Hitachino Nest XH

Brewed by Kiuchi Brewery
Style: Belgian Ale
Ibaraki, Japan

Bottle. Dirty copper. Mild head. Hoppy, nice beer. Dry. Alcohol touch in the finish.

Not your usual Hitachino Nest. I was saving to have with Sushi but did not and a good idea since it would not have gone well. Strong woody taste with some alcohol but could not really place it as sake. A bit of carmel sweetness and some hops. Very flat.

bottle poured a brown in color with a one finger hearty off white head. aroma has some sweet fruit, yeast, apple, and some cellar dust. flavor has a light bit of sourness, green barrel wood, light bitterness, and some yeast. I think i get some sake in here but I have never tried one so this might give me a reason to now.

12 oz bottle courtesy of an extra in trade from.. Beerlando, maybe? It’s been awhile.. Pours a murky darker amber, a huge bubbly offwhite head on this gusher that cakes and stays large, laces lightly though. Aromas are a spicey fruity Belgian yeast, apple and pear mix with spicey yeast, candy sugars, and a touch of booziness from beneath. Vanilla, some light oakey wet wood elements. Initial is medium bodied, prickly and a bit boozy overall, as oak, sake, and a good warming booziness become apparent. The spice and flavors of the beer actually fall behind, still fruity and yeasty further in, but covered up by a significant warming alcohol feel, light oak, more sake. This is a bit much for me, as the sake covers up most of the flavors and just makes this warmer and more dangerous on the palate. Not for me, but I can see the idea being interesting.

super brett bomb. i don’t know if this was intended, and i’m not seeing a lot of other raters who’ve noticed this, but mine was loaded with brettanomyces funk, carbonation, and spice. so... tart, barnyardy, and i really don’t get a lot of sake. like a lot of brett beers, it’s tough to taste the beer through the brett. pretty good, though. there is enough of a backbone to it to stand up to the funk, and i love the way it smells.

Quite malty aroma. This is interesting. Some hop notes to it, but the sake gives it a weird flavor I don’t like too much.

The solution to gushing bottles is to drink the beer on tap. It passes the buck to the barkeep. Appearance was cloudy deep orange with a medium white head that stays for quite a while and leaves reasonable lacing. Smell had an unusual mixture of peach and apricot. Taste was sour, lots of malt. Slight bitter edge. Not sue what the sake barrels donated to the effort. Finish reminded me of Lemon Pledge. Surprisingly good body. An interesting idea. I haven’t tried it in a bottle, but those who did might want to give it a try on tap.

THOUGHTS: Very Belgian. Very nicely done. The flavor was very much like a sour ale from Belgium. A great beer and and an incredible Belgian ale from outside of Belgium. Even great compared to some Belgian, Belgian ales. TECHNICAL: Bottle. Poured a slightly hazy, medium brownish, orangey amber with beautiful carbonation and a small to average, off-white head that kept a nice sheet and left good lacing. The aroma was candy sugar, moderate to heavy cheesy and moldy yeast; apple, other fruit, slight wood, sour fruit, spices, flowers and spiced apple. The initial flavor was lightly sweet, acidic and slightly sour; while the finish was rather sour, acidic and slightly bitter with a long duration. There was sour apple and other fruit, yeast, spices, spiced apple, slight funk and slight sweet candy. The light to medium body was very dry with extremely fizzy carbonation and a slightly chalky and moderately astringent finish.