Hitachino Nest New Year Celebration Ale

Brewed by Kiuchi Brewery
Style: Spice/Herb/Vegetable
Ibaraki, Japan

2005 (bottle) Pours a dense rusty-orange with a large, rocky, beige head. Good head retention. I’m overwhelmed by more fruits than spices in the aroma: apple, banana, white grape, citrus. Alcohol presence. Medium bodied flavor... fruity & spiked with the usual array of holiday spices. Finishes hoppy, but the spices dance around for awhile. Made me happy. (8/3/8/4/16=3.9 Feb. 23, 2005)

2006 (bottle) Similarly hued while the head is more cream-colored than beige. Possibly deeper hazed with a copious amount of sediment. Fruity and spiced with a yeasty slant. Hops still show very well. (7/4/7/4/15=3.7 July 08, 2006)

Scores tweaked yearly

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Orange/Brown Coloring with Thin White Head. Spicy Aroma. Spices, Rice and Hoppy on the Tongue. Definitly Unique in Personality and on That Note, Enjoyable.

The folk at the Kiuchi Brewery do some interesting celebrating. This full bodies beer pours a brown with a towering, soapy brown head. The aroma is wild with spices - cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice, pepper - who knows what? It’s got a bite to it (not just the abv) when you drink. It’s got a sweet malt base on top of which are poured all manner of spices. Good stuff. I want to go to one of their parties.

Large, light tan head of fine bubbles. Light carbonation. Head reduces pretty slowly and lasts the duration. Nice mandarin orange aroma with a bit of roasted grains and some strange sweetness. Color is a cloudy orange mahagony. Flavor is strange, sour from the oranges, roasty from the roasted grains, some sweetness and fizzy in the mouth. They are right. This is a complex brew. Slight alcohol warming. Finish slight bitter and dry. Alcohol more noticable at the finish. A good but strange brew.

Dark orange color with no head. Spicy nose with hints of being herbal. Different... Herbal taste with some pine finish. A tad sour. Kind of an odd mix or flavors that end up being okay.

This thing blew up in my face, the most explosive beer since LaConner DH IPA. Lasting head with a big spicy, maple, nutmeg aroma. Color is a dark cloudy brown with huge yeast chunks floating about. Frothy mouthfeel, immediate taste is cinnamon and spiciness. Apparent alcohol, but well balanced. Some hops around, mainly in the finish. As spiced winter beers go, this one was quite good.

This has got to be the foamiest beer I have ever tried. Maybe overprimed? I see I am not the only one that had that problem. Large off white head. Very dark amber and slightly cloudy body. Aroma of spicy dark bread. Also notes of nutmeg and pears. Almost like a barley wine. The taste was pears with nutmeg and cinnamon. This has some corriander in the finish. Too much carbonation really detracted from the mouthfeel and enjoyment overall for me.

This one spewed on me a bit and had a big rich head. Great strong aroma that is sweet and spiecy. Hazy dark amber and copperish with a good bit of chunks in the bottom. Very carbonated with a lively mouthfeel. Taste is fruity sweet with moderate spiceyness and some hops in the end. A very enjoyable beer.