6 October 2017 And they're off! 3 October 2017 Look what's back!

When two greats come together, inevitably you end up with something even greater.  Malt and hops. Pizza and beer. Bacon and eggs. Peas and corn. Ninjas and Turtles. David Cryer and Luke Nicholas. The beer that we'll be launching for the 2017 Brewers Guild Beer Awards is the super-charged tasty brain-child of two legends of New Zealand's craft beer industry. I had the pleasure of interviewing David Cryer of Cryermalt and Luke about this beer to get an idea of what we can expect from this beer -  the result of a union of expertise and passion for things that...

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....