{"id":2786,"date":"2011-05-12T00:01:10","date_gmt":"2011-05-11T12:01:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/?p=2786"},"modified":"2012-06-06T17:58:07","modified_gmt":"2012-06-06T05:58:07","slug":"epic-hop-zombie-iipa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/2011\/05\/12\/epic-hop-zombie-iipa\/","title":{"rendered":"Epic ‘Hop Zombie’ IIPA"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Epic<\/a>
Epic 'Hop Zombie'<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

This must be the most-launched beer in recent memory. There was a first<\/em> launch at Pomeroy’s in Christchurch, and then another<\/em> at the Malthouse in Wellington (occasionally referred to as the “North Island launch”, in a weirdly straw-clutchy way). A week later, during Good Beer Week<\/a> in Melbourne, at the delightful Cookie (a former occasional haunt of mine), there was an erroneously-billed “world premiere”<\/a>, at which the beer itself was accidentally referred to by its in-house project codename: “One Trick Pony”. Then, back in the Little Country there were release parties in Auckland and Hamilton — a full calendar month<\/em> after its\u00a0first<\/em> “first appearance”.<\/p>\n

That’s not really a criticism; it’s more (or at least also<\/em>)\u00a0a nod to the tireless promotional efforts and getting-among-the-people that the Epic boys are willing to do. And they always throw a good party (as much as Luke may wind up inevitably whinging for more head-bang-worthy music), and manage to grab headlines without any manipulative or deceptive bullshit1<\/sup> — as I said when I was rambling about beer and marketing<\/a>, a certain amount of brashness and swagger may be their m.o.<\/em>, but it’s unquestionably authentic and genuine. Unlike, you know, some people<\/em>. And that, I think,\u00a0counts for a whole bunch<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Malthouse couldn’t match Cookie’s astonishing record of a keg emptied in 40 minutes — one pint every twenty-four seconds<\/em>, on average; that’s pretty-much just a tap left open, with glassware conveyoring along beneath it — but we blammed through four-and-a-bit kegs on the night and four more over the next five days. That’s 400 litres in a touch under a week. Which translates (for those not in the business \/ lacking a head for numbers \/ both) as rather a lot. Epic’s devotees are always eagerly awaiting a new release (or even just the return of a seasonal), and this one was pitched cleverly enough that it seemed to lure a whole heap<\/em> of other people in, too. Masses of them obviously liked it, and in the gap between it running out and its any-day-now reappearance,2<\/sup> it’s probably been our most-asked-after absent beer (with Yeastie Boys ‘Rex Attitude’<\/a> in second place, I’d guess).<\/p>\n

Most of us were expecting a straightforwardly embiggened ‘Armageddon’ — especially after the product codename somehow made its way out of the brewery. I think One Trick Pony is a fucking excellent<\/em> name for a big-hoppy-something from Epic, though I perhaps have a conflict of interest, here: I’ve personally levelled that phrase at them in the past and<\/em> been quick to congratulate them<\/a> for ducking out from under the shadow of their own stereotype. When NZ Craft Beer TV (i.e., mostly-Epic-but-with-collaborators-of-a-sort) ‘Mash Up’<\/a> came out, the Spectre of the Pony was clearly on their minds<\/a>, and people like little old me might’ve helped put it there. But, to their credit, they just keep doing their thing; the fatal point against O.T.P. as a beer name is probably just the simple truth that, as funny as they can be, self-deprecating<\/em> humour just isn’t quite their style.<\/p>\n

Returning to the beer itself, it’s definitely not<\/em> just Armageddon Plus<\/a>. It’s fairly radically different, actually; as I poured the first pint of it — with Rob Zombie up loud<\/em><\/a> on the Malthouse sound system at about 3a.m., just for the occasion<\/a> — the gorgeous pale gold of it was striking enough to induce a cartoonish double-take. On paper<\/em> it’s bigger and wallopier than Armageddon, but in person<\/em> it’s much sneakier than that<\/a>. It’s officially more bitter, but the extra booze brings with it an undeniable sweetness that compensates — and while the hops-per-litre have gone up, in this the best word for them is lush<\/em>. The varieties used and the sheer freshness of the local ones, make for an intense-but-gorgeous aroma of fruit salad shoved forcefully up the nose. The surprising deftness<\/em> of it made it quaffable, but the booze provided a warning warmth, politely hinting that you probably shouldn’t<\/em> down it as quickly as you happily could<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Hop-forward as the beer definitely is, that pale malt body was perfectly<\/em> put together and matched to the other components, and since that’s a quality it shared with its ‘Mash Up’ brother, it\u00a0probably has a lot to do with the relatively-recent hiring of Kelly Ryan<\/a>. It’s way<\/em> too simplistic to think of Kelly as the Malt Guy balancing out Luke the Hop Nut, of course — you can see Luke paying better attention to his malts way back in June 2009, if you know where to look<\/a> — but something excellent is happening as a result of having those two brains working on the same problem, even as they stick within the confines of the Pony Enclosure, for now.<\/p>\n

Just-about the only thing you could say against it, I thought — since I do<\/em> think like that — is that it was too unexpectedly nice<\/em> for a beer carrying the name Epic Hop Zombie<\/em>. People were expecting a proper hop-resin-stained axe handle to the brain, and instead they got charm and something bordering on\u00a0gorgeousness<\/em>. Hearing the pitch — 8.5%, 80 IBU IIPA — they expected a rhinoceros but got a unicorn.3<\/sup> But later occurred to me that it totally works, if you have the right kind<\/em> of zombie in mind; you need the classic, shambling sort — more Shaun of the Dead<\/em> than Resident Evil<\/em>, you want to be picturing the ones from something like\u00a0‘Left 4 Dead’<\/a> (seriously, if you haven’t played it, you should; it’s a fucking masterpiece of the genre, cheap as chips, and will even run on your accursed Mac — if you’re one of them<\/em>). Those<\/em> zombies — just like Hop Zombie — are individually basically entirely harmless, but if you’re silly enough to take on a group of them on your own and underprepared… Well, then you might just be in trouble.<\/p>\n

\"Epic<\/a>
Diary II entry #101, Epic 'Hop Zombie' IIPA<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Verbatim:<\/strong> Epic ‘Hop Zombie’ IIPA 12\/5\/11 8.5% launched (North Island) here @ MH tonight, and the absurd busy-ness relaxed the New Staffie Regime<\/a>. Unexpectedly pale gold, really. Lush<\/span> fruitiness; some inevitable sweetness, with a little bit of building boozewarmth. I still prefer the ‘other name’, but this works in old-movie terms; individually harmless — but if you get a group, you’re dead. Worryingly quaffable, you’d have to say.<\/p>\n

\n

1:<\/strong> Naturally, I’m assuming (provisionally) that the multiple “launches” weren’t a case of deception. Wellington, Auckland and Hamilton were locally-true “release parties”, and I’d imagine that the “first ever public tasting” language of the Melbourne announcement was a case of communication breakdown \/ crossed-wires \/ changed timing \/ overzealous or carried-away promo writers, rather than trickery<\/em>.<\/span>
\n2:<\/strong> He says, writing this up on 6 July 2011. I am very gradually<\/em> closing in on the value of t<\/em><\/a>.<\/span>
\n3:<\/strong> An easy confusion to make, if you think about it. Older-school myths reference unicorns<\/a> as beasts of strength and power and terror, rather than sparkly foresty bordering-on-Twilighty<\/em> things of wussiness. <\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This must be the most-launched beer in recent memory. There was a first launch at Pomeroy’s in Christchurch, and then another at the Malthouse in Wellington (occasionally referred to as the “North Island launch”, in a weirdly straw-clutchy way). A week later, during Good Beer Week in Melbourne, at the delightful Cookie (a former occasional … Continue reading Epic ‘Hop Zombie’ IIPA<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3],"tags":[6,14,12],"class_list":["post-2786","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-diary","tag-pages","tag-nz","tag-pale-ale"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1362,"url":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/2009\/02\/19\/epic-mayhem\/","url_meta":{"origin":2786,"position":0},"title":"Epic ‘Mayhem’","author":"Phil","date":"February 19, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"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\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Actual Diary entries"","block_context":{"text":"Actual Diary entries","link":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/category\/diary\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Epic 'Mayhem'","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-content\/uploads\/Epic-Mayhem-225x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":17965,"url":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/2016\/03\/16\/will-it-shandy\/","url_meta":{"origin":2786,"position":1},"title":"Will It Shandy..?","author":"Phil","date":"March 16, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"At Golding's, where I work with Dylan of The Bottleneck blog, it's not uncommon to see us indulging in a little game we call 'Will It Shandy?' when we're trying out new arrivals to the taps. A shandy \u2014 that's a beer mixed with lemonade, on the remote chance the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Podcast episodes"","block_context":{"text":"Podcast episodes","link":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/category\/podcast-episodes\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Garage Project 'Beer' (My house, 6 September 2015)","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-content\/uploads\/Garage-Project-Beer-tall-226x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1134,"url":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/2010\/12\/15\/epic-dogfish-head-portamarillo\/","url_meta":{"origin":2786,"position":2},"title":"Epic \/ Dogfish Head ‘Portamarillo’","author":"Phil","date":"December 15, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"I really have turned around on Epic's beers over the course of a few years. For too long, Luke's products were just the perfect embodiment of that trend that bored me so horribly wherein More Hops All Other Considerations Be Damned became such a trendy and habitual thing to do.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Actual Diary entries"","block_context":{"text":"Actual Diary entries","link":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/category\/diary\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Epic 'Portamarillo' tap badge","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-content\/uploads\/Epic-Portamarillo-tap-badge-225x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":3957,"url":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/2012\/05\/10\/beer-diary-podcast-s02e01\/","url_meta":{"origin":2786,"position":3},"title":"Beer Diary Podcast s02e01: Collaboration","author":"Phil","date":"May 10, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Back for a second 'season' -- are more-or-less arbitrary division, but we watch a fair amount of (good) TV and can't help but think of things like that -- George and I sat down a little while ago to talk about collaboration in craft beer. As always,\u00a0a\u00a0direct download\u00a0is available, there\u2019s\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Podcast episodes"","block_context":{"text":"Podcast episodes","link":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/category\/podcast-episodes\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3776,"url":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/2011\/06\/27\/beer-diary-podcast-s01e08\/","url_meta":{"origin":2786,"position":4},"title":"Beer Diary Podcast episode 8: Strong Beer","author":"Phil","date":"June 27, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"My profuse apologies for the inadvertent summer hiatus. Inspired by the impending holidays \u2014 impending, that is, when we recorded \u2014 we have a little bit of a ramble about Strong Beer (partially also to balance the ledger after our Midstrength Beer episode). There are a lot of ways to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Podcast episodes"","block_context":{"text":"Podcast episodes","link":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/category\/podcast-episodes\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Liberty 'C!tra' and Twisted Hop 'Red Zone Enigma'","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-content\/uploads\/Liberty-Citra-and-Twisted-Hop-Red-Zone-150x150.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":4193,"url":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/2012\/06\/03\/beer-diary-podcast-s02e02\/","url_meta":{"origin":2786,"position":5},"title":"Beer Diary Podcast s02e02: Australia","author":"Phil","date":"June 3, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"And now, a brief interlude for a long-lost podcast episode. We recorded shortly before\u00a0I went away to GABS in Melbourne -- and immediately before George and I went along to Hashigo Zake's marvellous little 'X-Ale' festival in the still-empty ParrotDog brewery.\u00a0We take the chance to catch up a little on\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Podcast episodes"","block_context":{"text":"Podcast episodes","link":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/category\/podcast-episodes\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Two Moon Dogs and 'Melon Gibson'","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-content\/uploads\/Moon-Dogs-and-Melon-Gibson-150x150.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2786","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2786"}],"version-history":[{"count":33,"href":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2786\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4287,"href":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2786\/revisions\/4287"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2786"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2786"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2786"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}