Hitachino Nest New Year Celebration Ale

2007, Pours an opaque tigers eye rusted velvet color w/ an unstopable semi creamy froth. It just keeps coming like a classic Belgian. It finally retreats leaving behind a clumpy spattered cream. Aromas of pungent Belgian rock candy. Full nectar w/ ample residual effers that explode upon palate impact. It has a full creamy texture that will choke you. First off we have Angostura Bitters meets thickly hopped and rusted malt. It’s perfectly bittered from the get go. Bitters, leather, rose petal, corriander bath beads, sage, evergreen, cinnamon, nutmeg, curry. Full on bakers cocoa like chocolate milk w/o the sugar. Complex and absolutely delicious. The finish never ends and is bittered perfectly. Overall: complex, well balnced yet in your face, modern technology meets the old world renaissance. It’s absolutely amazing. Highly recommended. Connoisseurs Choice! ****2006,*** Caramel honey in color with a malted candy nose. Medium nectar and very well ballanced. Bright, mellow candy flavors, like bubble gum but not sweet. Has a slight hop on the finish. Smooth yet complex. Alcohol is well hidden. Overall; an awsome brew, I could drink all. It goes great with chocolate. Highly recommended.

I originally rated this beer much lower as I tried it on tap at the 2004 Seattle Beer Festival. However, since then I have tried it in the bottle and the difference is astonishing! This beer might require some slight aging to be at its best; on tap, it tasted too bitter, but in the bottle it is smooth and rich like an excellent port but with more spice. This beer tastes more like a flavored rum (with the orange peel and cinnamon especially) than anything else I've tried. Very rich, begins a bit hoppy but warms up and becomes malty in a good way. Excellent beer, well worth seeking out a bottle or two!

Bottle 2007. SPLENDID! This was truly a celebration inside of my mouth! As someone stated prior about this particular year’s festivities, the alcohol is well hidden, and instead everything else is abounding to be the first flavour to your palate! This is another HIGHLY recommended Hitachino brew! DO NOT MISS THIS OPPORTUNITY.

2004 Vintage.This beer is a very interesting take on a German Eisbock or "ice beer" style. This beer is brewed with five malts including pale, Munich, Wheat, Crystal, and chocolate malt. It is hopped with 4 different hops, including Goldings, Hallertau, Tettnag, and Saaz. It is then spiced with five different spices including orange peel, coriander, nutmeg, cinnamon, and vanilla beans. Suffice to say this is one amazingly complex and flavorful beer, but it continues to get better. Before bottling this beer, it is frozen for three days at 24F, where the frozen water is removed, concentrating the beer. This is a traditional method used by German brewers, and in that sense it does indeed make this beer an eisbock. It is then conditioned in the bottle for six months, and comes in at a mighty 10% abv. So what you have is a wonderfully rich, spicy, strong, soothing beer just exploding with big aromas and flavors. New Year Celebration Ale 2004 pours to a beautiful deep garnet color with a thick and creamy cinnamon colored head and a soft carbonation. The nose of this beer is just bursting with huge complex aromas of malt and spice. Fragrant aromas of orange peel, fresh vanilla, nutmeg, and cinnamon meld with sweet malty and chocolate aromas. The body is lush and full on the tongue with lots of big sweet malty and chocolate flavors that glide over the tongue. This is paired with more spicy flavors of cinnamon, nutmeg, vanilla, and an ever present under tone of orange. New Year Celebration Ale finishes with more complex malty and spicy flavors, then ends with a soothing alcohol and vanilla burn. Wow. This is one of the most memorable beers I have had in a long time. The aromas and flavors in this beer are very vibrant when consumed young, and this beer could be cellared, and enjoyed with a year or two of age on it. There is a lot going on in this beer, and it makes for the perfect beer to slowly sip and savor on a cold night, or to sit and relax with after a big meal. I would not dare pair this beer with food. Enjoy this one with a good book or movie. New Year Celebration Ale retails for about $4 a 11.5oz bottle making a bit pricey for the average beer drinker. True beer lovers will have no problem paying that price for a crack at this beer.

I have never seen a beer with such a large head, filled 3/4 of the glass after pouring it down the side. The smell is definitely of malt and vanilla beans and the mouthfeel is almost like oatmeal. The flavor is very complex: sweetness offset by a bit of citrus and spices. I enjoyed it a great deal.