Epic Beer

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

By the time Pete and Melissa finally arrive in Wellington in mid-August, they'll have crossed Cook Strait about 120 times!

Since boarding the inter-island ferry Aratere on July 9, the pair have crossed the strait three times a day without a break. But Pete and Melissa aren't a couple of fame-seeking tourists trying to get themselves into the record books they're two wooden barrels of beer.

The plan was hatched by two beer-loving Kiwis Colin Mallon, manager of Wellington specialist beer bar The Malthouse, and Luke Nicholas, owner and brewer of Epic beer after a recent beer-hunting trip around the UK. In their travels, Colin and Luke visited several famous British breweries and met up with beer writers including Pete Brown and Melissa Cole. Hence Pete and Melissa!

Putting the two casks of beer aboard the inter-island ferry is Colin and Luke's attempt to recreate beer's most famous voyage. In the 1880s, strong, hoppy pale ales from Burton-on-Trent in England took about six weeks on tall ships to reach thirsty customers in India. That beer became known as India Pale Ale, or IPA.

British writer Pete Brown recently retraced the long journey that helped create the iconic beer style and subsequently chronicled his adventures in a book, Hops and Glory: One Man's Search for the Beer that Built the British Empire.

Returning to New Zealand with copies of the book, Colin and Luke were fascinated to read how IPA was brewed with extra hops and stronger than ordinary beer to withstand the rigours of the long sea journey across the tropics.

Hops were first employed as a natural preservative in brewing and the extra amount used in IPA, in conjunction with the beer's increased alcoholic strength, slowed the oxidisation process and prevented souring.

The beer maturing inside Pete and Melissa is Epic's latest seasonal brew, Armageddon IPA.

"I sourced two 20-litre new oak barrels and filled them with fresh Armageddon," explains Luke.

"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 Ales benefited from the conditioning they received during their sea voyages."

So what will the beer taste like? Given the small size of the wooden barrels and the fact that they're brand new, I anticipate the beer will pick up a huge amount of vanillin and tannin and I wouldn't be surprised if it requires blending with unwooded beer to soften the effect.

A ceremonial tapping of Pete and Melissa will be held at this year's Beervana, a series of public beer tastings being held in Wellington on August 28 and 29. Tickets are available now (at www.beervana.co.nz), so why not head to Wellington and sample the world's first I-IPA ("Inter-Island Pale Ale") for yourself?

Cheers!

Full Story

This series of videos explains the story behind the origins of Epic Armageddon I.P.A., The West Coast IPA Challenge, the reasons for putting Epic Armageddon I.P.A. into oak barrels, naming them Pete & Melissa before putting them onto the Interislander for a six week ocean voyage between the North & South Island of New Zealand (actually it is multiple sailings between the two islands three or four times a day) and then making the beer available to taste at Beervana, Wellington Town Hall, 28th & 29th August.

Epic Adventure Part 8 - Made From New Zealand
Introduction about Luke brewing in the UK for JD Wetherspoons Real Ale Festival, then brewing some Epic Halcyon at Thornbridge Brewery (UK), using two New Zealand brewers - Luke Nicholas and Kelly Ryan, plus some New Zealand hops and New Zealand water. Then two 5 litre mini kegs are shipped from the UK for tasting by an exclusive group in Wellington, and we see the unpacking of the keg.

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 10 - Made From New Zealand
Luke talks to Stephen Plowman from Hallertau BrewBar, about the origins of the West Coast IPA Challenge, a trip to California in April 2008, inspired by some crazy hoppy beers, brewing for the 2nd Annual West Coast IPA Challenge, and unleashing of some pain on the beer drinking public.

Epic Adventure Part 11 - Made From New Zealand
Luke talks to Neil "Haiku" Miller about the naming of Armageddon, Pete Brown's book Hops & Glory (again), the second coming of Armageddon and a reference to the impish brewer.

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.

Does My Bum Look Big in this Barrel? by Melissa Cole

To set the scene for you, a couple of months ago Luke Nicholas from Epic brewery was over here brewing for Wetherspoon's and I met up with him and his mate Colin Mallon (a Scotsman who runs a great-sounding pub called the Malthouse ) had some beers, a bite to eat and an all-round good laugh.

They went back to New Zealand, we did the Facebook thing to stay in contact and I didn't think much more about it - until a tagged photo of a barrel appeared with my name on it on Colin's page, which I found a little odd/slightly insulting!

Basically, inspired by Pete Brown's new book Hops & Glory (which I've mentioned previously), Luke & Colin cooked up the idea to put two wooden casks of beer onto the New Zealand Interislander Ferry for six weeks to see what effect it has - the decided that the barrels should be named after Pete and myself, which is sweet... I think!

from the blog Taking the beard out of beer! - A Girl's Guide to Beer

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Whatcha gonna do, Brother?

Whatcha gonna do, brother, when the hoppiest beers in the country run wild on you?

The Second Annual West Coast IPA Challenge: Battle of Champions has rightly been likened to a huge title bout with two cocky contenders out to win the spoils of victory and, perhaps more importantly, bragging rights over the other for a whole year.

This year, the Challenge kicks off on July 17 at Malthouse with Hallertau’s specially brewed Maximus Humulus Lupulus squaring off on tap against Epic’s brilliantly named Armageddon.

from The Malthouse blog

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An these have been re-blogged here The Epic Journey Has Begun

Whatcha gonna do, brother, when the hoppiest beers in the country run wild on you?

The Second Annual West Coast IPA Challenge: Battle of Champions has rightly been likened to a huge title bout with two cocky contenders out to win the spoils of victory and, perhaps more importantly, bragging rights over the other for a whole year.

This year, the Challenge kicks off on July 17 at Malthouse with Hallertau’s specially brewed Maximus Humulus Lupulus squaring off on tap against Epic’s brilliantly named Armageddon. A few lucky Malthouse patrons had a sneak peak at both the brewers and tank samples of their respective brews at the very limited Epic Halcyon tasting. Halcyon was the real ale Luke Nichols made in England for a huge beer festival. Only ten litres ever made it to New Zealand and they did not last very long.

This event was, if you like, the weigh-in and the early favourite would have to be Hallertau. However, Maximus has been in the tank two weeks longer than the Armageddon so the actual showdown will be a lot closer and a heap tastier.

There was even a bit of a media scrum with some guys shooting footage of Luke and Steve Plowman (Hallertau head brewer and general bearded good guy) talking about pale ales and their contest. They worked for “YouTube” apparently so that footage is currently being edited. Luke will undoubtedly twitter and blog the appropriate link the second it is available provided he has stopped ranting about Wilson Parking. This blog will probably mention the final video some weeks later. We just work at different speeds.

So there was the media, there was the weigh-in and, wisely, both brewers declined to impersonate classic professional wrestlers in order to promote the Challenge. But if they had, it might have gone something like this:

The Nature Boy Steve Plowman: “Imp, let me tell you something. I’ve spent my entire career seeing off punks like you. Women want to be with me, men want to be me. I’m a limousine-riding, jet flying, kiss stealing, wheeling-dealing, porter noir drinking son of a gun. Woooo! My shirt costs more than your entire house. A word of advice slick, stand up when you talk to me… if you want to be the man, you have to beat the man.

You’ve got to climb Space Mountain! Wooo!

He then strutted around the room, emitted another “wooo” and then flopped face first into a table. (That final move is now trademarked by Mathieu Basteraud.)

The Imp: “Finally, The Imp has come back to the Malthouse! The Imp has taken time out of his busy Hollywood schedule to address the Nature Jabroni. His brewery is located outside of Auckland on the corners of Know Your Role Avenue and Shut Your Mouth Boulevard. You cannot challenge The Imp. How many IBU’s does your beer have? It doesn’t matter how many IBUs your beer has! The Imp will layeth the smack down on your roody poo candy ass. If you smell what The Imp is cooking!”

I’m delighted to report that both their nicknames appear to be sticking.

The hype for the Challenge already exceeds Tua vs Cameron and the end result is likely to be a lot more satisfying too. Head down to the Malthouse and, from 17 July, try the contenders and let the staff know which you think is the undisputed champion.

Remarkably, the West Coast Challenge is not the only major pale ale related story for July. Pete Brown, favoured beer author of the Handsome and Softly Spoken Scotsman, has just published a rather excellent book– Hops and Glory. He takes a cask of pale ale from Britain to India by ship, retracing the long journey which helped create this marvellous style of beer. He even graphically demonstrates some of the pitfalls of transporting beer in warm climes by having a 20-litre cask explode in a rented house. Apparently you never realise how much beer is 20 litres until you are on your hands and knees sopping it out of the carpet.

Anyway, over a quiet pint of Epic one evening, the Handsome and Softly Spoken Scotsman had the crazy idea of recreating Pete’s recreation right here in New Zealand. He asked the Impish brewer to procure some wooden barrels and fill them with Armageddon. The Impish brewer immediately agreed. He asked the Interislander ferry if the barrels could go on their ship for up to six weeks. The Interislander people immediately agreed.

The new oak barrels, called Pete (for obvious reasons) and Melissa (after beer writer Melissa Cole) will experience changes in temperature and constant movement. Tapping them and finding out what effect the voyage has had will be a little bit of history and it will undoubtedly be at Malthouse – the home of beer in Wellington.

“So whatcha going to do, brothers, when the hoppiest beers in the country run wild on you?”

Cheers

Beer Writer
Real Beer New Zealand
Beer and Brewer Magazine

Links

Epic – http://www.epicbeer.com/
Impish Brewer – http://imp.epicbeer.com/
Hallertau – http://www.hallertau.co.nz/
Steve Plowman – http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3126/2598667299_a1de94c9aa.jpg?v=0
Pete Brown – http://petebrown.blogspot.com/
Hops and Glory –

Melissa Cole - http://girlsguidetobeer.blogspot.com/
Malthouse Facebook Group - http://www.facebook.com/pages/Wellington/Malthouse/7084276173
Real Beer – http://www.realbeer.co.nz/blog/blog.html
Beer and Brewer Magazine - http://www.beerandbrewer.com/