Hitachino Nest Pale Ale 330ml x 24

The Kiuchi family had been brewing sake in Kounosu, Naka City, Ibaraki Prefecture for over 170 years before Toshiyuki and Youichi Kiuchi launched craft beer production in 1996 — a deliberate move to channel two centuries of fermentation discipline into global beer styles. That institutional depth is felt even in the approachable Pale Ale: malt milled on-site, saccharification resting approximately 40 minutes, and fermentation conducted in stainless steel tanks cooled to around 20°C before yeast pitching at the Nukada Brewery (額田醸造所) in Naka City. The brewery draws on medium-soft well water sourced on-site — a profile that keeps hop bitterness clean rather than amplified, and allows malt character to read clearly through the finish. Ibaraki Prefecture historically supplied roughly 27% of Japan's domestic beer-barley crop, and Kiuchi contracts local farmers to grow Kaneko Golden heritage barley (a variety revived from extinction since the 1960s) for select expressions — the same agricultural network that underpins the brewery's broader philosophy of regional grain sourcing. What separates Hitachino Nest categorically from Western craft peers is the systematic application of sake technique across the range: cedar cask maturation, koji fermentation, and dual-yeast rice processing appear in sibling expressions, making even the Pale Ale part of a production ecosystem with no direct Western equivalent. Drink fresh to preserve hop clarity.