Dry Hopping.  If you don't know what this means, in a nutshell, it's where hops are added to the brew once it's in the fermenter,  like a steeping process. Why do it? It maximises the hop aromas and flavours in your brew. Luke is often asked for tips on how to dry hop beer, and he has a simple rule of thumb to follow: The 5 - 10 - 15 Rule. It's a pretty simple thing to remember, right? This is what it means. If you're making a Pale Ale, add 5 grams of hops per litre. For an IPA,...

The US Hop Harvest is a big deal for us. Luke has the privilege of heading to Yakima in Washington State every year to select hops from the year's harvest. After visiting a bunch of different hop farms, meeting the growers and finding the best crops, Luke will make his selection at YCH Hops in Yakima. We'll be documenting the highlights of this year's trip here, so stay tuned! WHERE IS YAKIMA, ANYWAY? Since I have been writing this blog about Luke's travels in the US, there have been quite a few people asking where Yakima is - and rightly so....

If you haven't already figured out, hops are a really important part of what we do at Epic. We love the flavours that hops give beer, and we put a lot of effort in selecting the right types of hops, as well as how we use them. Luke will be heading to Yakima soon to select our hops from the 2017 US Hop Harvest. Here's a fun fact for you: Epic has used more aroma hops than any other brewery in NZ in the last ten years. I had a chat with Ed Jefferies, Epic Production Manager, on the subject of hops....

We have released some absolutely cracking IPA's so far this year. The feedback has been truly overwhelming. We have decided to use this feedback as inspiration for our latest beer, Static. Static has a double meaning in this case. It refers to the constant noise we receive from fans about our incredible beers, and also static means to stay the same. The same as in making another amazingly hop forward IPA. This beer has been made by taking the best parts of MAGIC DUST and HOP HARVESTER to create another beer that will be a massive hit with fans of...

LUKE NICHOLAS on "Has New Zealand reached 'peak beer'?" Read full Stuff article here. Starting out as an assistant brewing for a new brewpub in Auckland in 1997, the challenge was to get people to drink a beer from other than one of the two big breweries. In 2007, when launching Epic, the challenge was to get a newly bottled craft beer stock on the shelves of supermarkets and liquor stores. In just 10 years, it has gone from desperately trying to convince a retailer that they should stock a craft beer, to all the shelf space being competed for and...