel. A slightly sour note as well, almost a touch of dark fruit. Thick, rich body and flavor. Huge coffee but not overwhelming. Great roasted malt and barley. Chocolate, creamy lactic milk taste, brown sugar. A touch of refreshing sourness, and a touch of vanilla. Maybe a touch of aroma hops as well? Perfectly balanced. Great bitterness, decent sweetness. Long-lasting bitter finish of burnt barley, coffee. An excellent beer, not too much on the coffee, well done.

Pours like molasses from the bottle with a creamy brown head of foam that takes its sweet time to settle. Loaded with robust espresso and faint traces of chili powder. Quite possibly the reason why anime charcaters have such big eyes.

bottle from Hamilton pub in San Diego. Very strong and focused coffee taste and aroma. Not much else there, but they do this wekk.

Objectively speaking: Accomplished coffee stout.
I like: Aromatic, ashey and solidly roasted ale whose alcohol remains hidden. Medium-full bodied, though rather highly carbonated èa la Belgian stout. A malt extraction feature where sweetness is constantly kept at bay by the competent roastiness.
I dislike: Not much fruit flavours in there. This is what they intended, but this does not taste much more than espresso, extremely focused.

Drank with Bartzilla and others. Typical jet-black stout appearance. Nice aroma of Coffee and malts. Surprisingly tasty beer. Complex, but smooth and not overdone. Kind of like a lighter, more sessionable Speedway Stout.

Great coffee stout with obvious coffee from Sumatra in this brew. Full of strong, bold, carbon rich notes with a strong coffee flavor behind it all. Partially chewy, but not overly so. This is about balance with malts and the coffee.