Turning Japanese with Hitachino Nest White Ale
Want to experience a slightly uncomfortable moment with your wife or girlfriend? Try this. Take her to an expensive restaurant for her birthday, order an expensive bottle of Japanese beer and then be sure to take a picture of it with your cell phone for your blog. Apparently, that’s not the most romantic thing to do, but it seemed like the right thing at the time.
We were at Stephen Star’s Buddakan in Atlantic City, which is a swanky place offering modern Chinese and a touch of standard American fare for good measure. While waiting for our table, my wife and I went straight to the bar where she ordered a chocolate martini and I stood disappointed as the bartender rattled off an unimpressive list of bottled beers for me to choose from. Bud? Miller? Yuengling? Not quite what I was expecting, especially after seeing their impressive sake menu. Thankfully, after a long pause, the bartender said that they also had a few bottles of Hitachino Nest White Ale still available if I’d like to give that a try.
Other than Tsingtao, I hadn’t really delved into Asian beers before, so I happily forked over $9 for a bottle.
Wow… that’s all I can say. Hitachino Nest White Ale is a mildly hopped Belgian styled beer that pours with a hazy, pale color and a creamy thick head. The first thing that hit me was the sweet scent of corianders and orange peels, that I could easily pick out. But, enough about the peripherals, what really won me over was the taste. This is a beer that is wonderfully drinkable thanks to a perfectly balanced taste consisting of a little lemon, orange, ginger and yeast mixed together to create an amazingly creamy balance. There isn’t a single flavor that consistently punches through as they all work very well in harmony to create a beer that paired very well with my hot and sour scallops.
The only downside, and it’s a small one, is that the beer comes in an 11.2 ounce bottle. When something tastes this good, I hate to not get a full 12 ounces of enjoyment, but that’s a small negative that is easily outweighed by the amazing taste of what is a great beer I’ll be hunting for at all of the local liquor stores. Well worth the $9 price of admission that night, although I’m hoping 6-packs will run less than $10 retail.
