Hitachino Nest Espresso Stout

For all of you that are purely visually inclined, I'm sad to say that I just found out one of my SD cards is corrupt.  As a result, I've lost pictures of three of my last Beer entries.  So unfortunately, for the next few posts you're going to have to use your imagination a little.  I promise to do my best describing them.

Japanese brewing is taking off.  I've done one entry about this already, but I'm seeing more and more interesting brews coming over from the Far East.  Kiuchi Brewery is certainly one of the largest exporters of craft brews and you can find their Hitachino Nest line in a number of stores, bars, and restaurants around LA.  Most often you'll find their White Ale or the Hefe, however, Beverage Warehouse has recently started carrying a few of their other beers.  Of particular interest to me was this Espresso Stout.  Unfortunately, all the info about it is in Japanese, so I can't tell you too much behind the ethos, but I can share how it tastes. 

It pours a beautiful black/brown with a lovely tan head.  Lacing is decent and sustains for a minute or so, but is slowly dissipating.  Aroma is rich chocolate grains with a bit of black currant and the slightest hints of burned espresso and alcoholic phenols.  The body is solid for a single, but a little lighter than some of the other massive coffee stouts I've been drinking recently. 

While the finish is a marvelous mixture of chocolate and oily espresso beans, the front end has a strange bitter coffee flavor that mixes with the grains and yet somehow doesn't work.  It's the same bitter flavor that I get when I accidentally chew on the coffee grinds from the french press (this happens more often than I'd like to admit).  While this is a marvelous achievement of authenticity, it unfortunately really overpowers some of the beautiful subtle chocolate and espresso flavors that I can taste buried under the grinds.  Other than that, it's a pretty solid stout.  The hopping is just right to leave big acidic remnants at the end of your sip and when combined with the massive bitter coffee flavor, it really creates a deep and complex flavor for you meditate on before your next sip.

Espresso Stout: ***

Gentleman Scholar Brewing Espresso Stout

I opened this unknown beer with a bit of aggression to the tune of Def Leppard's Escariot, hoping to finally kick the the soar throat that's been bugging me for days.  I've never heard of Gentleman Scholar Brewing before and was even more surpised to see that their LLC is on Westwood and their brewing headquarters is in El Monte.  But I was sold on it by a great silver and black label with a skeleton in the style Tim Burton's Nightmare before Christmas.

True to it's name it smells like a coffee beans and malt, but it's not that good, deep, rich coffee smell that you get off your morning cup, nor is it the thick espresso shot served to you at Italian espresso bar.  it smells more like an oversweetened machine made cup from 7-11.  Being a heavy coffee drinker that drowns himself in dark roasted fair-trade, organic, dark roasted coffee daily, this was not the smart introduction the Scholar should be looking for.

The taste didn't stray much farther from here and was really not much more than an extension of the aromas.  The front end has too much carbonation for a stout and the small bit of coffee flavor gets almost completely dominated by the watery malts that seem only an empty shell of their former sweetness.  The back end is a rush of all these flavors with little grace or balance, leaving you with the feeling that you've just drank the coffee grinds from someone else's cup.

Perhaps this beer could have redeemed itself if it had a thicker body to carry some of the malt richness on.  For such a bold creation, 7% does seem a little low, and I wonder if increased alcohol content wouldn't have created more viscosity for the flavors to grow and the body to thicken.  Instead you're left with a beer that has little to nothing in the way of backbone, which for me – a beer lover born from stouts – makes for a sad day indeed.

Espresso Stout: *