Epic Lager

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

Bottle. Bright, clear golden pour with a large fluffy white head that lasts ages and leaves a lot of lace. Nose is both hoppy and malty with notes of citrus, pine, grass and caramel. Flavour is more malty but is otherwise the same as the aroma. Very well balanced with plenty of lively carbonation and a nice dry, bitter finish. One of the best lagers I’ve had in a while.

By far the worst of the epic stable, pours with a fluffy white head but is an unappetising pale yellow colour, soap on the nose and in the flavour with a twist of lemongrass, rather uninspiring for the hefty price tag!

Pours pale golden lemon with a nice white head. Nose is very inviting! Grassy, herbacious and citrussy all at the same time. Nelson Sauvin i assume? Palate translates beautifully, spicy, grassy, herbacious, citrussy with some underlying biscuity, grainy malt playing nothing more than a supporting role. Carbonation and palate weight is bang on, so damn good!

Golden pour with a small, short-lived head. Aromas show a fair bit of NZ hops, with passionfruit, clean sweet malt, some spicy hops. Light, but pleasant. Flavours show some grassy and passionfruit-like hops, slightly grainy and bready malt, and a dry bitter finish. Light body, but the carbonation is on the high side.

330mL bottle enjoyed at Eureka in Dunedin. Pours crystal clear, pale golden. Nice lacing. Nice floral hop aroma, ever so slightly grassy with zesty citrus. Flavours dominated by a great hoppy bitterness, some citrus (grapefruit) and herb notes and even hints of bubblegum. A mildly sweet malt balances. Finishes slightly dry, clean and amazingly refreshing - especially after walking around Dunedin on a hot day!

Possibly a bit funky/vegetal on the initial nosing, then citrus and a whiff of banana. Enduring fluffy white head. First taste was dry with roast barley, coconut rough and golden syrup. Cleansing with a lovely lingering hop character - a twist of bitterness and citrus and the end. Inviting. This beer was described by the brewer as a gateway for New Zealand palettes into the Epic Pale Ale. It uses German/Czech pilsener malt and hops. This beer was brewed out of a brewing philosophy rather than as an outright assault on a tired mainstream market.

I’ve been drinking a bit of this lately after not initially enjoying it and now the time has come to rate. Yellow, frothy, appetising looking. Surprisingly lacking in aroma - just a hint of citrus, and bready malt. The flavour is a lot more impressive. I swear it never used to be this good. Initial blast of interesting spicy hops (I get lemongrass, lime, and ginger) flow slowly to an almost tropical fruit flavour and finally to a lingering and delicate malty sweetness. It’s a beer I can drink in quantity, and it’s gone from being something I’ll drink if there’s nothing else interesting to something I’ll actively seek out when the weather turns warmer.

Looks gorgeous in the glass, yellow golden colour and head shows a lovely persistancy. Classic noble hop nose and toffee malt. Vaguely astringent in the finish