Introducing BeerViking TV – Epic Pale Ale vs. Thornbridge Kipling South Pacific Pale Ale

Doc D — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 19:35:06 +0000

The plan
It was simple enough – take two interesting beers to the beach, taste them, compare them, BrewRank the beers and video it. Oh yeah, we also needed to pick a winner.

The setting
We had post card perfect day and beach side location. Brighton beach (in Sussex, UK) on a sunny, clear and very warm day (temperature was around 25C/78F)… If it weren’t for the pier and the shingles (should really call them rocks) on the beach we could have even been in the actual South Pacific. It was a Monday or maybe a Tuesday. The beach was pretty empty. Although there was a guy paddling his surf board and a few tasty bikinis around, but that’s not important. What matters is the beer.

We had chosen well. It was the Epic Pale Ale vs. the Kipling South Pacific Pale Ale. This seemed to a fitting pairing. Two unique beers. One brewed in New Zealand with lots of hops (Cascade? – I am sure we could find out on the excellent Epic website but we’re lazy) and the other brewed in the UK using Kiwi Hops and by a Kiwi-Italian brewing duo… Crazy. Had to be good.

Tasting Notes (abridged)
Ummm, need to re-watch the original video… [UPDATE to follow]

The Video (Beastie Boys mix): Filmed on Brighton beach in Sussex. This is the 1st in a possible series of beer taste-offs planned. Two great craft beers with lots of hops and unique tast – one from the UK and one from New Zealand but with crossed paths in the global world of craft beer. Backing track is Beastie Boys / Now Get Busy from the Wired CD (Creative Commons license). Enjoy!

The Winner
Epic won by just a tad. More bold. Epic scored 16 and Kipling scored 15.5 (out of 20). Both BeerVikings agreed on scoring and the winner (this time).

Verdict on the Flip Mino?
Well, the Flip is easy to use. Not sure about the camera work and the sound. Need to skill up on doing videos and editing software. Fun. Easy. This is just the beginning of Beer Viking TV.

Epic Beer – A Twitter Driven Tasting in London

Doc D — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 22:10:28 +0000

We had the pleasure of running into Luke the brewer of Epic Pale Ale from New Zealand thanks to Twitter. Thanks to Twitter – that’s a whole other ‘power of social media’ post one day – we managed to track him down at the Market Porter next to Borough Market. He’s been over in the UK brewing a guest ale for the upcoming JD Wetherspoon beer festival next month. Being a friendly kiwi he immediately gave a bottle of Epic Pale Ale to take home to try. This beer is not available anywhere in the UK – yet. He also let slip he’d be back at The Rake for small tasting the next day.

Of course the next day we headed out on a small raid of the Rake in the hopes we’d get to try Epic with the brew master. Lady luck was on our side and we got to try two Epic’s – the Pale Ale and season brew the Mayhem. Here’s a brief review and ranking of both…

“the facts”	Epic Pale Ale	Epic Mayhem
Style	pale ale	IPA’-esk
ABV	5.4%	6.2%
Bottle Size	330ml	500ml
Origin	Auckland, New Zealand	Auckland, New Zealand
Notes	arrived by way of Luke’s luggage on Air New Zealand.	Sweeter than a normal IPA but very apple-hop tones.

“the ranking”	0-5 for each	0-5 for each
Nose	3	4
Appearance	4.5	5
Taste	3.5	4
Finish	3	4
Total	14/20	17/20

We are looking forward to the Epic UK mashup brew at the Weatherspoons festival and also to following more adventures of @epicbeer on Twitter. Be sure to visit the Epic website and blog for more info on these great beer from New Zealand.

Beer Viking » Kiwi

Introducing BeerViking TV – Epic Pale Ale vs. Thornbridge Kipling South Pacific Pale Ale

Epic Beer – A Twitter Driven Tasting in London