Hitachino Nest Espresso Stout

Following a short steak hiatus to cleanse our palates with appropriately paired food, we're back with our Thursday new beer coffee edition, and we've moved onto the coffee stouts!  Starting off with the lowest ABV of our three stouts, we have Hitachino Nest's Espresso Stout.  

I've always had a secret burning desire to try something from this brewery - it has to be the cute owl logo.

Beer: Hitachino Nest Espresso Stout

Brewery: Kiuchi Brewery
Style: American Imperial Stout
ABV: 7.5%

Glass: Snifter

Appearance: Fingernail thick smooth head that pours a medium tan.  Very dark brown to black, opaque, very small amount of sediment.

Aroma:   Nose is very sweet and malty, the coffee notes taking a backseat to chocolate and toffee malt aromas.  Pretty typical stout aroma, but quite nice.

Body & Texture: Thicker body with a heavy mouth feel and light carbonation.  Glides smoothly along the tongue and is almost sticky on the way down.

Taste: Starts out with a prominent espresso flavor that changes quickly to a surprisingly sweet and distinct middle.  I can definitely taste a few sweeter malts that present chocolate and toffee flavors.  Espresso again brings up the rear of the flavor train with the bitter coffee flavor one would expect to find in their little Starbucks espresso shot.

Overall:  4/5  As coffee beers go, this one is really interesting, as the bitter hop taste that is absent in many stouts due to style is replaced with a bitter coffee flavor.  Overall the experience while of course markedly different in flavor, still reminds me a little of a black IPA, with the heavy darkness and potent flavor that end in a bitter but tasty finish.  That also could be me being a noob, but that's one person's experience.  The use of multiple malts really adds to the complexity of this beer, and it is easy to distinguish by taste that this is indeed specifically an espresso stout versus a thinner stout produced with just plain Americano coffee.