EPIC Beer - Best Beer in New Zealand - Supreme Champion Winner
Here is where we announce the latest, greatest, biggest and baddest from Epic Brewing Company. Epic Pale Ale - Best Beer in New Zealand - Supreme Champion winner at the New Zealand International Beer Awards and top beer of the RealBeer.co.nz Top Ten New Zealand Beers 2006 and Gold and Best in Class trophy at the 2008 BrewNZ Awards. Also featuring multi-Supreme Champion brewer Luke Nicholas.
09 November 2009
Epic Armageddon Wins Best Of BrewNZ Tasting
A recent tasting held by Wellington Beer Writer, Neil Miller at the backbencher, featured all the Best in Class winners from the BrewNZ Beer Awards.
This taste off to find the best of the best resulted in Epic Armageddon IPA being awarded the top place.
Epic Armageddon IPA Oak Barrels tasted after ocean voyage
Luke Nicholas of Epic Brewing Company tries the first sample of Epic Armageddon IPA from the oak barrels that spent 6 weeks on the Interislander ferry that travels between the North & South islands of New Zealand.
The barrels crossed the Cook Strait 126 times. The beer was sampled at the public festival Beervana, on the 28th and 29th August 2009, to very positive feedback from the public.
The barrels were named Pete & Melissa after UK based beer writers Pete Brown and Melissa Cole.
The inspiration for this idea come from Pete Brown's book Hops & Glory
Hops over the top, but not the price by Geoff Griggs
Last week, I wrote of how, in an attempt to mimic the arduous six-week sea voyage endured by the original India Pale Ales, Auckland brewer Luke Nicholas recently filled two oak casks with his new beer, Epic Armageddon IPA, and sent them criss-crossing Cook Strait on the inter-island ferry.
Although those barrels will not be tapped until next month's Beervana tastings in Wellington, the bottled version of Epic Armageddon IPA is now available at selected outlets around the country and, I'm glad to say, a few cases have made it to Blenheim.
Armageddon pours a bright amber colour with a deep off-white head. Hopped exclusively with American varieties, the beer almost jumps out of the glass as it assaults the nose with a massive hit of citrus zest and sweet, lollyish, tropical-fruit hop aromas.
A first sip confirms the intensity of the hop attack and, despite some cushioning sweet maltiness, in the end, the inside of the mouth is left dry with a coating of hop resin. After a glass, you'll likely end up with a fixed hop grin.
Armageddon isn't quite the end of the world, but it is certainly brash, intimidating, full on and over the top in other words, just as an American IPA should be. I love it.
Here is an initial list of outlets with Epic Armageddon IPA. As I get more information I will tweet it.
Auckland Launch Party - Friday 24th July - Brew on Quay, 102 Quay Street, Auckland City
Beervana - 28th & 29th August, Wellington Town Hall
Alberton Barkers Lodge - Methven Farro Fresh Choice Springlands Fresh Choice Parklands Four Square Kelburn Hamilton Wine Co LL Albert St LL Newmarket LL Parnell Moore Wilsons NW Blenheim NW Eastridge NW Greenmeadows NW Hillcrest NW Island Bay NW Metro NW Miramar NW Te Rapa NW Thorndon NW Vic Park NW Halswell NW Warkworth NW Wgtn City PNS Royal Oak Regional Wines Village Winery The Thirsty Weta The Beer Store
Yes there will be some in Melbourne by the 1st of August, possibly check out Purvis Cellars.
Forty litres of fresh India Pale Ale from Auckland will spend up to six weeks at sea on the Interislander Ferry looking to recreate a recreation of beer’s most famous voyage.
In the 1880s, pale ale from Burton-on-Trent in England took around six weeks on tall ships to reach its thirsty customers in India. British beer writer Pete Brown recently retraced the long journey which helped create this iconic style of beer. He chronicled his adventures in the newly released book Hops and Glory: One Man’s Search for the Beer that Built the British Empire.
After a sleepless night finishing the book, Malthouse proprietor Colin Mallon had the ‘crazy idea’ of replicating the experience in New Zealand. “I had met Pete Brown in England recently and just loved the book. First, I needed some beer. My first thought was Epic Armageddon, a limited release double India Pale Ale brewed by Luke Nicholas from Epic Brewing Company. He agreed immediately. Then I needed a boat. The Interislander Ferry agreed immediately. I tasked Luke with finding appropriate barrels,” says Colin.
“I sourced two 20-litre new oak barrels and filled them with fresh Armageddon,” Luke explains. “I recently brewed a real ale in England for a huge British beer festival so I knew Armageddon was not a million miles away from what a traditional pale ale would have tasted like. For a beer to stand up to the kind of treatment we have in mind it has to be pretty robust. Armageddon is definitely big, strong and hoppy. The idea is to see what effect changes in temperature and constant movement has on beer stored in wood. Most pundits believe India Pale Ale’s benefitted from the conditioning they received during their sea voyages.”
Colin and Luke jointly christened the beer ‘Epic Journey’ while the barrels are affectionately known as Pete (after Pete Brown) and Melissa (in honour of British beer writer Melissa Cole). Pete and Melissa will spend up to six weeks on the ferry before being ceremonially tapped at Beervana at the Wellington Town Hall, 28th & 29th August.
Epic Adventure Part 9 - Made From New Zealand Luke introduces Colin Mallon of the Malthouse in Wellington. Colin talks about how the two got to know each other, became friends(?), traveled to the UK together for some market research, Luke pours Colin the first pint of Epic Pale Ale at the JD Wetherspoons Real Ale Festival for his birthday. A meeting with Pete Brown author of Hops & Glory, Melissa Cole and a visit to the Rake in London. And a very cool idea inspired by Pete's book.
Epic Adventure Part 12 - Made From New Zealand Luke summarizes the epic journey to this point, meeting Pete Brown, reading about his own barrel called Barry (you will need to read the book to find out the full story), two oak barrels filled with Epic Armageddon IPA, an ocean voyage on the Interislander between the North and South Island of New Zealand, here's to Pete Brown and Melissa Cole for inspiring the current stage of this epic journey.
=========================== 81. American-Style India Pale Ale American-style India pale ales have intense hop bitterness, flavor and aroma with medium-high alcohol content. The style is further characterized by fruity, floral and citrus-like American-variety hop character. Note that “fruity, floral and citrus-like American-variety hop character” is the perceived end, but may be a result of the skillful use of hops of other national origins. The use of water with high mineral content results in a crisp, dry beer. This pale gold to deep copper-colored ale has a full, flowery hop aroma and may have a strong hop flavor (in addition to the hop bitterness). India pale ales possess medium maltiness and body. Fruity-ester flavors and aromas are moderate to very strong. Diacetyl can be absent or may be perceived at very low levels. Chill haze is allowable at cold temperatures. Original Gravity (ºPlato): 1.060 1.075 (14.7 18.2 ºPlato) Apparent Extract/Final Gravity (ºPlato): 1.012 1.018 (3 4.5 ºPlato) Alcohol by Weight (Volume): 5 6% (6.3 7.5%) Bitterness (IBU): 40 70 Color SRM (EBC): 6 14 (12 28 EBC)
Fresh from a trip to the World Beer Cup in San Diego, with tongues still numb from an excessive amount of hoppy American-style India Pale Ales (IPA), Luke Nicholas of Epic and Stephen Plowman of Hallertau hatched the plan to brew up a heavyweight IPA challenge.
Armageddon looks to be the beer equivalent of purchasing a Liebherr T 282B to drive to work in – hedonistically fun but hideously expensive.
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.
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).
[PHOTOS] West Coast (USA) IPA Challenge - Epic vs Hallertau
Here is a photo diary of the West Coast(USA)IPA Challenge - Epic vs Hallertau.
A quick outline: two brewers make similar beers brewed in the American IPA style, 7% alc/vol, target. One uses New Zealand malt and hops, the other uses imported malt and hops. The outcome? We'll see on the 17th July at the launch at the Malthouse.
There will be a detailed blog post coming shortly outlining what we are doing and why.
