Hitachino Nest Real Ginger Brew -- Kiuchi Brewery (Naka, Ibaraki, Japan)

I am a ginger fanatic. I also have an interest in creative East Asian beers -- I enjoy sushi and pad thai too much to suffer with pale yellow lagers for the rest of my life. So when I spotted a ginger-brewed beverage in the Hitachino Nest stable, that was pretty much an automatic purchase.

Characteristics: Cloudy reddish-brown color; light-to-moderate carbonation with average head; medium body; mildly sweet opening sets the stage for the ginger to build across a yeasty-biscuit middle for an almost peppery finish. It takes time for the ginger to emerge.

Minor Gripes: Depending on your tolerance for yeast, be careful when pouring since there's a sediment in the bottle. And definitely do not drink this one straight out of the bottle, straight out of the refrigerator... this is probably best consumed from a snifter/tulip glass, approaching room temperature.

Bottom Line: A noble experiment that doesn't quite reach the finish line. I'd like to try this with 50% more ginger in the mash, so that the bite is there at a cooler temperature -- but I also eat pickled ginger without sushi.  And I do wonder about quality control in the bottling and labeling at Kiuchi -- the first bottle I tasted was so bland that I may not have gotten the right beverage. (That's happened to me before with Hitachino Nest. I loved the first couple Red Rice Ales I tried -- reddish, medium-bodied experiments on the amber ale theme... but later bottles were thin, cloudy, straw-yellow, and utterly lacking in flavor.)

Rating: 5 / 10