Hitachino Nest Amber Ale

Bottled. Clear mahogany colour, brief head. Orangey and toasty. Light bodied with clean, rounded crisp mouthfeel. Grainy with salty licorice. Fresh orangey hoppiness, medium bodied. Balaned bitterness. Well made all the way through.

Sampled @ GJBF Yokohama: Copper color, nice thin head, light lacing. Nose of light caramel malt, some light hop and full bodied creamy malty body. Nice and full, rounded and rich.

Bottled, shared by the OMH gang. Pours out in a brownish amber colour with a small creamy disappearing white foam. Crisp and fresh aroma of black cherries, grass, nuts and blood-oranges. Medium-bodied with a crisp and rather hoppy flavour of cedar-wood, grass and orange-peels with sweet undertones of red berries. Black cherries, toasted malts, nuts and orange-peels in the long aftertaste. Very nice, a hoppy and elegant amber ale, that’s quite rare.

Iced tea and biscuits nose with a muddy palate. Some minor malt astringency and a touch of diacetyl. Very mediocre beer.

A slightly hazy medium dark Brown. Small beige head. Think "Bigfoot" at a low volume for the aroma, rich complex malts with just the right balance of the Cascade hop pine/citrus scent. Aggressive hops up front that like microscopic pit bulls, latch on to your taste buds and never let go. The malt flavors manage to sneak in the few scant openings between the hops teeth but make no mistake about it, this is a tribute in liquid to the love of Cascade hops!