Did you know? - EPIC Won 33% of Golds Awarded

Did you know that Epic Brewing Company won a third of all the Gold Medals awarded at the BrewNZ competition in Wellington (08/09/2006).

Epic Pale Ale - Epic Brewing Company - Gold & Best in Class - Pale Ale
Mayhem - Epic Brewing Company - Gold & Best in Class - Festive Brew

Other Gold Medal Winners
Samuel Adams Double Bock - Boston Beer Company - Gold - Strong Beers
Limburg Oude Reserve - Limburg Beer Company - Gold & Best in Class - Strong Beers
Emerson's Taieri George - Emerson's Brewery - Gold & Best in Class - Flavoured Beers
Canterbury Draught - Canterbury Breweries - Gold & Best in Class - NZ Draught

There were only 6 Gold meadals awarded, in 14 Classes, with nearly 200 beers entered.

More MAYHEM

Since winning Gold, and Best in Class for the Festive Brew at the 2006 BrewNZ competition, we have had a heap of calls and emails from people trying to find out where they can find and try MAYHEM. Below are locations and oppotunites for people give MAYHEM a try.

Wellington - MAYHEM is on tap for a very limited time at The Malthouse, 47 Willis Street.

Hamilton - MAYHEM will be included in the line up of beers for the Hamilton Wine Company, Beer Club monthly tasting at Diggers on Wednesday 4th October, 5pm. All welcome. $10

Rotorua - MAYHEM will be included at the monthly tasting at The Pheasent Plucker, Arawa Street on Thursday 5th October, 5pm. $10

Auckland - MAYHEM - there will be a special tasting evening at Cock & Bull Newmarket. (date to be anounnced shortly) The last keg in stock (was intended for the brewers to drink at the brewery) will be placed on the bar for the evening, or as long as it lasts.

EPIC Pale Ale - Now at Glengarry

The Glengarry stores now have Epic Pale Ale in stock.

List of store locations

Beer awards handed out

Our beer has once again received the thumbs up from a world expert in the subject.

Dave Logsdon from the United States was a special guest judge at the 2006 BrewNZ beer awards, which have just been decided.

Logsdon liked what he tasted: "The quality and diversity of the beers entered in this year's awards was outstanding. I continue to be impressed at the way New Zealand beer is developing. New Zealanders are making world class beer, no doubt about it, and that is great for consumers."

The results of the 2006 BrewNZ New Zealand Beer Awards were formally posted this morning. A panel of ten expert judges spent three days evaluating more than 170 beers from across New Zealand and around the world. The judges studied a record number of entries across fourteen diverse classes.

The final category judged was the Festive Brew. This demanding category requires brewers to make a beer specially for the awards. This year the theme was "All Hail Pale Ale" and the winner was the Epic Brewing Company with their beer called simply "Mayhem".

Mayhem took out the Best in Class Trophy as well as a Gold medal.

Epic Head Brewer Luke Nicholas joked about his beer, "we have set out to wilfully maim and cripple the palates of the most extreme hop head. This act of wanton destruction is in the true spirit of what festive brews are about, to create something unique and fun".

Epic Brewing also won another of the 14 classes with its Epic Pale Ale which picked up Best in Class and a Gold medal. Epic is run by the same company who own successful restaurant chain the Cock & Bull.

Full Awards Results
Article From NZ Herald

Mayhem at Brew NZ

MAYHEM was the word at this year’s Brew NZ.

On the positive side, the Epic Brewing Company’s Mayhem pale ale was named the best Festive Brew (produced specially for Brew NZ) at the NZ Beer Awards.

This was a delicious ale, with an aroma of ganja and a resiny flavour. Smooth and tasty, it is a worthy mate of Epic’s standard pale ale, which was Supreme Champion of this year’s NZ International Beer Awards .

But not all the mayhem was positive.

A pint of festive brew (not the advertised one, but "Publicans Pale Ale") served at Bodega tasted a little like a sweet wheat beer – it seems the keg had been changed but the lines were not flushed out, and there were two types of beer in the glass. Not a great look for a beer festival. (The wheat beer in question, Tuatara’s Heffe, won at silver medal at the Beer Awards.)

The Renaissance Marlborough Pale Ale, saved the day somewhat, with huge grassy and resiny hop characters making it interesting

More mayhem ensued as bars on the Brew NZ list failed to have the Festive Brews promised. On Thursday, Bodega was down one advertised brew, the Matterhorn didn’t have theirs, the Tasting Room (twice) didn’t have theirs, and the Mac’s brewery bar wanted to charge for a sample.

If I was a tourist coming to Wellington for the beer festival, I’d be livid.

I hope such tourists found Shed 5, where a tasty Limburg India Pale Ale was on offer. Or Scopa, which was full of people drinking pints of Emerson’s "Anniversary" 1812 IPA, a sure sign they had enjoyed the free sample.

The "Anniversary" 1812 was aged in oak casks, and to see many people trying such an innovative beer – even in a wine bar – was to see what Brew NZ is all about.

But the fest best was The Malthouse. It had samples of Stuntman Imperial India Pale Ale, the beer mysteriously unavailable at the Matterhorn. And it had Epic Mayhem, the best Festive Brew. Plus it offered samples of a selection of other boutique beer that had not been advertised.

There were happy patrons sipping samples and buying pints, and beer was the winner on the day. Cheers.

Aaron Watson - Capital Times

For all the medals the NZ Beer Awards, see www.brewnz.co.nz

MAYHEM

Each year, one style of beer is highlighted during BrewNZ. This year, brewers have been tasked with the challenge of creating a 'Festive Brew' around the tastes and characteristics particular to Pale Ales. Each 'BrewHQ' bar will be featuring at least one of these Festive Brews for consumers to taste for the first time.

At Epic we decided to add a few more hops to a brew then we normally do with Epic Pale Ale. This brew we call Mayhem.

Notes about Mayhem as supplied to BrewNZ.

"We have set out to wilfully maim and cripple the palates of the most extreme hop head. This act of wanton destruction is in the true spirit of what festive brews are about, to create something unique and fun.

It is our intent to create a violent and needless disturbance in your olfactory senses. The riotous confusion, from the unnatural amounts of dry hopping, will leave your palate satisfyingly violated after having just one taste.

Only the brave can be assured to tame this hop insanity."

5.5% alc/vol

Mayhem is on tap at the Malthouse 7th - 9th September 2006