Hitachino Nest Espresso Stout

Brewed by Kiuchi Brewery
Style: Stout
Ibaraki, Japan

Gotta love a beer with a cool owl on the label (and the cap makes a good magnet!) Pours black with a huge tan head. Taste is very creamy and smooth. Very nice. The coffee is different than most coffee stouts, almost tastes like they pours espresso in the coffee, rather than adding beans to the brew. Most of the coffee is on the backend, but it makes itself more present the more you drink. Very warming for a 7%, but in a very good way. Pretty impressive.

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.

12 ounce bottle purchased at Big C Liquors Orlando, FL for $4.49 Excellent.

The pour is a nice deep drown with a medium, slowly dissipating tan head. The nose while slightly funky and earthy, sings with wonderful espresso notes, chocolate malt and candy sugars. The palate is sweet refined and strongly coffee, but complex enough so that this stout is not just a cold carbonated espresso. A nice beer.

Nice brown head, very black, roasted coffee, chocolate nose. Heavy chocolate, espresso taste, sweet coffee finish.

Pours a dark tar like color with a thin coating of tan head. Smell is of burnt sugars, dark chocolate and espresso grounds. Taste is smoky with flavors of dark dark chocolate and espresso with a nutty sweetness mixed in. A bitter bite at the end. Like drinking a very very smooth cup of strong coffee.

Beautiful black pour, brown head, small but attractive. Aroma holds coffee, cream, sweet chocolate, caramel, roasted malt- really solid aroma. Flavor is also excellent; lots of coffee and roasted malt, along with caramel and cream and chocolate. Flavor notes are similar to the aroma, but hit in a different order; coffee is robust at the front and the bitter roast complements it well, then the sweet aspects come through closer to the finish. Palate is very full for a regular stout, and glides across the tongue beautifully. Really nice brew, particularly for a Japanese brewery’s efforts on such a good style.

33cl bottle from Whole Foods (Tampa, FL). Pours a dark brown cola cola color with a massive tannish-yellow two finger head that settles slowly. Aroma is roasted and malty with notes of coffee, pine, juniper, chocolate, asian spice some faint sweetness. Flavor is roasted and malty as well with notes of coffee bean, asian spice, dark chocolate, some caramel and honey sweetness. Generally medium to full body with a roasted malty and spicy finish.