You do meet some choice people, in a job like mine. (You meet some intolerable ones, too, but I prefer not to write about them, here.)

Three people wandered into our pub the day before Beervana, and when I commented on the Mussel Inn shirt one of them was wearing, it turned out that they all actually worked there. Coincidentally, we’d just taken delivery of a few cases each of three of their beers, so I had to show them the write-up I’d done to introduce them in the Book. (I also like how it makes for a nice example of how my writing style gets quite a bit more ‘loose’ as the small hours creep on and the feeling of “I should really finish this” creeps in.)

Golden Bay’s legendary Mussel Inn has been brewing and serving craft beer forever. Or at least since very shortly after time itself began — if there is a God, and if he rested on the seventh day, he was probably there, enjoying a well-earned pint. If they’re at all able, beer geeks should all make pilgrimage at least once in their lives[…].

They were chuffed, and we had a good old-fashioned geek-out for a while, and the next day at the beer festival, they brought over a little swag-bag of unlabelled bottles — a few beers that aren’t usually available other than at the pub itself. Bloody lovely of them. The beer, itself, was lovely and straightforward. The name comes from a nice little joke that a whale is a big body and a long tail, and the beer does live up to it.

Verbatim: Mussel Inn ‘Pale Whale Ale’ 7/9/10, gift from Mussel Inn people @ Beervana, after we met at my pub and they saw my write-up. 500ml shared with Neil. 6%. Hazy light apricotty brown. Slightly sweet + muted-fruity nose. Body is decently big + smooth. Quite a good length on the flavour; “big body, long tail” = whale, they say. Cute. Not perfect, maybe a rough travel, but very tasty. Must visit…

I’ve said some nasty things about Epic in the past, so in credit-where-due spirit, Mayhem is awesome. It’s one of a few variant editions of the Epic Pale, and addresses all of that beer’s shortcomings nicely. It’s vastly maltier and ‘beerier’ in the body (and a bit boozier too, as a result) and is thereby much better balanced. But it’s still astonishingly hoppy and aromatic, with New Zealand-developed Riwaka hops in there alongside the usual American Cascade — so the big hop notes aren’t just striking in one place like they do in the Pale. To re-purpose Epic’s particularly-stupid marketing phrase, this really Just Tastes Bigger, in all directions, and is vastly better for it. But more importantly than merely being “better” than the Pale Ale, this is, on its own merits, bloody lovely.

Afterthoughts, February 2011: I remember liking liking this, if you follow what I mean. I really grumped about the Pale Ale, partially because it was so absurdly popular — hailed as the best-ever by any number of otherwise-plausible people, when I thought the most you could say in its favour was that it was a well-made example of that intentionally off-kilter hop-nonsensed sort of beer. Stunt beer. Boy racer beer, as my colleague Ben used to say. It wasn’t badly made, it was just boringly flashy and it mystified me that so many people had it as their standby everday ‘session’ beer. I like those beers sometimes, but worried about how, if you drank it all the time, your tastebuds must resemble an apocalyptic wasteland — and whether that was the cause of the Epic-sessioning, or its effect.

In fairness, Epic Pale has massively improved. There was one horror-batch as the malt in the recipe was changed around in Luke’s absence, but after that things stabilised nicely and the beer became considerably more drinkable, I thought. If anything, now the real irony is that Tuatara’s APA — designed fairly shamelessly as a bandwagoning local-sales-stealer — is just that bit better yet; it’s certainly less one-note and more balanced. Epic Pale was necessary to push people in this hoppy direction, but is now in danger of watching its students become its master, perhaps.

Verbatim: Epic Mayhem 19/2/09 380ml 6.5% $9 @ Malty. After nasty words about the Pale, this is great. Much maltier underneath and with the passionfruity Riwaka hop alongside the US Cascade. So deeper and wider. Actually balanced, still remarkably hoppy. Altogether very good.