Epic Beer

As New Zealand begins a long, hot summer of beer festivals, Epic Brewing Company announces the welcome return of their most famous limited edition festive brew – Epic Mayhem.

This 6.2% hoppy strong ale has been brewed only twice before, once in 2006 (when it won Gold and Best in Class for Festive Brew at the BrewNZ Beer Awards) and again in 2007. It will be on tap for a limited time at selected venues and beer festivals around the country. This year for the first time it will also be available in bottles. The 2009 Mayhem will be sold in the same distinctively tall 500ml bottle which Epic Pale Ale and Epic Lager already use.

Head brewer Luke Nicholas says that Epic Mayhem is a beer that will challenge the senses. “Epic beers are increasingly available at supermarkets, bottle stores and bars. People are starting to discover that beer can be much more than just a cold and fizzy beverage. It can have aroma and flavour too. It should have aroma and flavour! Mayhem takes this up a notch with its hop-fuelled intensity.”

Epic Brewing Company is a brewery which has always loved and celebrated hops. Hops grow on a flowering vine and are used to give beer aroma, flavour and bitterness. Mayhem is packed full of US-grown Cascade and New Zealand-grown Riwaka hops. The bottle label boldly states that there are 26 hops in every bottle of Mayhem. That is outrageous given that most beers sold in this country have the equivalent of a single hop.

“Mayhem simply shouts hops at a time when hops are in short supply globally and prices are at record levels. At Epic, we know there are two ways to respond to these tough times. Brewers could cut back and hope no one notices the lack of flavour. Or brewers could do what we did, ramp up the hops to celebrate everything that we love about them – the punchy aroma, the sweet citrus flavour and the lingering, refreshing finish,” Luke says.

Epic Mayhem will be shaking up the beer reality of Kiwi drinkers at the following beer festivals:

14 February – Kumeu Beer Wine & Food Festival – Kumeu Showgrounds
28 February – New Zealand Beer Festival – Waitangi Park, Wellington
14 March - New Zealand Beer Festival – Ellerslie, Auckland

2008 was an Epic year for @epicbeer

1. Epic Armageddon IPA & the West Coast IPA Challenge(alot of dry hopping)

2. World Beer Cup, San Diego (Luke was a judge)

3. California Trip - 10 days, 12 Breweries, 317 beers

4. BrewNZ - Epic Pale Ale wins - Best in Class & Gold (more awards)

5. Launched Epic Lager (gateway?)

6. Launched the new 500ml bottle (lower price for a taste of the good stuff)

7. Epic arrives in the South Island (why does it cost so much to get it there?)

8. Voted Best Beer at the Great Christchurch Beer Festival (these people have good taste)

9. Twitter passed the 500 followers mark (get it as it happens)

10. Facebook passed the 500 friends mark (become a friend today)

I hope you have a Merry Christmas and a prosperous New Year. Thanks to everyone that supported Epic Beer in 2008, and contributed to spreading the word about good beer. 2009 is sure to be even more EPIC ;-)

Keep drinking the good stuff

Cheers
Luke Nicholas

Here is a consolidation of the judges notes from the recent 2008 BrewNZ Beer Awards. The beer was judged by four expert beer judges who wrote notes about each beer as feedback for the brewers. This is valuable to the brewer so they know where their beer maybe lacking or showing a fault. Or why it is so AWESOME.

EPIC PALE ALE - (winner Gold & Best in Class for New World & American Style Ales)

Colour & Appearance: bright golden orange, crystal clear, good head

Aroma: spicey hops with fruity esters, fresh citrus, grapefruit, lychee, low biscuit malt, nicely peachy, hoppy,

Bitterness: pleasant hop profile, low end for style

Style: delicate malt w/ assertive hop flavours, dry interpretation, good balance, elegant and loud,

Flavour: very hoppy, fresh hop character, cushioning malt continues on palate, very clean ferment, peaches, apricots, lovely dry, good floral citrus hop

Balance: hop flavours overpower malt character, good hop flavour

Other comments: Absolutely fabulous!!, nice beer overall

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EPIC LAGER - (entered as an International Golden Lagers)

This beer didn't move forward to medal round for the reason of "Inappropriate flavour" (which looks like being "too hoppy")

Colour & Appearance: golden w/ nice head, good

Aroma: lovely hops but out of style, hop, grassy notes, hops dominate, too hoppy

Style: too much hops for style, too much hop for style, hops too big

Flavour: nice citrusy hoppy flavour but out of style, lacking malt dominance

Other Comments: love the beer but out of style too much hop, too much hops, out of style

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.

Full Blog Post

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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