Hitachino Nest XH

Brewed by Kiuchi Brewery
Style: Belgian Strong Ale
Ibaraki, Japan

Serve in Trappist glass, Tulip, Tumbler

Hazed medium amber brown pour, loose rocky beige head. Big fruity aroma with citrusy tart notes, apricot, lemon, wood, grassy earthiness. Very complex, hard to pin down nose that actually reminds me of some lambics. Very full flavor, moderate brown sugary sweetness, yeasty spice, lots more of the aforementioned fruitiness with a solid tartness around the middle, lots of wood as it finishes, plus some pleasant alcohol warmth. I’m not terribly familiar with sake, so it’s hard for me to pin down the shochu influence, but this stuff definitely has a distinct flavor profile. Very pleasant surprise.

Most American diners and drinkers can easily identify the big Japanese beer exporters: Kirin, Ichiban and Sapporo. Their logos are strewn across napkins at cheap Japanese eateries, and are embossed in luxurious menus at the fanciest Tokyo cuisine restaurants in New York. But many, many fewer people know that Japan has a small, struggling and persistent craft brew industry. This industry’s sole diplomat is the Hitachino series, and it does a good job demonstrating that Japan is trying to flex it’s brewing creativity muscles. My most recent beer from Hitachino was the modern and sleek sounding XH. The pour produces a medium, gray thin head above a muddy brown beer, rich with sediment and carbonation, and some very fashionable orange highlights. A rich aroma of fermenting fruit, Japanese cedar wood, and a light, gloppy scent of white rice give this a distinctively “nihonpoi” feel. However, the aftertaste is regrettably and needlessly bitter, washing away all that characteristic Japaneseness culled from the first half of each sip. I also think that the alcohol is overpowering, though only by a small margin. Even with these minor faults, this is a fantastic beer for beer drinkers looking for foreign brews that narrate the flavors of their origins.

Appearance: hazy orange with the hue of orange stained woods. Generous head tries desperately to clear the rim of my glass and fails. Fades into a solid blanket, smidge of lace, and swirls with a generous addition to said blanket.
Nose: yeast, spice, wood/bark, and freshly brushed leather. The inside of apricot and peach skins where the fleshy sweetness meets the bitterness of said skins. Spice is muted but there, though not really individually discernable. The woodiness contributes a dryness which lurks in the back. Sweet then spiced then dry. Chestnuts and vanilla root.
Palate: very dry finish doesn’t disappoint while elsewhere she is soft and lightly frothy. Long dry wooded finish with oak and brown spices. Fleshy inner skins abound with peach, apricot, and a new addition of kiwi and mango. Tickle of boozy heat mixes with spice for a slow glow in my chest and back of throat. Yeasty essence.
Final Thoughts: first let me make something very clear: sake IS beer. Know it and spread it. Now, another tidbit of info is that Kiuchi is also a sake brewery along with having their line of excellent beers under the Hitachino Nest label so it would be a crime if they didn’t age a beer in sake casks. Yum!

Poured from a 11.2oz bottle a hazy amber brown with a huge, thick, frothy, off-white head. Aroma is of sour fruits and some ginger. Flavor is unique and i can detected notes from the sake barrels. A little sour at first with a dry malty finish

28th March 2009
Cloudy amber brown beer with a thick slightly off white head. Rich beer, slightly sour but not at all acidic. Creamy palate. Aromatic and slightly bitter malt and sake flavours. A woody tone rides alongside. Very flavoursome and lip smacking.

Bottle from Plonk. Was quite bitter, for me i got quite a lot of ginger in the aroma and taste. Smooth wood taste throughout. Thats about as much as I can decipher from my notes, apart from the numbers...

UPDATED: NOV 13, 2011 330ml bottle from maltybones. shared with jsprime. like orval on steroids. only loses a point or 2 cause it gushed all over and wasted some of the greatness inside. idont know if every bottle is as bret forward and funky as this one but this blew my mind. to quote jsprime "it makes orval taste like orval light!"

Sweet sugary aroma on this hazy amber coloured ale. BIG head, caused by the shape of the bottle. Bitter fruit flavour, lots of hops. Quite smooth. I like it.