Kiuchi offers a line of Hitachino beers, but the White Ale is available at around $10.99 for a 1 pint 8 ounce bottle. It is an easy drink at 5 percent A.B.V.
History
Starting out in 1823, the Kiuchi brewery was founded by Kiuchi Gihei, a man whose family collected the rice tax of his village. Kiuchi utilized the left-over rice for brewing. Initially brewing sake, the Kiuchi brewery then continued to produce small, perfected batches while all other sake breweries in 1950's Japan started to mass produce cheaper sake (sorta like the Miller and Budweiser beers over here.)
Kiuchi brewing did not try creating beer until 1996, which brings us to the Nest beer. It should be noted that the transition of sake to beer should be difficult as the products are supposed to have completely different qualities due to their very different brewing processes (such as the dregs of the rice in sake as opposed to the lack thereof in beer). Apparently, the next goal for the Kiuchi brewery is to produce wine. But who cares about that. You're here for the beer, dammit.
Taste
Alright, now to the main attraction. Starting with the color, the White Ale is a light and slightly cloudy amber-yellow. The ale pours with very little head. I tried to get some kind of scent off the beer, but all I could get was an underwhelming slightly floral and "clean" smell. I would have to admit so far that the presentation of the beer is falling quite short. But there is still the mouthfeel and taste to cover.
In terms of mouthfeel, this beer evenly coats the tongue and dances a little on the mouth before quickly fading to the actual taste of the beer. Although the mouthfeel fades, it does seem to float on the tongue while it is there.
The beer itself (once you get past all of the presentation and mouthfeel) is understated, but almost in a way where it means to be as such. Immediately, it is easy to notice the hops in the distant background, but once you take in the beer, you immediately get notes of ginger and a kind of floral taste. In addition to some floral notes, you can also pick up on some orange as well. If anything, I would have to say that this clean-drinking beer is the Japanese equivalent of Wittekerke, another belgian white ale.
Food
For those of you in major cities such as my lovely Chicago, you should be familiar with tamales being sold on the corner. No, I am not talking about those crappy little plastic-wrapped tamales you can get in the freezer of Jewel-Osco. I am talking about hand-made tamales. If you want to pair this beer perfectly with a food, go and get yourself some home-made chicken tamales and cook up some eggs to go with it. Hell, if you want, throw some sriracha on there too. It would all go perfect together. The fact that this lighter tasting beer is being paired with chicken as opposed to beef makes the pairing work. The eggs just round out the flavor and complete the taste.
Music
The beer is somewhat flowery and ... erm... floaty, but it seems to mean what it is saying and says it in a pleasant manner. This combination of a heart-felt flavor and floral sense make this beer an appropriate representation of the song "River Sea Ocean" by Badly Drawn Boy from the "About a Boy" soundtrack. The song is fairly simple, but that does not mean that it is well written.
"River Sea Ocean" by Badly Drawn Boy (Offsite)
Overall, I will not fault the Hitachino White Ale for the shortcomings in smell. Thinking about it again, the color was really quite pleasant when coupled with the subtle mouthfeel and taste. Still, I feel like much more could have been done. This leads me to give the Hitachino White Ale an 8.0 out of a possible 10.
Until next time, make sure that the only flat notes are in your music, and not your beer.
All images are copyright of their respective owners. Sources Cited: www.hitachinonest.com
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