Hitachino Nest Real Ginger Ale

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

This beer was a wonderful surprise! I expected it to have a really dominating ginger flavor and aroma based on the name and description, but I was quite pleasantly surprised. The beer pours smooth with a lot of carbonation, which quickly settles down to a decent head. The body is a wheat/straw color...lovely. The aroma has some spice to it, but I don’t think ginger dominates quite as much as you might expect. It smells like beer, not ginger ale. The flavor is wonderful: effervescent, light, with some sweetness balanced by the dry hop flavors and the essence of ginger. Overall, this beer is surprisingly well balanced!

Presentation: It was poured from a brown 11.2oz bottle into a smooth mug. Appearance: It has a dark amber brown body with orange highlights. On top sits tall foamy off white head with very good retention and makes good lacing on the glass. Smell: The aroma has heavy hit of ginger in sweet fruity and bready malt with some funky yeast and spices. Taste/Mouth Feel: The flavor is true to its aroma. It has a solid medium body with a strong spicy ginger presence with a touch of allspice. This is layered over a sweet bready and fruity malt with a note of apple juice, citrus and a touch of funky yeast. The spice and mild alcohol presence warms the palate and the finish shows a light touch of hops. The texture is slick and lively with nice active carbonation. Notes: Overall this beer is very interesting with many layers of complexity. This is not a beer you can drink a lot of but I did enjoy it and would highly recommend this beer to someone who is looking for something different maybe odd and defiantly special.

I love Reed’s non-alcoholic ginger beer. This has a lot of the same strong ginger flavor in a mildly malty beer....delicious.

330 ml. Murky copper color with a four-finger, lasting head. Spicy citrus and earthy honey aroma is subdued by some slight ginger. Flavor is earthy citrus-resin, caramel, acidic fruit, peppery dried wood, toasted pecan. Thanks goodness the ginger is used mainly as an accent to the rest of the great flavors, only hogging the spotlight slightly in the finish and the aftertaste. Creamy smooth, medium body is tingly and dry on the gingery finish.

rape me! my entire rating was erased by my cell phone. nose was a candy ginger raped oak barrel, the beer had intensly thick head atop darling amber. flavors were predominantly woody with spicy ginger accents...the wood gives solid sourness overall and the ginger is strong but seems to always remain an accent. blaire from hamiltons offered this to me on the house and completely randomly, but apparently hes been paying attention to what silky likes...cuz silky like dis...and i must give big props to hamiltons, though their tap list sucked that day. in any event, this was hitachino at its sour, woody, and gingery best...what the hellis more could you ask for, seriously. best brewery to ever exist. period.

The ginger added to ths beer is great. It really allows the spices to show and bring out the malts and grains both on the palate and finish. Tasted at the divine bar NYC.

draft @ papago... pours a cloudier and darker than expected shade of amber topped with a lasting off white head. fresh ginger in the aroma actually numbs my chest a bit. but aside from the freshness, there is little else in the aroma. there is some maltiness but the citrus and hops smells are surely due to the ginger. the flavor is again, mostly fresh ginger and its spiciness along with some skunky grassy hops and caramel. it finishes with dryness and some sour notes. the ginger aftertaste lingers until i’ve moved on to the next beer... the body is medium with creamy soft carbonation. i don’t know about this one???....7/4/6/4/13/3.4

bottle with a new label... not sure of the age though.... wow! big time difference...the real ginger is there but it is a lot less sharp than it was on tap. aroma and flavors of caramel, chocolate, malt, coffee and flowers. it has really mellowed and softened while becoming much more approachable to the novice... awesome! 9/5/9/4/18/4.5

24 oz bottle - Hazed copper, tan fizzy head. Nice sweet earthy ginger nose that fades into soft peppered lychee and floral orangey tones. Ginger flavor up front, but further warming brings out more fruity sweet peppery notes. Faint cedar adds to the fun. Medium bodied, soft carbonation, dry gingery finish. A great refreshing summer brew and a nice change of pace. Well done for this style...