Hitachino Nest Espresso Stout

Brewed by Kiuchi Brewery
Style: Stout
Ibaraki, Japan

New arrival at John’s Grocery in Iowa City. 330 ml bottle served at cellar temperature. Poured an opaque black color. Head was thick and cocoa colored with good retention and lacing. I didn’t detect more than subdued coffee in the aroma. Smelled more like milk chocolate to me. There was also an occasional whiff of green chili pepper. Perhaps my olfactory lobe is still overwhelmed with glee from the Ølfabrikken porter I tried a few minutes ago. Sweet and chocolatey with coffee coming out more in the flavor. There was moderate roasty bitterness throughout which strengthened toward the end and lingered with a distinct coffee aftertaste. Good beer.

Black colored with little beige head. Very rich aroma with real cocoa note, strong coffee roastiness also here, mild vanilla also comes up. Medium to full bodied, creamy palate. Flavor is similar with very rich and dry coffee-cocoa, some berries and dark chocolate also here. Aftertaste dries with berries still, roastiness and wood is also present.

12oz via trade that has been on its side in my fridge for probably too long, and I felt like I needed to rate a new beer tonight. Shared with my girlfriend Cyn. Pours black wtih a light brown head. Nose is sweet and chocolaty with a coffee edge. Taste is quite sweet with a big coffee taste. Quite sweet, can’t tell if this should be a sweet stout or something else. A one maybe 1.5 dimensional beer, but pretty good overall.

Black pour from the bottle with a very small tan head. Aromas and flavors are of one thing...good coffee. One of the more pronounced coffee flavored beers I have had. Good thing I like coffee!

In the bottle from Beertopia. Pours as black as your soul with an equally dark brown head. The aroma is an intense burnt coffee scent. Flavor is like drinking a shot of espresso, except with a deep sourness that lingers throughout. You miss a lot of the roastedness due to this uniform and thorough tartness. Perhaps a bit of spruce kicks in there as well. This is an oily thick beer. Damn good.

Black with a rich chocolate cream head. Aroma is dark coffee, a hint of chocolate and the now familiar Japanese scent. Smooth body! Rich coffee, Japanese familiar flavour, a bit of tin and some chocolate notes. Definately tasty.

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.

Bottled at Monks Café, Wallingatan, Stockholm. Pours out in an opaque black colour with a rich bubbly beige foam. Rich and almost in your face espresso aroma with notes of dark chocolate. Medium to full-bodied with notes o cocoa, espresso and nuts. Compact yet elegant airy mouthfeel. Long aftertaste of dark coffee, almonds, brown sugar and salt.