This Dark Chestnut Ale (or Kuri Kuro) comes from Hideji Brewery from Nobeoka City, Miyazaki Prefecture, in southern Japan's Kyushu Island. Nobeoka City is a traditional and rural area that's steeped in Japanese mythology (hence the Noh face mask on the beer label) - it is said that Nobeoka is the place where the Gods first descended onto Earth. It's mountainous and predominantly focused on agricultural activities.

The story of Hideji Brewery is alittle bit of a tale of rebirth. It was was originally an entrant into the craft beer scene all the way back in 1996 during the craft beer boom, when Japan's tax laws were changed to make it more economical for craft brewing to be a sustainable business. The brewery's founder Nishida Hideji was in the business of wholesaling petroleum products, but thought to try his hand at starting a craft brewery considering the momentous wave of support for craft breweries then. Hideji had initially brought in a Czech brewer to develop the brewery's beers, but eventually that fell through. Nevertheless, the brewery would continue to trudge along until 2010 when the recession hit, and the employees opted to takeover the brewery and this changed everything.

Upon the brewery's restart, it took on the new motto of "Think Global, Brew Local" - which meant focusing on its locality and what made the brewery special, as well as integrating more of the local produce and community. Things were remarkably tough at the time, with the eruption of a volcano, as well as agricultural woes. Nevertheless, the brewery stuck to its belief and began to incorporate into its brews local agricultural produce that Miyazaki was known for.

Thus, you'll find that the Kuri Kuro Dark Chestnut Ale is an imperial stout made with Miyazaki-grown chestnuts. With their heartwarming comeback story and the support they provide to the local community, as well as their imbuing of the beers with a unique aspect of its terroir through the use of local produce (they've got other beers that use Miyazaki specialty produce such as mangoes, ginger, yuzu, kinkan kumquats, barley), it's really nice then that the brewery has now done very well itself.

The Kuri Kuro Dark Chestnut Ale from Hideji was actually awarded the World's Best Beer in 2017, as well as Japan Best on RateBeer for both 2018 and 2019! Very impressive, so let's give it a go! 

Hideji Kuri Kuro Dark Chestnut Ale, 9% ABV | 宮崎ひでじビール 栗黒 - Review

Tasting Notes

Colour: Espresso Black

Aroma: Incredibly fragrant deep and rich aromas of coffee cream, marzipan, some gentle roastiness of coffee beans and roasted chestnuts weaved into a cream cake. Big coffee cream cake aromas!

Taste: Rich, silky body of milk coffee, coffee candies, a light oily char bitterness, coffee liqueur, and then backed up by some earthiness of roasted chestnuts.

Finish: More of those coffee cream and coffee liqueur notes coming through - just a very slight bitterness, mostly sweet confectionaries - but thankfully not too sweet.

My Thoughts

To say I love this would be an understatement - I love it in expletives. It’s exactly what I want in a stout - an imperial stout no less! 

Before we go on, I should explain my preference lest yours follows suit or runs counter. I know conventional stouts demand a certain roasty bitterness, but I personally am adverse to bitterness and instead prefer sweeter flavours (as well as earthy and herbal) - and for the longest time I’ve found it difficult to find a stout with all the body and fully loaded flavours but at the same time without the bitterness (we’re not aiming for cloyingly sweet, but a milky sweetness would be nice). Most imperial stouts and even pastry stouts do pack the confectionary flavours but tend to still carry a heavy oily bitterness from the roasted malt which is even more bitter, oily and charred than just a simple standard stout, and this will not do even with the sweeter start.

With all that said, this is exactly what I’m looking for. It’s got big and rich flavours, a full body, but pretty much holds back most of the bitterness. It’s milky, creamy and confectionary sweet but not cloyingly so. It simply comes off as a sort of coffee cream cake which has been my singular Stout-based pursuit for the last two years.

Really absolutely lovely stuff! Perfection! It’s simple, tasty and confectionary with all the hallmark coffee flavours.

Kanpai!

@111hotpot