Epic Armageddon IPA

I met Luke, the brewer from Epic Brewing in New Zealand a couple months ago at Dogfish Head. He was there for the collaboration brew they did with Dogfish called Portamarillo, a porter with smoked tamarillo in it. Since I tend to like a lot of the other beers from breweries Dogfish collaborates with, I was very interested in trying out some of the other stuff from Epic. Luke told us that they didn't have very thorough distribution in the United States, so I was a bit surprised when we actually found a couple bottles of Epic beer at State Line Liquors. We decided to pick up the Armageddon IPA for our first Epic beer.

Initially when we opened the bottle, we were greeted with a strong hoppy aroma. There was a citrus quality to it with a hint of pine. Underneath I found that there was a malt background with a biscuit quality to it.

The beer had a clear golden yellow color and a foamy white head. At first there was some lacing left, but everything dissipated after a few minutes.

The taste is where the beer really stands out. A hop presence is quickly apparent with a mix of grassy and citrus flavors and a decent level of bitterness. Even though there isn't a lot of sweetness in the palate, there is some along with a toasted quality. This beer uses a hop variety that I'm not familiar with, Nelson Sauvin, so I'm not sure what its impact on the flavor is. Overall I found it to be extremely flavorful without being overbearing as some IPAs tend to be.

In the mouth the beer had a fairly light body with high levels of carbonation. I found that there was a slick coating in the mouth as well, but not unpleasant. I thought the carbonation level was a bit high for my tastes, but still it wasn't overly distracting.

Overall, I found this to be a very good example of an IPA, and a strong offering from Epic. It was easy to drink, and had a decent amount of flavor. I could certainly see myself drinking this on a regular basis, if it wasn't so pricey. I think we paid somewhere around $11 or $12 for a bit over a pint. While it's not the most expensive beer we've ever gotten, it certainly wasn't cheap. I imagine most of this is due to the cost of importing the beer, but it really is a shame. If I could get it cheaper I'd definitely be drinking it frequently.

- Adam