Hop off - by Aaron Watson, Capital Times

Epic Armageddon (6.66%) has a more resinous aroma with hints of red grapefruit. It fills the mouth with weighty complexity at first, then its herby bitterness emerges – and lingers with extreme prejudice.

This is 90-plus IBU, a beer so strongly flavoured it completely changes your palate, making it very difficult to go back to the brew you usually drink.

The question in the New Zealand market is: will anybody drink such bitter ale? Colin Mallon at The Malthouse reckons his customers will, and has taken as many kegs as he can get his hands on.

Full Story

New Epic Beer Available Thursday 17th July

This Thursday will see the official launch of the new limited release Epic Armageddon IPA at the Malthouse on Wellington from 5.30pm

Only 1000 litres of insane hop joy have been created. The rumour has started that Epic Armageddon IPA is "the sole reason there is a global hop shortage". This may well be true since many hops were sacrificed in the making of this beer.

If you would like a taste of Armageddon please join me at the Malthouse on Thursday evening.

Can't make Thursday I will be back for a repeat performance on Friday from 5.30pm for International Brewers Day

Epic Armageddon will be on tap from 24th July at Hallertau BrewBar and eventually Galbraith's Alehouse. (with the possibility of Regional Wines FYO)

(special thanks and recognition to Steve Plowman at Hallertau for the use of the brewery, and encouragement to add more hops (like I needed that), Neil Miller for the stroke of brilliance in the naming of Armageddon, the guys at Steam for back up support of yeast, and kegs, and anything else I may have forgot, Mike Shadow for the tap badge (still to be finished) and poster, Colin at the Malthouse for thinking that he can sell the whole batch, I'm sure with a few pints himself and a little help from Mr Miller, who I hear will be camping out the whole time, while Armageddon is on tap).

Want the behind the scenes story, follow the Photo Essay on Flickr.com

Epic Diggnation Episode

Diggnation Episode 101

Epic Pale Ale guest stars on Diggnation

This weeks episode 101 of Diggnation features Kevin & Alex drinking Epic Pale Ale. I had all but given up on the six pack I sent them back in March cause they had been drinking wine (who knows why) on the show and given up mostly on drinking the beers people were sending them.

You can see the original Digg post I made here.

So here we have it Epic Pale Ale on Diggnation. Thanks to the pilot David and my brother Flynn for getting the six pack to the Digg offices.

You can listen to the podcast here
Or watch the video podcast here (when it is uploaded)

Cheers
Luke

The weekend was awesome. We did tastings at Foodtown Greenlane and Foodtown Auckland City on Thursday, Friday and Saturday, from 3pm to 7pm, and sponsored the Parnell Gentleman's Club - Amazing Race 07 on Saturday.

It is really interesting to note now how far we have come with Epic Pale Ale since we started doing tastings in November 2006 in supermarkets and bottle shops.

Pre Christmas Epic Pale Ale was so new that no one had heard of it or ever seen it.

Post Christmas, early February, Epic Pale Ale had become a brand that people had heard of, or seen somewhere, and were talking about it, which created interest at tastings.

The tastings we ran at the weekend were very encouraging, with many comments of people having seen it, tasted, purchased, and even people that had it in their fridge at home, and that Epic Pale Ale was their new favorite beer.

Awareness for Epic Pale Ale is increasing and more and more people are discovering it and buying to share with their friends.

On Saturday Epic had the privilege to be a sponsor for the Parnell Gentleman's Club's "Amazing Race 07". This was an event where 30 odd teams traveled around Auckland on 11 legs, completing tasks on each leg. The event was filmed by TV station C4, ( I'm hoping to get some footage of the event for our YouTube Channel). The event was a fundraiser for Prostate Cancer. [more on this event, including photos, and video as they come to hand]

Australian International Beer Awards 2007

Last night our samples of Epic Pale Ale flew out on Air New Zealand to Melbourne for the Australian International Beer Awards. Judging starts Monday 19th March.

Awards will be announced at the Beer Awards Presentation Dinner,Thursday 19th April Sofitel Melbourne, 25 Collins Street, Melbourne, Australia.

[UPDATE: San Fran six pack to DIGGNation. It was picked up from the pilot at the Hilton SF, and is now waiting for delivery to the Digg HQ]

EPIC, the Beer Drinker of the Year, and a good shag!

[photo: Waikato Beer Drinker of the Year - Greig McGill]

On Wednesday 28th February at the Cock & Bull in Hamilton there was the inaugural Waikato Beer Drinker of the Year, which Epic sponsored. I was one of the judges along with Bruce Holloway who is the beer writer for the Waikato Times. Bruce has a recent article which covered this event as well as the New Zealand Beer Festvial

This is a fantastic couple of lines from his article:

But sole female entrant Denise had the best line of the night when asked to nominate her favourite beer.

"If I've been mowing the lawns an Export Gold is okay," she said.

"But after a good shag I need an Epic."

Epic is currently the sponsor of Tuesday Trivia Nights at the Cock & Bull pubs

More Recent "EPIC" Press

National Business Review ran an article about the New Zealand Beer Festival on 9th February 2007. "Amber liquid gets festival of its own".

Epic gets a quote. See copy of the article here

Recent "EPIC" Press

18 February 2007 - Sunday Star Times Magazine SUNDAY.
Epic features in the "going up, going down" list. EPIC is "going up"..."Mmmmmm, hoppy!"

Six Pack flys to San Francisco from NZ with pilot for Diggnation

Tonight Epic Pale Ale has the privilege of flying from Auckland, New Zealand to San Francisco with one of the Air New Zealand pilots of flight NZ008 (track the flight here). He has a six pack as part of his carry on.

This is a special mission to get Epic Pale Ale to Kevin & Alex of the Diggnation podcast - digg.com.

As a bit of a tech geek as well as a total beer geek, and brewer of the Epic Pale Ale, I have finally now found a way to get a six pack of Epic Pale Ale (current Supreme Champion Beer from the New Zealand International Beer Awards 2006 ) from New Zealand to San Francisco, where my brother (yes a New Zealander working as a web designer for Real Branding in San Francisco) will make the pick up from the hotel where the pilot is staying, this weekend.

Epic Pale Ale is very lucky to get this flight at such late notice, as if it had to buy a seat tonight it would cost NZ$2329 + airport taxes (US$1650). That's a flying time of 13 hours and a distance of 10,420 km or 6,475 miles.

Once the beer has been secured it will be delivered to the Digg.com head quarters, and with a bit of luck Kevin and Alex will have the opportunity to sample New Zealand's best beer on the next episode of Diggnation.

Fingers crossed.

Once the beer has been delivered to Digg.com we will give you an update.

Cheers
Luke

Yes, I know there has been a bunch going on with Epic over the last couple of weeks like its listing in "What's Hot" in the Sunday Star Times a couple weekends ago, and the NZ Beer Festival. As soon as I get a chance I'll post some more updates. Thanks again for drinking Epic and telling your friends about it.