Hitachino Nest Red Rice Ale

Brewed by Kiuchi Brewery
Style: Traditional Ale
Ibaraki, Japan

Rated 7/7/07. Color is very red, almost like raspberry tea. Head is thin and white, and left behind a slight lacing. Aroma is almost like a Rose’ wine. There’s some sour fruitiness to it. The flavor is bittersweet, like a Rose’ with a slightly higher than average sugar content. It really is a very wine-like beer. Interesting, unique, complex, and refreshing. Not something I’m going to drink very often but I’m glad to have tried it and I recommend it to those who are looking for something new.

Bottle from Dilly Deli. Poured a hazy reddish color with an average white head that modtly lasted with good lacing. Good aroma of spice and fruit. Medium body with smooth texture. Good fruity bittersweet flavor with a spicy complex finish of long duration. Interesting complex good brew.

Bottle. Hazy amber colour with a little head. Aroma of rice with notes of asian spices. Flavour of rice little malty but nothing special at all.

Pours a deep reddish orange with a medium off white head. Wasn’t a big fan of the nose actually, it smelled like soured rice or something. Definitely got some pickle juice in there too. A little bit floral and malty, but not attractive at all in the smell. The taste was a little better than the smell thankfully. Very yeasty, defintely get that rice taste too. Some malts, kind of floral, almost get a sake feel on the palate. The aftertaste is very sake-esque. Interesting, but probably won’t drink again.

12 oz bottle and it pours red a clear redish orange with a white head that laces down the glass. Malty nose, sweet and yeasty. Malty fruity flavors lightly sweet. Pretty decent.

Pours a curious magenta color, hazy with flecks of yeast, small white head. Smell is floral, fruity, sweet grass, rice. Taste has floral and herbal tasting hops, light bitterness and some sweetish passionfruit flavors. Lasting bitterness in the finish. Light and bubbly. Very good and really interesting.

The aroma is something of vinegar and Spanish olive. Maybe stuffed with pimento (joke). My wife says it smells like pipe tobacco - ? The aroma is not bad, just very unusual. The color is ripe apricot flesh, and the white head laces respectably. Medium mouthfeel, soft, but assertive, carbonation. The start is something of rice salad (back to that vinegar thing), it is dry, no malt! There is a slight sour note (back to ...), and there is definite bitter. Along with sour. I like it.

This is one strange and funky beer. It pours a pink grapefruit red with sizable particles and a large, frothy, pinkish head that diminishes. The nose is a musty steamed rice with light floral notes and plenty of funk. The mouthfeel is medium-bodied, gritty and dry; quite odd. The flavor is a lightly sweet malt front followed by funky rice and a dry, plastic finish. The funk smooths a bit as the beer warms but not nearly enough for my liking. Meh. It’s definitely unique, but the only thing that made me continue drinking it was that little voice that kept asking, "What the hell is that flavor?" I still can’t put my finger on what it was, and I guess I’ll be taking that one to the grave, because I certainly wont be drinking another bottle of this stuff.