I have had Hitachino Nest Beer before and thought it was quite good. But I stumbled across a unique beer of theirs in a market while on a business trip – 3 Days. After reading the story, I couldn’t pass it up.

On March 11, 2011 at 14:46, an earthquake rocked Japan as the Kiuchi Brewery was in the mash phase of brewing a batch of beer. Parts of the brewery were damaged, the fermenters were tilted at an angle, and they were unable to get electricity to complete the mash for three days. During this time, the mash began to ferment naturally from a lactic acid cultured in their brewery. The result was a one-of-a-kind batch of 8,000 bottles with about as much history as a batch of beer is ever likely to have (one must hope).

The beer is 8% and is honey-brown in color. The batch appears to be unfiltered as it has a distinct haziness. The smell is one of syrupy maltiness and the taste is a very sweet malted honey taste – almost no hoppiness. The look of it very much reminds me of unfermented wort from my homebrew days. Carbonation was low although it did produce a bit of head. But who couldn’t like a beer that is this unique – a true one-of-a-kind batch?

All in all, it was a good beer – more malty than almost anything I have had before as I don’t think they really got to hop it the way they probably otherwise would have. But it also one I really enjoyed. I will likely be returning to where I bought soon, and I fully plan on getting another bottle to put in my fridge for a special event. Its history makes it quite a special beer – and besides – its already been cellared, even while it was still in production.

Ok, so by now you are probably thinking of the Fukushima Nuclear incident and wondering whether I now glow in the dark. I can assure you that I don’t. But out of curiosity (and while drinking it), I decided to look up where the brewery was located relative to the epicenter of the earthquake. Perhaps I should have done that BEFORE I drank the beer, but nonetheless…. They are about 200 miles from Honshu, and the epicenter was 80 miles off the coast of Honshu. But the brewery is actually only about 77 miles southwest of the reactor that had the problem, according to Google Maps. In looking up the location of brewery, I found an interesting item on their website... Apparently they have had their beers tested for radiation. They even post the April 1, 2011 inspection report on their site. Thankfully they found no radiation in the beer, which was a good thing as I only had about 4 ounces left when I came across it.

So, if you like malty beer and happen across a bottle of Hiatchino 3 Days, I would recommend grabbing a bottle for when you want to impress some friends with a truly unusual beer.