Hitachino Nest Red Rice Ale

Brewed by Kiuchi Brewery
Style: Traditional Ale
Ibaraki, Japan

Bottle shared with HogTownHarry, GregClow, jerc & tupalev -- courtesy of GregClow. Pours a light hazy gold with some sediment and a small diminishing white head. Weird aroma of cheap sparkling wine and sour fruit. Flavour’s slightly sour with some fruit and milk -- also quite odd, it didn’t do much for me. Light bodied with an acidic mouthfeel. It’s different, I’ll give it that but I didn’t like it that much.

Bottled. Pours a very hazy reddish/brown color. Almost a berry cider quality to the aroma. A little tart smelling. Flavor is of artificial berries and some spice. Finish if fruity and spicy. Maybe a hint of alcohol in the finish.

Bottle. Cloudy golden body, with minute white head. Bizarra aroma smells like cheap champagne - Spumante Bambino! Wine like notes in the aroma are slightly fruity. Tart flavour with odd ambiguous fruit notes. Dry cider like finish. Strange. Light palate.

Bottle (330ml). Shared with blankboy, GregClow, jerc and tupalev - GregClow’s bottle. Poured cloudy, murky light gold, with some sediment, and a large fluffy white head. Aroma of slightly tart sparkling white wine, sweet light malt, brazil nut oil richness, and something I assume is the special red rice, quite nutty and rich ... hint of milk too. Taste is slightly sour, oddly grainy and nutty, watery and lemony too - not really at all sweet, mostly lightly sour. Watery, flat and acidic mouthfeel - interesting, but not my thing.

(33cl bottle) Huge white foam dissipates to more tolerable levels fairly quickly, revealing a hazy apple juice body. Aroma is medium sweet, spicy, some funk, strawberry, light milk, watermelon. Taste is mild sweet, lemon sour, some strawberry, light milk. Light-medium body, somewhat acidic, alcohol very well hidden.

Pours a pinkish amber with a slightly mauve head. Good head retention. Flavor and aroma are very distinctive and interesting, the flavor of the red rice blends with the hops used to create something truly unique. I have to say, this beer impressed me as not only being off the beaten path, but being interesting and worthy in its own right. I’ll buy this again.

Pours a very deep amber. Massive bubble action -- some as big as a marble. Quickly dissipates with little lacing to a soda-like appearance. Dusky and smoky aroma. Immediately sour - like fermented fruit. Medium bitter finish. Fizzy palate. Definitely unique.

Cloudy, golden-amber body with a big yeast load and a soapy white head. Unusual and distinct aroma reminds me of cocoa, nuts, guava, and cherry plus an underlying adjunct signature. Lightly sweet, waxy flavor with rye notes and hop characters suggesting dry tea leaves. Also has some acidity as if from tart berries. Finish is drying and moderately bitter. Interesting beer.