Epic Beer 2011 Top 10

At the end of each year I do a quick sum up of the top 10 things Epic Brewing Company has done over the previous 12 months (check out the previous years Top 10 – 2010, 2009, 2008 )

1. Kelly Ryan
What an amazing addition to the Epic team. Not only has Kelly expanded the knowledge base, and abilities of Epic, but it has been amazing fun to brew with him, create new beers with him, as well as travel around the country and do beer launches, over the last year.

2. Hop Zombie
We pushed the envelope again. Hop Zombie - New Zealand's Hoppiest Beer. What an unbelievable beer, initially brewed for ourselves to drink, and given a funny name, it has become an incredible overnight success. Unfortunately there are a couple of hop varieties we use from the US which we are unable to secure supply for till the 2012 harvest, which means we are unlikely to have another batch out before January 2013 :-( (It even gave rise to a new Tshirt, which is now highly sought after.)

3. AS SEEN ON TV
In 2011 finally we saw the episode from Discovery Channel - "Brew Masters" series - on the making of the Portamarillo with Dogfish Head, which screened on TV's around the globe . Also Epic was featured on TV3's - What's Really In Our Food - Beer episode

4. NZ Craft Beer TV
Kelly and I took to the road in a campervan and visited most of the brewers in New Zealand. 17 days on the road we travelled 4500kms, tasted 222 beers and visited 44 breweries. Getting all of this on film we ultimately work with each brewery to come up with a beer (Mash Up) that represented the taste of craft beer in NZ in 2011.

5. Best IPA in New Zealand
Best IPA in New Zealand for the 3^rd year in a row - Epic Armageddon IPA. Winning Gold and Best in Class trophy at the New Zealand Beer Awards 2011. 

6. Flying Nun 30 Year Ale
What an honour! In the tradition of brewing a beer for their significant anniversaries, the iconic independent record label Flying Nun asked us to make a special brew to celebrate their 30th anniversary. The beer was available during the month of "Nunvember" around the country and at the special gigs held around the country - 30 gigs in 30 days.

7. Champion Media Brew - Beervana
The origination of the much loved Coffee & Fig Stout was at our ePICO brewery. Brewed for the Beervana Media Brew Challenge with Victoria Wells, editor of DISH magazine. We brewed 20 litres of what was originally called Collision. We liked it so much (and after winning the award) we brewed 5000 litres, bottled it in 750ml wine style bottles under the "Epicurean" label and released it just in time for Christmas.

8. Twitter Reaches 10,000 Followers
We stared 2011 with 7300 followers and ended with over 10400. As the first brewery in the world to use Twitter (March 2007) I still today use it as EpicBeer's first means of communicating to the world. If you want to see the latest pictures, what we are brewing, drinking, and thinking, than follow us here to be first to know.

9. NZ's Best Value Beer - Epic Pale Ale
Epic Pale Ale - NZ's Best Value Beer Joel MacFarlane of Brew Nation, come up with a formula to work out what quality of beer you got for what price. It was kind of scientific but ended up showing that for the price you can't bet Epic Pale Ale for the quality and flavour in the bottle (actually 4 pack) 

10. Four Horsemen Collaboration
Four Horsemen of the Hopocalyse – what an amazing collaboration with four of the most hop driven brewers in New Zealand. Joseph Wood from Liberty Brewing, Steve Plowman from Hallertau, Kelly Ryan and myself from Epic. Could you add anymore hops to one beer? 

So looking back at 2011, we created some fantastic new beers, won some more top awards, and did a couple rock star style beer launches (for Hop Zombie and LARGER) across New Zealand & Australia.

Not sure how we are going to top 2011, but we have a few ideas up our sleeves.

Thank you for your wonderful support during the year, and look forward to having a beer with you in 2012.

Happy New Year

Luke Nicholas
Epic Brewing Company 

Collaborative learning

Kelly Ryan spoke with a surprising sense of purpose considering this April evening had just turned into tomorrow in a Chicago hotel room, and lord knows what day it was 8,000 miles away in Auckland, New Zealand, where Epic Thornbridge Stout was still conditioning.

“I think it needs more time in the tank,” Ryan told Luke Nicholas after tasting the beer for the first time since they brewed it in February. He liked what was in his glass, but his experience with brown malt — a key ingredient in the recipe and one Nicholas had not used before — told him it wasn’t time to bottle the beer. Nicholas reassured him that what he was tasting had been bottled weeks before so he could bring some to Chicago. The rest was still maturing.

That’s what’s called collaboration.

The theme for the 39th gathering of the Session today is collaboration — Mario Rubio is this month’s host and will have the recap — and I expect various bloggers to come at it from many directions. Let’s just hope we don’t hear the story of Avery/Russian River Collaboration Not Litigation Ale too many times.

I’ll try to keep it simple. Nicholas is founder and chief bottle washer at Epic Brewing in New Zealand. Ryan, also a native of New Zealand, is brewery manager at the Thornbridge Brewery in England. They met last year when Nicholas was in England and ended up brewing a collaboration that melded, although that might not be the right word, Epic IPA and Thornbridge Halycon.

Since Ryan would be in New Zealand in February for his brother’s wedding they decided to brew another beer, in this case a stout, a style Nicholas had never made. This was also his first experience with brown malt and two English hop varieties, Target and Bambling Cross.

“I woke up excited to go to the brewery,” Ryan said. “(The process) energizes you. A mass of information goes back and forth.”

The resulting beer is plenty stout, 6.8% abv with 54 bittering units, and even at a young age in early April full of textured flavors, smooth but complex. Half the batch has been packaged and hit the market last week. Half is aging in American oak barrels that previously held Epic Armageddon IPA and likely will be released at the end of August.

Both Nicholas and Ryan judged in the World Beer Cup in Chicago in April, and they spent plenty of time together during the following days at the Craft Brewers Conference. Information flowed freely, but not necessarily the way it would formulating a recipe or standing over a mash tun in the brewery. Nicholas calls what happens during brewing collaborations a cross pollination of ideas, and it is breeds better brewing.

Collaborations are good business, good marketing, good fun and often result in interesting beer. They also make for good stories in print and cyberspace for those who haven’t already heard them a thousand times. When they start to seem old remember the stories may be repetitive, the experiences are not.

******

The photo above was taken at CBC. Luke (on the left) is mugging for one camera, Kelly for another, and that object between them is an unlabeled bottle of Epic Thornbridge Stout they are about to open. Clearly a historic moment. You might find pictures documenting the brew day more informative. Details about the beer itself are here.

An ale of two cities - by Joelle Thomson

Featured in the Herald on Sunday, Sunday Savour, 2 May 2010

Kiwi boutique beer brand Epic is going from strength to strength around the world. Its latest creation is a collaboration between New Zealand and Britain

Another Epic year ahead

Epic Beer 2009 Top 10

Recently I came across an old post which listed the top 10 things Epic Beer achieved in 2008. I thought it would be fun to do it again this Christmas eve and highlight the top 10 things of 2009.

2009 was an amazing year, which then begs the question "can 2010 be as Epic"?

So for 2009 here are the achievements/highlights which I would rate as the top 10 for Epic Beer (maybe not exactly this order, but close enough).

1. Traveled to the UK to brew 100,000 pints of Epic Pale Ale at Everards Brewery for the JD Wetherspoons International Real Ale Festival in March. Video footage from the UK & the brewing.

2. Exporting to Australia started in May. As sales started to grow I made a visit to Melbourne to see what all the fuss was about.

3. In April I returned to the UK for the JD Wetherspoons Interntaional Real Ale Festival, and had the privilege of meeting Pete Brown, prior to his Hops & Glory book launch, which lead to the inspiration for the Interislander voyage (see point 5) Anyway back to this point, brewing with Kiwi Brewer, Kelly Ryan at the Thornbridge Brewery and making a special batch of Epic Halcyon. Then Kelly shipped a couple of mini casks to NZ for us to do a special tasting.

4. Bringing back Epic Armageddon IPA, as a seasonal and bottling it for the first time, then winning a Gold & Best in Class trophy for it. Armageddon created a lot of excitement in the NZ craft beer industry this year, hence the extended effort of video to bring in the back story of how it evolved

5. Sea Conditioning of Armageddon IPA, in American oak barrels on the Inter-islander. Six weeks and 126 crossings of the Cook Strait to recreate the ocean voyage from England to India. This beer was then sold for $5.00 for a 100ml tasting at Beervana held in Wellington, end of August.

6.  Launch of the Epic Beer Video Profile produced by Made from New Zealand

7. Bottled Mayhem made a couple of brief appearances in 2009 (February & December) Expect to see more in 2010

8. Change from 6 packs to 4 packs to make Epic more affordable, plus for Christmas making all four Epic Beers available (Family of 4 = Pale Ale, Lager, Mayhem and Armageddon)

9. The Epic Shoe

10. Twitter saw a huge switch in awareness by the online masses in 2009. @epicbeer grew from 500 followers to nearly 4000 in just 12 months. Also @epicbeer is one of the top 10 New Zealand brands using Twitter, and was the first brewery in the world to adopt this new technology to communicate with its fans.

I'd like to thank everyone that has supported, followed, friended, retweeted and bought Epic Beer this year. Without you all Epic wouldn't continue to become available in more and more outlets around New Zealand and Australia, plus I would have an awful lot of beer to drink by myself. Consumer demand wins at the end of the day (go the Naki).

I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas and a prosperous New Year. Hope I get a chance in 2010 to catch up and have a beer with you somewhere on my travels.

Keep drinking the good stuff

Cheers

Luke Nicholas

P.S. Don't forget Santa