Hitachino Nest XH

Brewed by Kiuchi Brewery
Style: Belgian Ale
Ibaraki, Japan

Amber body with light off white head. Aroma is complex with plums and wood with hints of sugar and sake. Flavour starts with a sake and sour taste, plummy and sweet, dry and a touch of bitterness. Finishes yeasty with a straw and hirse blanket sourness. Vert complex and appealing.

(Bottle 33 cl) Courtesy of boboski. Pours a hazy, amber golden with a dense, beige head. Very refined, woody aroma. Medium body with lightly sweet caramel and some distinct, woody accents bedore a fairly bitter finish. Excellent! (Matured in sake casks with lots of hops = Belgian??) 171207

11.2 oz - Aroma is pungent, funky and sour. Unique aroma of sake, oak, spicy yeast, red wine and just a touch of sweet malt. Pours cloudy light brown with a small head and good lacing. Flavor is woody with the spicy yeast and sake standing out. Alcohol also appears. Palate is tart and very smooth under the circumstances. I really liked this one. A special and tasty brew.

33cl bottle. pours murky dark red with off white head. nose is buggy, cherry, red wine, flavor is nice red grape skins and cherry pit, sort of a warm sake and wood notes surronds it, light acidic and mild sourness coming through, a very earthy, pitty, slight medicinal finish. lively carbonation. alcohol is noticed and it does numb the tongue slight. i’d bet this is more than 7%. wild yeast? tastes like it. sake? you can taste it but it would be hard to guess it. really great and easily a worthy try.

Pours a muddy copper/brown color with an off-white head that quickly diminishes to dozens of fat clear bubbles. Aroma is very interesting and unique yet familiar. Woody, fruit, tart, frangrant, perfumey. Earthy. Potpourri. If this were a blind tasting I don’t think I’d pick up the sake but knowing it’s there I can detect its presence. Taste is fruity, slightly bitter yet acidic with a quick finish that leaves just a trace of perfume. This is not the most fun or easy thing to drink, not that it is too sweet or alcoholic but its floral qualities seem not too appetizing. That said it is very interesting and unique so overall I think this is probably a success and certainly worth trying.

Not sure if I would jump on the sake aspect if I didn’t know it but since I did it was evident. Very powerful aroma and taste of barrel wood and rice. Very nice and interesting. Complex in flavor but not overwhelming.

11.2 oz bottle. Hazy ruby brown with a bit of whitish froth. Nose is cloves, mulled apples and wood. Taste is not at all what i expected. Begins sour, tart and oaky; just enough to jolt the palate. Watermelon and candied peel turn to apricot then pith. Lingering sour yeast and tapioca. Light carb, silky but light, a little sticky. Exceptionally unique, world-class stuff.

11.2 fl oz bottle. Pours hazy dark orange with a light yellow head. Fruity and orange like aroma. Flavour is caramel malty, quite solid sweet and slight spiced. Just before the finish it has a liqourice like note. Clearly taking some flavours from the sake barrels. Lovely flavourful. Finish is a lingering fruity and barrel like flavour.