Hitachino Nest Real Ginger Ale
Kiuchi Brewery

 

Hitachino Nest Real Ginger Ale pours a reddish color, little head. Aroma is grainy rice. Flavor has lots of ginger, on a cheap rice like grainy base. Good body and feel.

 

330 ml bottle poured into a tumbler style pint glass.

L: Cloudy copper, effervescent, half inch tan head, medium retention.
S: Ginger, bread (sweet and buttery), mineral.
T: Dry, ginger is prominent, bread malt, almost no bitterness but it has a moderate zesty sharpness, fairly clean finish.
F: Crisp and light with an underlying creaminess that gives it a heavier feel.
O: Not overly spicy, rather easy to drink, not bad.

330 ml bottle, courtesy of Cardinal Pub & Bar, Stavanger. ABV is 7%. Amber colour, slightly hazy, big off-white head. Nice aroma of fresh ginger and fruity and flowery hops, hints of lemongrass. The flavour is malty sweet with ginger as the dominant element throughout, hints of sweet fruits and candy. The finish is drier, with moderate hops. A fairly good beer if you like ginger (I do) - but if you hate ginger or are allergic to it, you are looking for trouble here.

Opaque burnt orange, with quarter finger white head. Aroma is of caramel malt and ginger. Taste follows the nose with a sharp ginger up front, followed by a thin caramel and hints of chocolate, and ends with a raw ginger flavor that lingers for a long time. Body is light to medium with medium carbonation. Overall very strong on the ginger. I like ginger in my food, but not this much in my beer. Not much else going on.

 

Interesting beer, in a good way. It has the mouthfeel of belgian strong ale but different flavors. I cant detect all of them, except for the ginger, it all blends well together. First of this style, Im guessing beers of this style cannot be directly compared with each other as they would have different herbs and spices. Anyhow, I like this one. Also first japanese beer that Im recording here. Had Sapporo before i started writing them down, this is obviously miles better !

 

Ruddy amber body. Kind of rusty throughout. Initial swell of wet head dissipates pretty quickly leaving not a thing.

Nose is malty caramels and earthiness. The ginger is kind of an afterthought though it does ultimately kind of remind me of those ginger chew candies.

Sweet and malty is the first impression. Some caramel and roast and a little rye-like spice. The ginger itself is again pretty faint.

Medium sticky body with a good but not heavy feel. ultimately it's fine and has its place but doesn't stand out for me and doesn't really deliver the ginger I was hoping for

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bottle from Market of Choice

A clear deep red with a thin white head with decent retention and minimal lacing, this looks solid. The nose is caramelized and candied ginger,bright and deep,coupled with brown sugar and a little toffee. Some honey as well. The palate opens moderately sweet with honey, toffee and a big ginger note. Bright and deep but unfortunately held back by the sweetness. Rather watery and overcarbonated mouthfeel, resulting in the palate feeling disjointed. Alcohol is well hidden. Decent, but not my cup of tea.

 

 

 

 

Unattractive murkiness with a short lived head. I like the aroma. Nice ginger notes along with some yeast esters. Does not taste anything like non alcoholic ginger ale. More like a Belgian style beer with a hint of ginger.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Great by itself and fantastic in a Moscow Mule

 

 

 

 

 

Poured into a becher pint glass, the appearance was a fairly nice looking bronzed orange color with a thin cap of a little white semi-foamy head that quickly settled. Lace fainted extremely quick.
The aroma definitely had the spicy effects of ginger up front and a sly little sweetness of it that seemed to come across somewhat like ginger extract - nice to me.
The flavor leaned into the spiciness of the ginger and allowed a stifled sort of sweetness coming in gently. Mild ginger spicy sort of aftertaste.
The mouthfeel was almost medium bodied and had a fairly good sessionability about it. Carbonation felt good and wasn't distracting upon any of the "ginger-like" spicy harshness that did show it's presence here but felt good and not distracting. ABV felt on par. Finish was all about the ginger.
Overall, if you don't like ginger, don't drink this beer because that's what this beer is all about. Despite not having any other qualities about it, I would say it's actually quite well done and for a ginger fan such as me, I'd definitely have again.

 

I was looking for more spiciness. Kind of like a bland ipa.

Poured from a bottle into a tulip glass. Orangish brown, slightly cloudy with a light head and decent lacing. Nice ginger smell and taste. It is an ok beer but Orval is about the same price for a bottle, so I think I would go Belgian next time.

L: ginger and faint earthy hops

S: effervescent hazy dark amber with a 2" dirty cream colored cap with good retention. filled with floaties.

T: mild ginger and malt first with the ginger heat building towards the finish. Light caramel helps balance the ginger

F: fairly thick and chewy with medium low carbonation

O: A bit meh and disappointing.