Hitachino Nest Red Rice Ale

And now, for something completely different.

For today's sampling, I ventured to the other side of the world far from Milwaukee or Belgium. Hitachino Nest Red Rice Ale, brewed at the Kiuchi brewery in Ibaraki, Japan, represents a significant departure from the simple hops/barley combination of the previous beers I've tasted thus far. Not sure what to expect from a beer that features rice, I did some research.

While it sounds unusual, rice is fairly common ingredient, used in Budweiser and other light beers. The rice acts as a source of starch, which ferments when mixed with the yeast. In the right proportions, the rice is not a dominant ingredient, merely serving as an adjunct in the brew. Rice can also be used as a replacement for other starches as its a cheaper alternative to barley.

I wish I didn't know it was a rice beer before I tried it, because then I could have been able to think about it purely on an independent taste level instead of thinking about the rice. The color was a golden hue.

My first reaction after tasting it was that it was very different than anything I've tried before. The beer tastes fairly light, but certainly not as flavorless as a light beer. In fact, it had quite a strong, yet subtle flavor to it. At first contact, it's a carbonated kick that seems like it will lead to an intense hoppy taste, but immediately recedes into a more subdued yet unique flavor. The aftertaste lingers in a good way. As a test, I gave Ken a sip without telling him anything about the beer. To a similarly uneducated individual, he could identify that something was different, but not what it was. We were both in agreement it was pretty tasty and unusual.

(Like my high-falutin language? I really don't know what I'm talking about, so the process of converting taste into words is proving interesting)