Hitachino Nest Red Rice Ale 330ml x 24

When Toshiyuki and Youichi Kiuchi launched craft beer production in 1996, they were working inside a sake brewery founded in 1823 — and the Red Rice Ale is the expression where that lineage is most structurally visible. Asamurasaki ancient red rice comprises approximately 25% of the grain bill, layered over a pilsner malt base, and because standard beer yeast cannot convert rice starch to fermentable sugar, Kiuchi employs a dual-yeast protocol: one strain for barley sugars, a separate strain dedicated to rice conversion — a direct borrowing from sake-production logic. Hopping is restrained, using Hallertauer for a soft, herbal bitterness that keeps the rice character forward. The fermentation schedule runs two weeks primary followed by four weeks maturation, after which the beer is filtered but unpasteurized at 7% ABV, preserving live character without the haze of bottle conditioning. What no Western craft brewer replicates here is the systematic application of rice-fermentation biochemistry — not as a flavour adjunct but as a structural fermentation decision — producing a deep garnet ale whose earthy, lightly tannic grain texture reads closer to a sake-beer hybrid than any fruit beer or adjunct lager. Production takes place at the Nukada Brewery in Naka City, Ibaraki, drawing medium-soft well water on-site.