Kiuchi Brewery: Hitachino Nest Yuzu Lager

ABV: 5.5%

IBU: N/A

Availability: Rotating

@untappd says: 3.74/5

Hitachino Nest is back on the Windowsill today!

Last February, something wonderful happened in San Francisco: Kiuchi Brewery—my favorite Japanese brewery—opened up a restaurant and taproom in the Tendernob area of the city! It’s called Hitachino Beer & Wagyu, and is based on Kappo, a Japanese style of eating that focuses on pairing food with wine or beer. If you like beef, and beer, you’ll love this place. It also serves the highest grades of Hitachiwagyu beef—meat from the Hitachino area’s Japanese Black Wagyu cattle, which also drink the beer their delicious flesh is cooked in—and features ten varieties of Hitachino beer brewed exclusively for the location. I haven’t been, but it sounds like a super cool place I need to visit some day.

Now, the beer. Today’s Windowsill wonder is the Yuzu Lager. It’s a relatively new brew from Kiuchi. It’s a lager brewed with lots of added Yuzu fruit. If you don’t know what Yuzu is, it’s a unique Japanese citrus fruit that has been around for centuries, but has only relatively recently started making appearances in cuisine around the world. I thought it worked pretty well with this traditional lager. The Yuzu flavor wasn’t overpowering, but the acidity was a nice complement to the crispness from the lager. Sometimes, a simple addition of extra citrus fruit really brings a lager to the next step. This one was solid!

Yuzu guys better go over to our Instagram to check this out. Like and follow us for more great craft beer!