Hitachino on Tap at The Wheaty, Wheatsheaf Hotel
I probably should have got this one up Yesterday. However, the Wheaty now has Hitachino beers on tap. It’s for a limited time and only one beer at a time is going on tap. They have started out with Japanese Classic Ale and will move through the White, Red Rice Lager and Espresso Stout. The Japanese Classic is tasting great. The beer is aged in cedar barrels which gives it an amazing almost sandalwood character.
There are plenty of great beers on tap at the moment including Skipping Girl from Mountain Goat and Bookbinder from Emerson’s. Get down and check them out.
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Review – Hitachino Nest Japanese Classic Ale
I have just received a new order of great beers from Bier Shop and it’s time to get some reviews up. Lots of interesting beers to come from this delivery and first up is a real surprise packet in Hitachino Nest Japanese Classic Ale from Kiuchi Brewery.
The beer pours and light copper colour with a good size creamy head that sticks around. With a typical bottle pour it produces around 4cm of head. The beer is hazy as it is a naturally conditioned ale.
The aroma is wonderful. A great mix of light malt that is just detectable and wonderful citrus hop character. The citrus is more of a English mandarin peel citrus than the over powering grapefruit like citrus from American hops. However, there is another secret here. This beer spends some time in cedar barrels and that is the aroma you are detecting but can’t quite pick. The combination of aromatic hops and smokey cedar character give an almost sandalwood type aroma to the beer. This is also backed up by some good deep malt character from the Munich, Crystal and Marris Otter malts.
The flavour carries on as you would expect from the aroma. However, the malt does play a larger part in the flavour. Using malts like Munich and Marris Otter give you the strong chewy flavours that back up the bitterness and hop character. These malts also provide a great chewiness that balances perfectly with the hops. The hops and cedar characters are really where it is at with this beer. The mandarin peel citrus character from the aroma carries over into the flavour. It mixes well with the cedar character again to produce wonderful flavours. These flavours again combine the smokiness of the cedar and citrus of the hops to give sandalwood and lemongrass like characters. The medium body and balance of the beer makes it incredibly drinkable, you need to get more than one. This is very sessionable for a beer that weighs in at 7%ABV. The carbonation is just high enough to aid the drinkability and is well conditioned.
This is an all round fantastic beer. I would team this with a Thai curry or a really nice piece of pan fried salmon. Do yourself a favour and give this beer a go. Get Some!
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Beer Review – Hitachino Espresso Stout
I picked up a bottle of the Hitachino Espresso Stout the other night to try. I had never heard of it before and just decided to give it a go. I was well rewarded for giving it a try.
The beer is very dark and almost black. Pours with a large long lasting tan head. At first taste you are hit by strong dark roasted coffee flavours. These come from the dark malts but the beer also has some coffee added to the boil. Also exhibits dark chocolate and dark dried fruit flavours. It’s basically a Russian Imperial stout with coffee added. It’s a great combination. There isn’t really any hop character but it does have a good strong bitterness. It’s perfectly balanced and very drinkable. One of the best beers I have had in recent times and right up there with the best stouts.
Track it down and give it a try.
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