Hitachino Nest Espresso Stout

Brewed by Kiuchi Brewery
Style: Stout
Ibaraki, Japan

Bottle - thanks beerbaron420. Pours a deep brown color with a finger of rich brown head. Lots of bubbles; visibly well-carbonated. Aroma is certainly an intense coffee smell with lots of bitters and just a little sweet cocoa. Tastes rich in coffee with a little roastiness and light amounts of dark chocolate. The espresso is the theme here and definitely takes the lead. Rich and lingering finish. Nice.

12oz bottle. Pours a black body with a two-finger width, dark brown, foamy and rocky head that fizzed out of the bottle upon opening and left a foamy lacing. Aroma is sour dark fruits, a light woody chocolate, and barely a hint of roasty coffee. Flavor is a little better with a distinguished roasty coffee. Starts with a sour cherry, dark fruit, light maltiness with some milky chocolate and acidity. Roasty coffees throughout with a blackberry acidity. Finishes with a chocolate, acidic berry roast-coffee with a bit of a burnt taste. Dry with an acidic roast, berry chocolate coffee aftertaste. Light to medium bodied with a higher level of carbonation. Overall, I’ve come to expect the acidic taste in most of the Japanese beers I try. This is no different. A nicer, fuller flavor with plenty of roasty coffee, but I’m still not digging the berry acidity taste that these beers keep offering. I like my American stouts.

Bottle. Heavy malt aromas of toasted, dark chocolate and strong coffee, moderate resin and earth for the hops and yeast, with wood, tar and solvent in the background. Head is average size, frothy/fizzy, light brown with fair lacing and is almost fully diminishing. color is very dark brown. Flavor starts lightly sweet and moderately acidic, then the long finish is moderately acidic, heavily bitter and a little sour. Palate is medium to full, oily, with a soft carbonation and finishes chalky, lighty astringent and very dry, like chewing on fine coffee grounds. This is a powerful and robust Stout, but a few off characteristics knocks it down a bit for me.

Pours black as night with a 3 finger, very creamy, burnt sienna head that has great retention, but becomes alot chunkier over time and leaves some nice lacing. Aroma is roast, milk chocolate, lots of espresso, vanilla, hot cocoa, tree bark and some ethanol. Flavor is roast, stale coffee, more tree bark like tartness, cocoa powder, light caramel, vanilla, havarti cheese, light dark fruit notes. Finishes with roast, char, espresso, pretty strong bitter hops and cocoa powder fade. Palate is creamy and a little slick all the way up the the finish where it dries out quite a bit really suddenly, which I don’t find to be the most pleasant. Overall I think this brew could cut back on the bitter hops and chocolate a bit and get rid of the odd, tart flavors, they don’t really work well with this stuff, however weak they are. That being said, I still really enjoyed this stout, I really think it would be absolutely phenomenal if the above changes were made though.

12 oz stubby compliments of an extra from Beerlando. Bryan, you are the man. My first Hitachino brew. Pours a near black opaque pour with moderate darker brown head that laces ok, dies to a decent layer eventually. Aromas are interesting, a touch sour with coffee and chocolate, lactose, with some lighter roasty character but a strange almost sourness comes out on the nose. Almost, cheesy? Initial is creamy, a bit of vanilla and lactose stand behind espresso, coffee grounds, and dark chocolate that bitter well. Roasty, but still smooth. A strange lactose feel comes in, a bit sour almost but moving to almost a custard creamy vanilla that tempers and balances the roasted malts. Light bitterness, roast in the finish with a lingering creamy smoothness and sweetness. Interesting, to say the least.

Sample at JaBier’s refrigerator reduction tasting on 08/15/09. The beer is an opaque black color with a medium tan head that diminishes steadily. Small patches of lace. Aroma of weak coffee and chocolate. Medium body with a strong bitter (nearly acidic) coffee flavor as well as some grainy malt and spiced hops. The finish is dry and bitter with a coffee aftertaste. Overall this was an okay Stout but I would have enjoyed it a lot more if the coffee had more of a roasted character versus bitter.

Dark brown to black in color. Not much head. Typically coffee, roast, espresso flavors. Light chocolate as well. Medium to light bodied for a high alc stout. Better than I expected, but not as good as the average score posted here. Good Stout overall. One of the best of the Hitachino beers.

Bottle at my refrigerator reduction tasting on 8/15/09. Pitch black pour with a medium tan head. Espresso bean aroma with malt, creamy chocolate and a hint of licorice. Creamy malt flavor with some chocolate and a lasting bitter coffee finish. Probably best beer of the night I hadn’t had before.