Hitachino Nest New Year Celebration Ale

Brewed by Kiuchi Brewery
Style: Spice/Herb/Vegetable
Ibaraki, Japan

Serve in Lager glass, Tumbler

Sampled from an 11.2 oz brown bottle this beer poured a murky caramel color with a trace white head that faded quickly and left no lacing. The aroma was sweet sugar, citrus and candied golden fruits. The flavor was tangy tangerine, grapefruit, cherry, bread, sugar, oat and vanilla with a light boozy undertone. The finish was long and tangy with mixed fruits, sugar and bread lingering. Fairly full bodied. Well done.

Pours a a deep amber, koa kind of color. Not too much in terms of a head, but it leaves nice lacing and legs. Pretty hazy, well quite hazy, but its bottle fermented, and im pretty sure its some type of a spin on a Belgian so there you go fool. Smell has a looooot going on. Alcohol, Molasses, slight anise, some sort of astringency that I can’t quite place, but reminds me slightly of permanent marker, but not offensive or chemical. Kind of like New Skin band-aid stuff. Like its clove-like and banana-ester like. It smells a lot like a mix between a Belgian ?dubbel? and what I wanna call a Weizen bock. Like strong caramel malt but tons of spices and esters going on. The taste has banana and Belgian/Weizen spicyness, the clove, the coriander, the nutmeg, but then the vanilla becomes apparent. It works with the rich flavour from the malt and helps ease the focus of the spices. The mouthfeel is nice and slick but slightly oily, medium to full, perfectly balanced but just fuller than anything else I’ve tasted with these flavours. The alcohol is also quite noticeable, not a burn but pleasant warmth and tons of flavour. The finish is alcohol astringency and the rich spices.

33 cl. bottle @ home – purchased from Alvinne, this winter’s edition - slightly hazy tangerine amber orange with a white head, little smell, bitter orange, Belgian yeast & slight touch of booze, slightly sweet upfront, slightly sweet marmalade, orange peel, Belgian yeast, plenty of caramel, touch of toffee, barelywine qualities, slightly bitter aftertaste with clear coriander, touch herbal bitterness, slick, slightly sticky, soft carb. slight let down due to ridiculous expectations

A real let down after the aroma and color. If taste begins with the eyes, then my mouth was watering after pouring this into the tulip glass. Aroma of vanilla pods, tangerine, brown sugar, color is deep amber to light brown. Taste was sugar cane and booze. Too bad.

Cloudy orange in colour with a long lasting beige head. Aroma of oranges, coriander, lots of ginger and spices. Flavour had some alcohol, quite spicy but smooth at the same time, ginger, lemon and slightly sweet. Full bodied with lots of carbonation. Finishes with lots of lemon, long bitterness and a bit of alcohol.

330ml bottle (BierKompass.de) - as Kiuchi Commemorative Ale 2011, at 8% not 9% (so in fact has nothing in common with this apart from the word ’ale’, and as I’m sure the last ’ale’ I had from these guys tasted like a lager, I don’t think even that’s worth much.)
5 Sweet sickly boozy aroma, definitely with a belgian strong ale bent.
2+ Slightly hazy orange, brief fizzy head with no retention.
4 Boozy spicy sweet belgian ale retronasals. Touch of acetone and thinner. This is just Leffe cranked up to 8% and feeling like more. Boozy sweet bready malts. Did I mention booze? Solvents get more gluey later in the retronasals. What toss.
2+ Smooth sweet palate, perhaps a bit slimy. Gentle bite from carbonation, and bitter hops too. No fullness to the hops, just the acrid metallic bite. Finish is just like a cheap macro belgian brewery trying to do a strong belgian ale - you can see the resemblence to what they’re apparently aiming at, but you can drive a tram between the two endpoints. Spiciness is messy and more like industrial chemicals.
9 Well, not exactly horrific, it’s vaguely drinkable, but if I had been round a table of 10 tickers, there would certainly have been some left over as you can summarise this in basically 2 sips. One to get all the information to write a review, and the second to just verify that it was as unsophisticated and uninspired as you first thought. And no-one would have volunteered to finish the dregs. I’m not even sure this is under the right beer, but as I will be avoiding wasting money on more from this brewery, I really coulnd’t care less if this spot is accidentally filled. Not complex, not soothing, just a sweet alcoholic mess. Where’s the "add my rating" button gone? Where’s my eyesight gone?!?

Bottle from South Bay Drugs and Liquor. After a gentle pour the amount of foamy head created was more than expected but eventually calmed down to soft pillow of foam. The beer itself is a hazed brownish orange with very fine bubbles of carbonation. Flavor is simple and plain with a sweet base of malt and touch of spice that sticks out enough to make for a decent holidays ale.

Bottled (as Commemmorative Ale 2011)@my birthdaybash@Chriso. Slightly hazy amber colour with a small off-white head. Aroma is fruity, floral, wooden and a bit nectary/honeylike as well. Flavour is fruity, wooden and nectary with some herbal notes. Mild spicyness in the finish.