Hitachino Nest XH

Brewed by Kiuchi Brewery
Style: Belgian Ale
Ibaraki, Japan

Bottle from State Line. Pours turbid ruddy muddy deep brown with 3-fingers or so of tan head. Aroma is oaky bourbon, malt, tart cherries, brown sugar. The palate is rich, the beer isw extremely complex, throwing tons of flavoirs at you including tart cherries, oaky peaty bourbon, malt, and mild Bartlett pear and apple notes. This is barrel aging done correctly, and Hitachino continues to impress me greatly with their unique and ballsy styles, which more often than not hit the mark.

This particular beer seems a bit off, spicy and herbal. a bit on the tangy side. Mild wood finish.

The aroma is odd. It’s got wood, yeast, herbs, and spice. The appearance is red brown with a thin head. The flavor is like the aroma and not that good although it’s interesting. The palate is smooth. Overall it’s weird.

Thanks for sharing a bottle, iowaherkeye. The hazy dark copper body is topped with a khaki head. The aroma is ginger and sake. There is also some earthy sweat character. The taste is ginger, sake and rice. There is also some bread crust. The sake cask aging is apparent, and I had a hard time telling what came from the beer and from the aging. Still, this is interesting and cudos to Hitachino for trying, yet another beer that is something different. I like some sake and I get the feeling that they did not use the most high quality sake casks for this one.

pours from the tap an orange shade of amber topped with a whitish head which slowly fades to a film. strange aroma is initially of flowers but soon leads into a heinz ketchup sour aroma (but not in a bad way)...wtf? there’s some other stuff tucked in there but i can’t seem to get away from the ketchup... wood, sourness and funk. flavor is lightly caramel sweetness combined with wood, vanilla, cloves/allspice and some dry parching herbal qualities. dry finish and yeasty aftertaste. weird...

The color was medium amber with some light floating sediment. The head was thin, fizzy, and off-white. The aroma was tart, oak, and acidic. The flavor was acidic, oak, and alcohol. The palate was thick-bodied. The finish was warm.

Thanks hophead75. Pours a dark murky brown with a one finger fizzy tan head. Nice vanilla oak aroma, sweet fruity, funky, some alcohol aroma, some orange peel, . The Sake casks are really apparent, oaky vanilla flavor, spicy, warming, a little sweet, funky. Has a nice mouthfeel, smooth lively cabonation and the casks aren’t too hard to deal with.

Well its official, no brewery pushes my boundaries of beer more than Kiuchi! This one starts off with quite a funk - stinky feet! A touch of woodiness beneath that. Hints at a earthy barnyard funkiness with a sherried malt undertone and the footiness moves towards a stinky bleu cheese classification. It gushed just a little after I opened the bottle, for whatever that might imply. Deep copper color, with light carbonation and a smallish fading head. Very clear until I poured the yeast in. Slightly woody oakiness that is also tannic, mildly astringent (tart). Rounded medium malt palate with a semi-sweet balanced finish. Light fruitiness hanging out behind a generally caramelized malt presence, which is in turn competing against (or with) the funk. Another one from Kiuchi that is almost impossible to rate.