Epic Copper Cone Pale Ale

Brewed by Epic Brewing Co.
Style: American Pale Ale
Salt Lake City, Utah USA

Serve in Lager glass, Shaker

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A solid pour, though not overly aggressive, into my New Belgium Globe glass produces a billowing, four-finger-thick, pale tan colored head. The head leaves some wispy, layered lacing patterns on the sides of my glass as it slowly subsides. The beer is a rich amber color that shows some copper notes around the edges; when held up to the light the beer shows a lightly hazed, pale red hued, dark copper color. The aroma is very, very, nicely hoppy; aromatic notes of fruity flower nectar, candied bergamot, ample lychee, super-fruity tangelo notes, bright-concentrated peach and interesting tropical fruit notes. Just behind the juicy fruitiness lurks the more herbal hop notes, there is a light, hemp-like dank quality to the nose that mixes in with some pine-sap aromatics and a herbaceous, raw hop character that lightly peppers the finish. A very, very nice aroma, any hop love will really enjoy the nose of this overtly hop aromatic brew.

Pretty light bodied, actually a bit lighter than I perhaps expected because the aroma was so rich with sweet hop notes, but it is perfectly in line with this being in the alcohol range of an IPA; the hop and alcohol certainly indicate a lot more than the Pale Ale this beer is labeled as. The bitterness is quite present, but incredibly smooth and integrated; despite all the hop character here this does not have any astringency to it, which keeps this even more drinkable. Holy crap, this is 8.5% alcohol, it hides it quite well, though there is a hint of alcohol warming in the finish. The hop fruit flavors lead the way in this beer, though they are not quite as concentrated or loud as they appear to be in the flavor; flavors of lychee, apricot and floral peach lead the way with a strong backbone of tangelo and super fruity citrus notes almost here in equal amounts. There is just enough herbal, dank hop character to provide an anchor (the bitterness also contributes to the balance) to the up front hop-fruit character. This is very quaffable, dangerously so given the alcohol, but it does have enough viscosity and malt character to carry the ample hop notes.

I was expecting this to be sweet, thick and not at all the type of IPA that I prefer, and I have no idea why, but this is straight up, West-Coast mold, stretching the line between IPA or Double IPA, type beer. Despite how hopped up this beer is, the recipe could certainly take on a few more hops. This will certainly be very enjoyable to the hop heads out there, but the hop-whore in me craves a bit more; more dank, more fruit and more over the top hop levels. Ok, having complained, I need to say that I am really, really enjoying this beer. This is definitely scratching that hop itch. I am now even more excited to try the Hopulent.

Love the copper color. Nice and cloudy with a rich head. Perfectly unfiltered, you see the grain swimming around after a good pour. Exceptional pale ale! ---Rated via Beer Buddy for iPhone

Bottle. Nose is sweet with citrus and pine notes. Cloudy orange-brown with a thick white head. Clean and smooth, mild bitterness and lots of sweet fruit notes. Full bodied with a touch of drying bitterness in the finish.

Release 19. Pours a rich hazy copper color. Not much here on the aroma. I was really looking forward to this beer, but in my opinion it lacks body. Hops pack a punch, but not necessarily in a good way. Bitterness packs a real punch at the end.

Bomber from Brewforia. Release #11. Pours hazy copper with a creamy near-white head. Aromas of resin and light cat pee over a roast caramel backbone. Near full bodied. Flavor is lots of hop - mostly resin - with some citrus and floral. Perhaps batch 11 is long in the tooth, because this is not "fresh and lush". But it’s hoppy and tasty. Very hoppy compared to many pale ales.

Bottle: The aroma consists of light-moderate caramel, light fruit, and light grassy and piney hops. It pours a slightly hazy reddish-orange with a three finger creamy off-white very good retention. There’s a good amount of sticky lacing that clings to the glass. The flavor starts with light-moderate caramel with a touch of fruit. The finish has a light-moderate hop mixture of pine, grass, and grapefruit. It’s medium bodied with mild carbonation and a somewhat soft mouthfeel. Overall, it’s a solid Pale Ale and it drinks much more sessionable than the 6.8% abv would imply. I have to disagree with the commercial description as I don’t see what makes this an "over the top" Pale Ale other than the higher abv.

Bottle from a trade with Gription79. Release #19, 6.2% ABV. Pours hazy copper color with huge off white head. Biscuit and caramel aroma with some floral hops. Grassy and pine hop flavor with some caramel. Moderate bitterness. Medium body with average carbonation. A nice pale ale. Thanks Dallas.

Pours a cloudy amber/orange. Aromas of caramel, malt, light hops, bready and a sort of funk. Initial taste is smooth, slightly creamy. Has a nice malt backbone with slight hop bitterness towards the end. Slightly grass, resiny and a tad oily. Kind of a one sided flavor. Not too complex. But still has a very nice, quality flavor. Mouthfeel is super oily. Overall this is a pretty solid brew. It?s worth a try....

This is an aggressively hopped pale ale. Piney nose with slightly sweet but piney bitter taste. I feel this is more consistent with an IPA then a pale ale. ---Rated via Beer Buddy for iPhone

Cask version at Winking Lizard’s 4th Annual Real Ale Fest (03/24/12): The beer is a cloudy copper color with a thin off-white head that dissipates quickly. Spotty lacing on the glass. Aroma of caramel malt and hops. Medium body with flavors of floral hops, sweet malt and caramel. The finish is resiny hops up front with a malty aftertaste. Above average overall.

In short: A bland semi-hoppy ale where everything feel muted and tired. Bland.
How: Bottle 22oz, Release #11, consumed fresh a few weeks after receiving it from TURDFERGUSON, thanks a lot Sam
The look: Cloudy amber-copper body topped by a small beige head
In long: Nose is dank hops, wet basement. Taste has a crunchy sugary malts, candied apples, dry crunchy caramel, oily wheat, canned fruits. Hops taste tired and don’t provide much punch in the finish. At first I thought Sam dumped an old bottle on me and I wanted to kill him, but checking at the release number it seems that release #11 was super-fresh when I drank the bottle dec 2011. Crap, now I don’t have a good reason to kill Sam, that sucks. I cannot comment about previous batches but I drank a fresh bottle of Release #11 and it was pretty lame, I hope for them it was just a bad batch. If this wasn’t a bad batch then I really don’t understand why this beer is getting good reviews from most people. I hate people who gave this beer a good rating, and don’t judge me too harshly, hating people with a different taste in beer is a perfectly natural thing, I don’t take any medication or artificial supplement for it to happen.