Epic Beer

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.

For the full background story see http://armageddon.epicbeer.com

All Welcome to the Auckland Armageddon Launch - Friday 24th July - Brew on Quay, 102 Quay Street, Auckland City

We couldn’t pass the Epic stall without having a taste of their Pale Ale – just to check it is as good as we remember – it is. This is my tipple of choice at The Malthouse . I believe it won gold and best in class at the awards. The trophies depicting a mash tun are very cool and those who had won them were proudly displaying them on their stalls.

We first had Epic Pale Ale two years ago when there was a beer festival beneath the Old Bank on a Saturday afternoon. We emerged blinking into the pale sunlight with a feeling we had just tasted the best beer we’d had in New Zealand since we arrived ten years previously. I loved the Armageddon Ale that Epic released recently, but sadly that wasn’t on offer, or not that I could see anyway. Does this mean it’s all gone? Bring it back please – I love it! I love hops, which may explain it. In the meantime, I will happily drink the Pale Ale.

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This article has an interview with me during Beervana 2008.

Download the .mp3 file (9.8Mb and 10 mins 33 sec)

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Public Address - Field Theory by Hadyn Green

Beer and Loathing | Sep 08, 2008 21:41

Armageddon comes from the Epic brewery in Auckland. Three kegs of the 26-hops-per-glass beer were delivered to the Malthouse for Beervana. The first keg was tapped at 10pm on Friday and was empty by Saturday, so I needed to try it before the other two disappeared. Armageddon is a dark copper beer with a mild nose which hides a flavour that doesn't so much clear your palate as blast your tongue with a flavour of a thousand suns. Which is not say it's a bad flavour, in fact half way through the glass I found it immensely drinkable. The problem came with my second beer, a Mata Artesian, in that I found I couldn't taste it. It took almost ten minutes for my taste buds to recover.

All day Martin Bosley had been doing cooking sessions where he would create a dish and serve it with a matching beer. I caught the crostini with broad bean paste, sardine and parmesan matched with Epic Pale Ale

But to the drinking! I started with my old favourite the Epic Pale Ale (winner of the best Pale Ale [pdf] for the second year running). Luke from Epic is well known by many "internet folk" for his fantastic advertising idea of giving free beer to well-connected people and selling on word of mouth.

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