The 2-4 Beers of Christmas: Day 2

Beer # 165 Hitachino Nest Espresso Stout

Kiuchi Brewery

Kounoso Naka-Shi Ibaraki, Japan
Independent
Flavoured Imperial Stout 7.0 % ABV Brown Glass Bottle 330 ml.
$7.95 (Canadian) At the LCBO
Twitter: @kiuchibrewery (Japanese)

Beer

Coffee and Tommy Lee Jones

If Japanese love certain things, coffee and beer are definitely on the list (especially since you can find both in vending machines just about anywhere) So putting them together is not a hard leap.  Kiuchi Brewery has been making Sake for 180 years (still a relatively young Sake House) They moved into the beer business in 1996 when the laws were changed to allow companies to operate microbreweries.

Hitachino Nest with it's trademark owl has quietly made inroads on the Japanese beer scene for almost 20 years now and it is just beginning to surface in other countries (thankfully!).  Tonight's offering is an espresso stout. Not a rare type of beer by any means but it is interesting to see a Japanese take on the beer.

試飲へ (Onto the tasting)...



Pours a deep dark chestnut brown with a tan head made up of small bubbles. Aroma is fudge, chocolate, coffee, leather, and a hint of molasses and dark roasted malt.first sip gives up deep chocolate malt with a well rounded bitterness. Some smoke and molasses. A hint of dark fruits and a little pepper. The finish feels like a shot of good quality espresso. Aeration gives us a warm toasty hit of alcohol, and some leathery smoky lingering flavours.

Impressions: Fail, So-so, Pass, Exceptional 



Cost: 5/6 PASS
Colour: 5/6 PASS
Beer Style: 6/6 EXCEPTIONAL
Re-Order:  5/6 PASS
Experience:  5/6 PASS
Christmas Spirit 5/6 PASS


Final Thoughts:

Lovely beer. Good style, good taste, well balanced, and carefully crafted. The Japanese do take great care in crafting good products and this is no exception. Try it while it is still on the shelves and hopefully we will see more from them in the coming months

Cheers And Beery Christmas


CJT


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