An ale of Epic proportions

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It's a sad fact that one of this country's most highly awarded beers of recent times, Epic Pale Ale, is available from just 250 outlets. Soon, however, that number is set to quadruple to around 1000; but it won't be Kiwis benefiting.

You may remember that my trip to England last November coincided with an international festival of real ales which was being held by the giant British pub chain, JD Wetherspoon. The fortnight-long event saw Wetherspoon's 700-plus pubs feature a huge selection of cask-conditioned ales from craft brewers across the United Kingdom as well as some interesting foreign beers.

While the majority of the overseas beers were imported for the festival, a handful including beers from California, Denmark, Japan and Australia were specially brewed at English breweries.

The next Wetherspoon's International Real Ale Festival is scheduled to begin in mid-April and the good news is a New Zealand beer will be featured. Auckland brewer Luke Nicholas has been invited to travel to England, where he will be brewing a cask-conditioned, real ale version of his multi-award-winning Epic Pale Ale.

Over two days Nicholas will brew 55,000 litres of Epic, in five batches, at Everards Brewery in Leicestershire.

Choosing the right brewery for the job was critical; as Nicholas points out, the recipe for Epic requires around 3000 per cent more hops than a conventional kiwi beer and Everards is one a few UK breweries whose brewkettle can cope with such a massive addition of the aromatic green cones.

Another plus for Everards is its yeast. Epic is brewed with a cocktail of aromatic American hops from Washington state and Oregon and the beer bursts with their signature resiny fruitiness. The Everards house yeast is comparatively neutral by English ale yeast standards and therefore shouldn't impart much in the way of fruity esters that could clash with the fruitiness of those distinctive American varieties.

For those who haven't tried Epic Pale Ale, shame on you! The supreme champion beer at the New Zealand International Beer awards in 2007 and frequent best-in-class winner at BrewNZ is, for my money, this country's finest and most authentic interpretation of the fragrant American West Coast style.

According to Nicholas, Epic's customers are, "People that are looking for flavour in beer; they're not looking for something that's cold and fizzy".

He's right, and I reckon that description sums up English real ale drinkers down to the ground. My guess is the UK version of Epic will be a huge hit. It's just a pity I probably won't get the chance to taste it. Cheers!

- The Marlborough Express