Hitachino Nest Espresso Stout

Bottle. Dark ruby black beer with a brown head. Malt aroma with caramel and coffee. Coffee and roast flavors with caramel, nuttiness, and slight vanilla. Fuller bodied. Coffee and roast linger.

Bottle from Healthy Spirits in SF. Opaque brown/black pour with a good sized dark tan head. Aromas of dark roasted malt, coffee, kind of oatmeal, with a slight chocolate note. Full bodied, smooth, creamy carbonation. Flavor turns to mild burnt malt, and is decently bitter. The start is almost sugar/milk in a light way. It’s silken. Finish is dry, but not overly bitter. Any hop just blends in. Quite pleasing. With time the smooth, strong coffee becomes dominant. It really ends up coffee!!

Good stuff if you like coffe. The exact opposite of the Abyss I drank last night (this is all coffee where as the Abyss was all chocolate for me). Thick pour with a largish, lightly creamy brown head with a black body. Aroma of espresso, brown sugar, molasses and a bit of chocolate. Taste is overpoweringly strong espresso, not bad, but not my thing. Litterally like drinking an iced espresso. Mouthfeel is on the thin side.

I woke up with this in my refrigerator so this is either courtesy of SoLan or I owe him money/beer. He is such a fine person I’d be willing to tender both. Considering this probably came from Japan on a slow boat the espresso/coffee aroma is amazingly fresh and concentrated. I get some earthy soil and old tree bark notes, but they actually compliment the aroma rather than detract. Soot and charcoal also show up and again it smells very right in this beer. The body is full on black and holds a two finger thick mocha head that is quite lasting. The first sip is ash, dark fruit and chocolate. The coffee notes are much less pronounced in the flavor, though clearly still present. The middle gets almost chocolate covered cherry-like. Sweet cream, vanilla, baker’s chocolate and more coffee make up the finish. Pretty nice.

Pours like an Impy- viscous black with a full, dark tan head that leaves substantial lacing. The nose is largely coffee of course, and a bit of malted chocolate. The flavor is just as the nose with a clean dryness in the finish. Creamy mouthfeel.

[Bottle] Pours a clear deep brown with a very very dark head. Aroma is grass, coffee beans, and roasted barley. Flavor is the same. Very bitter and slightly acidic.

Bottle @ Tornado San Diego. Huge roasted coffee aroma with moderate dark chocolate and faint burnt notes. Pours a dark brown, virtually black, with no transparency and a small brown head that diminishes to a small ring around the edges of the glass. The flavor starts with a big dose of dark chocolate with some faint caramel. The finish has lots of roasted coffee, some burnt bitter flavors, and faint vanilla. Full bodied with light carbonation.

One amazing stout. Pours black, head is nutty. Nose is very pleasant of espresso coffee. Aroma is a very sweet roasted chocolate/coffee malt filled with flavor. Mouthfeel is a little thick, leaving an aftertaste filled with a nice espresso taste.