Hitachino Nest New Year Celebration Ale

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

I originally rated this beer much lower as I tried it on tap at the 2004 Seattle Beer Festival. However, since then I have tried it in the bottle and the difference is astonishing! This beer might require some slight aging to be at its best; on tap, it tasted too bitter, but in the bottle it is smooth and rich like an excellent port but with more spice. This beer tastes more like a flavored rum (with the orange peel and cinnamon especially) than anything else I've tried. Very rich, begins a bit hoppy but warms up and becomes malty in a good way. Excellent beer, well worth seeking out a bottle or two!

Lots and lots of head... off white and fully lasting. Very yeasty at bottom... nice dark red body... clear (yeast in bottle). Really interesting aroma of strawberries, some kind of spices, orange. Sweet spiced orange flavor. bitter wood. Dry bitter finish. A little too fizzy in the mouth, but full flavor. Really good stuff. Goes straight to the head to.... feels good, as I've been dry lately.

yes the head was absolutely unruly and filled the glass with only 2oz poured! reddish copper fairly cloudy body. light tan foamy head. hoppy aroma, spicy-sweet. pine, orange peel. flavor starts tangy, malty middle, faint tart and sweet finish. light carbonation. slight yeast & hop aftertaste.

33cl bottle 2004 vintage Horrible gusher, murky yeasty pour, mostly foam. Sour orange, grossly sweet and cloying with a sour twang that is unappealing. Over spiced with some spices I just don’t want in a beer(cinnamon and nutmeg). This beer was bad, I’m not going to try it again. I had doubts, but didn’t think it would be this nasty.

tan head, orangish/amber cloudy body, spicy aroma, different flavor, unlike anything i have ever had, subdued spicyness, lots of cinnamon and nutmeg, sweet, interesting beer.

Annoyingly huge light tan head over a ruby body. Sweet, fruity aroma has cotton candy, cinnamon, and sugary white bread. Esters, too. Vanilla, grape, and yeast in the start of the flavor, finishes with apple and pale malt sweetness. I appeciate the balance between the sweet start and the slightly tart finish. This is good stuff if you let the intense carbonation bubble out.

(2004) A lovely combination of spices, including a favorite, vanilla. Good cinammon.Fruit,malt. Very creamy and lacing. (2005) An excellent melding of spice again, but a notch down from last year. (2007) Drying finish. Certainly down a notch or two. Gushed out explosive more than a third of the bottle fo no apparent reason.

Pours dark rust with a huge head that fades to a medium head that stays. Aroma is dough, cinnamon, some sharp ginger, and raisins. Flavor is a sweet dough, caramel, and spice. The alcohol is well hidden. It is a good beer but sort of all over the place and a bit cloying.