Epic Pale Ale

Brewed by Epic Brewing Company
Style: American Pale Ale
Auckland, New Zealand

Light amber color. Very fragerant nose of peaches and apples with a solid caramel malt profile. Beautifully balaned with malty front to the mouth and then hops tickling the back of the throat. Moderately bitter finish. Well done.

Pours copper with a nice white head. Smells of perfume, pine resin, earth, some dry malt. Tastes of citrus, pepper, some spice. Mouthfeel is prickly. Finish is bitter.

Bottle, a clear and bright orange-amber, quite a bit of carbonation and a thin bubbly head. Whoa - a very hoppy aroma that just oozes dryness. Very dry and bitter, and so many different fruit flavours battling away on palate from all those different hops. Though you can still detect the malt background, which is softly caramal. The finish is very long and bitter. Very American, and very good. Even better on tap - which I highly recommend - the malt comes out much more and even has come chocolate character.

Pours a pale gold with a sustained white head. Aroma features a complex mix of lychees, a touch of gooseberry, an un defined tropical fruit note, tropic Just Juice? . On the palate there is lots of tropical fruit, a slight salty note, some sweet malt a slightly hollow finish that seems to be neither bitter nor sweet. Fantastic aroma, a little unbalanced on the palate.

Sampled on Flashy’s tour of LA, New Zealand and Hong Kong of September/October 2007 - I tried this one in Auckland and it’s a little hidden gem. It’s just a shame I couldn’t get it elsewhere in NZ. Very bitter and hoppy, tasting like a top-notch American Pale Ale. Lovely.

re-re-rated...oh thank god several good ones! Re-rated 31/10 after quite a few ’bad-uns’ i thought i’d get a really fresh bottle and give this a good re-rating....great nose! aroma is everything i’d want from this style of beer it’s a pity that the great citrus aromas don’t follow through to the flavour as much as they could, seems to suffer from a thin salty body that perhaps can’t support the hop flavours, the finish is bitter and slightly acrid/metallic. All in all a beer that smells great and looks great but isn’t supported by great flavours. Gotta say when i first read about this beer i thought...yeah yeah another brewer talking up the usual weasel piss they produce....wow was i wrong! I love it when things live up to the hype! Great beer, loads of flavour...malt, hops the lot with a great nose.

A firm sharp hoppy beer, very quenching, and a great introduction to flavourful beers to those in this country who may think all we have to offer are crappy "draught" brown lagers. The hop character from the aroma is very "in your face", and sells the fruity, intense flavours to come. A great beer from a great brewer.

HOPS!!! The label on this beer promises them, and it delivers them by the bucketload. Oodles of bitterness but backed up by a fruity undercurrent. Very refreshing and cleansing. Would be interesting to try this with rich foods.