Hitachino Nest Pale Ale

Smell is light, flowery and fruity. Color is a reddish golden that looks very appealing. Taste is creamy in the mouth and lightly hopped, with mild bitterness. Goes from hops to sweet malt and back to hops at the finish. Very smooth and enjoyable to drink.

Smells of pleasant flowery hops, some sour notes. Pours a nice copper color with a small white head. Taste is well balanced hops and malts. Some sour notes with nice strong malt notes. A strange aftertaste is present, not sure what it is.

On tap at the Brewery. Kiuchi brewery has a very classy tasting room by the way. It looks out on to a small patio which is adjacent to the company president’s house. Very dark, cloudy, reddish brown body, with a quickly receding tan head. This beer (like all of Kiuchi’s beers I think) is dry-hopped, so the bolder, fruitier hop character of a lot of American Pales just isn’t present. The aroma is a pleasant, sweet coffee, with notes of cedar, cream and rice. Very dark, woody flavor. Some caramel I think. The mouthfeel is very creamy and smooth. I agree, this is probably not their strongest showing in terms of originality, but like all of Hitachino Nests beers, you have to appreciate the Japanese twist (a la cedar/rice) on the English pale ale style.

I really didn’t know what to make of this beer, but I wasn’t terribly impressed with it. It seemed to me to be more cedar-y than hoppy, and while it was a bit unique, I thought the red rice and ginger beer from Hitachino are much more novel. It didn’t satisfy my hop-craving side, but it also didn’t score highly with me on the "new & novel" attribute. Appearance was a darkish amber color, with a good amount of head. Aroma was cedar-y like a cigar humidor. Flavor was some hops, but I really got more woody notes than anything. Mouthfeel was fairly smooth. Not bad, but not as good as some other Hitachino beers I had alongside the Pale Ale.

Very enjoyable, with a sweet hoppy scent and taste, although I prefer the yona yona to this