Hitachino Nest XH

Brewed by Kiuchi Brewery
Style: Belgian Ale
Ibaraki, Japan

11.2oz bottle. Pours a very cloudy, dirty amber-orange body with a frothy, inch thick, tan head that dissipates slowly and leaves a light lacing. Lots of wood and yeast in the aroma with a funky, fruity wine-like, sweet and rich caramel, and sake. Flavor is woody with a wine-like, saki, fruit flavor that gives off a somewhat sour, funky citrus taste. Lots of yeast and a mild, sweet caramel. Finishes yeasty, woody, funky and sour, with a light bitterness. Dry with a light, woody, funky wine, alcohol, and saki aftertaste with a building hop bitterness. A slight warmth in the throat. Light bodied with a slightly higher carbonation level than most barrel aged beers. Overall, I’m enjoying this, but not as much as I wish I was. Lots of wood, funky fruit, saki taste that has a medium alcoholic bitterness. I don’t know, not bad, but I’m not really diggin’ this. Probably too much wood for me.

Pours a hazy nice bright orange-ish red color with an enormous head. The aroma has lots of pineapple with a mild funk with some good spicy hops and tons of floral notes. The flavor is dry, floral, fruity, and funky, with some nice hop bitterness, some alcohol, some apple, and a hint of cherry. Absolutely stunning. The palate is perfectly champagne like, not smooth so the glass lasts a while, but not heavy so it almost dares you to have another. This stuff is exceptional.

Bottled. Poured slightly hazy reddish-orange with a decent amount of sediment and a dense cap of tan head that settled rather quickly. The aroma picked up an excellent tart fruit bouquet of apricots, mangoes, and blood orange over a fruity and caramel base.. peppery alcohol and cedar just slightly singed the nose hairs on the back.. excellent presentation. The flavor had primarily darker fruits notes on the sweet core with an great array of stuff going on around it.. cedar, black pepper, and faint red rice from the barrel plus a bit of vanilla and blood oranges again.. quite yeasty on the back-end, scoring some banana.. tasty! Medium-bodied and very well carbonated on the palate.. the barrely sourness, earthy spiciness, and sweet malts balanced near perfectly with each other.. I could (and might) score this even higher if in the proper mood (taking it from great to oh, hell yeah!).

cloudy orange brown with foamy light tan head. odd aroma, fruity and sweet, maybe dried apricots, and i think rice/sake. flavor is also a bit off, thickly alcoholic, with a very dry fruity finish. medium but syrupy body, light carbonation. as it warms there is more hoppyness, which come with pine and light grass.

Poured medium, murky amber with an explosively huge, chunky, light beige head that has great retention once it dissipates to a good level, and leaves a few specks of lacing. Aroma is caramel, floral hops, light citrus, nice light oak, bread notes and a big whiff of bretty funk, a little basement, earth and wet autumn leaves. Flavor is light caramel and raw sour dough up front, toasted biscuit, sweet citrus, wet limestone basement, earth, underripe banana, hints of oak, a little pepper. Toward the finish the funk and earty notes fade and give way to a playfull pitted fruit, melon, sweet malt, pepper and very lightly bitter finish with just a touch of funky fade. Lighter fruit and melon notes also become more noticeable throughout as it warms, knocking the brett strength back a notch or two. Palate is medium bodied with a very fervent but not too sharp, almost pillowy carbonation a slightly syrupy entry and dry, slightly astringent finish. Really good stuff, it really seems alot like Orval, better than some bottle of Orval I have had.

bottle was a total gusher... finally poured amber with a thick o/w head and heavy sediment. aroma is bready medium malt, some plummy fruitiness a a light citrus sourness. flavour is yeasty, earthy spicy peppery malt, light vanilla tones. A funky fruity tartness to the finish.

Poured into shaker from bottle. Gusher! Not so bad but enough to be annoying. Semi-cloudy dark orange with very light tan head that was alright but faded kind of quick. Strong hop and booze aroma which I wasn’t really expecting - I’ve just never experienced a beer from Asia that had a pretty strong hop profile. It also had a similar flavor but with a tart/sour bite that must of have been a result of the sake barrel maturing stage. An enjoyable beer and the first one I’ve actually liked from Asia.

bottle 330? ml
Appearance: extreme gusher that wasted 1/3 of my bottle. Murky dark amber, red copper with mid creamy top.
Nose: Vinous, funky farm with sour side. Medium top with leafy sides. Grape sour citrus at end. Funk.
Flavor/Palate : Vinous again , bitter leafy , amber malts with sake funk . Cask laced walls. Pleasant warmth at finish. Neat and different.