Hitachino Nest XH

Brewed by Kiuchi Brewery
Style: Belgian Ale
Ibaraki, Japan

Bottle. L: Red orange. Big white head. S: Green tea, citrus, aprictos, definitely yeasty and hoppy but in a fruit tea version. T: Fruity, apricots, yeast, touch of hops, kind of spicy, somewhat aged character. Overall: Interesting beer! You can taste the belgian influences but the maturaton on oak casks gives it a totally new character.

330ml Bottle: Aroma of yeast, floral hops, slight Brett, pears, light vanilla, light oak, Poured amber/orange in color with a large, dense, foamy, creamy tan head that lasted throughout. Cloudy. Very sparkling. Full of small, medium, and large-sized particles throughout. Excellent lacing. Flavor is lightly sweet and slightly bitter. Tastes of yeast, oak, sugar, apple, slight pear, fruit, lychee, and a hint of cloves. Medium body. Tingly, then dry texture. Average to lively carbonation. Sweet, yeasty, apple, finish is dry.

A good "different" beer. Other comments of "huge head" are on point. I was actually concerned at first by how big the head was. Interesting palate- tastes more of sherry casks than sake casks to me. An interesting cherry/raspberry sweetness. A full beer, one that you can be satisfied with only one of.

Deep orange pour with a gigantic white head. Aroma starts bretty, with almost a light barnyard funk. Settles into clove and dried fruits. Flavor of apple, oak, caramel, bret, and some light sake. Earthy, yeasty, delicious. An absolutely stunning beer.

330 mL bottle. Foams up upon opening and pours red brown with a very large light tan head and a lot of carbonation apparent. Aromas of sour fruit, cloves, and caramel. Flavors of caramel, apple, brett, oak, and what I presume would be sake flavor, particularly apparent in the finish. This is pretty interesting and tasty.

(bottle - 330 ml) Hazy amber color with a very thick and fizzy off-white head. Aroma is chock full of many spices. Yeast, wood, sour cherries, citrus, and pepper. Very complex. Flavor is very earthy and spicy at the beginning with lots of wood, sour notes, yeast, and a light touch of sake. Good Belgian spice and yeast all throughout. Finish is spicy and dry with some earthy notes. Alcohol is rather warming.

20090311 11.2 oz bottle from RB Spirits. Glad I looked this up because I could have sworn I had rated it. Must have had it a dozen times. This bottle isn’t the best specimen. I got it for three bucks on sale as the local good beer store is working to clear out some old stock. It is still very good. Hazy cedar brown color with medium but quickly fading off white head. Aroma is woody and fruity, cherry blossom, black pepper, apricot, lilac, and lemon. A lovely mix that is only slightly tainted by an emerging alcohol note that surely wasn’t there a year or more ago. Flavor introduces a light Orval-like funk, flowery, and some mild but pleasingly bright acidity, lemony. Body has turned a bit slick, thicker and less lively than I recall, and a strong punch of alcohol comes through retronasally. Large chunks of heavy beige sediment sit on the bottom of the glass as though it were mud. In all a friendly visit with an old friend whose tune has changed slightly, but the spirit remains. Bump a couple points for its former glory.

Bottle, thanks to WeeHeavySD! Pours a hazy brownish-amber with a ridiculously large white head. Sharp aroma, of hops, sweeter malt and caramel, and wood. Taste is quite sharp, of wood, citrus hops, malt, and something with a bite that’s sort of like sake. Lingering sharpness. Strange and pretty tasty.