Real ale version of Epic fails to impress Poms.

[Geoff Griggs]

Hot off the presses, here are the results of JD Wetherspoon's International Real Ale Festival. It seems those lucky Poms just didn't appreciate cask conditioned Epic Pale Ale.

http://www.jdwetherspoon.co.uk/promotions/2009-international-real-a...

[Rusty Chch]

Shit, the prize here should be that Epic was in the same league as all those beers.

I'm filthy with envy, some of those look very interesting!

[Stu McKinlay]

I wouldn't read much into it. If Baron's can take out top prize then there must be something underhand going on (or the English really are weirder than I thought they were). Every beer I've had of Baron's tastes like "AIB" middle of the road blandness.

I've had direct word from James Kemp that Epic Pale Ale on cask was bloody delicious... that's about all I need to know to wish I'd had a chance to have a few pints.

[James P]

Kempicus would try and children with a cask of Epic if he had the chance!!! However, he does have good taste in beers....

[JoKing]

Looks like malt balanced beers were the call of the festival anyhow... All I read on that list in the top ranks are "Amber" "Porter" "Golden" "Dark" which is fine and all... but appears somewhat not in preference of hops...

And if recall... I think Epic is hoppy... isn't it?

[colin m]

Guys, having been lucky enough to have been there and share a pint or 3 with both Luke and James, I have to say I am gobsmacked that Barons did so well! I dont have my tasting notes ( or ticker/scooper notes as Melissa Cole told me!), but I do recall being hugely unimpressed by it.

Cask conditioned Epic Pale Ale is a fairly different animal from what we are used to here in NZ - The Hop monster has been tamed a bit, possibly more pronounced malt?-still really tasty and possibly more drinkable due to the lack of carbonation.

For me the real stand out beers were Theakstons Coopers Butt and Brains Dark.

[nzbrewer]

Gee thanks for highlighting this Geoff.

There was obviously some serious gaming of the online voting going on as for most of the 20 days the Epic Pale Ale was the 50th beer out of 50 (with a score of 2.9 out of 5), and Barons was rated 4.2 out of 5 at number 1. So for it to end up at 45 out of 50 was a miracle

I think going back to the UK and doing the series of 'meet the brewer' sessions was detrimental to my rating. I should have spent all my time back here voting for my beer, (if it was important to me).

Anyone that tried the range of beers that knows anything about beer would see these results lack some real credibility. It really didn't reflect what the managers in the pubs I meet where saying about what beers were selling well and what they were having trouble getting rid of.

Personally I think that the Oakham Fare Flick was by far the best beer I had (of which I tried 34 of the 50 beers on offer) it was one of the best beers I have ever had with Centennial hops in it. Actually it was one of the best cask ales I have ever had.

Others that should have been in the top ten Brains Dark, Theakstons Coopers Butt, Sharp's Red Sloe Ale, Okells Red

It isn't a perfect voting system and I have sent JDW an email with recommendations on how they can improve their online voting.

And yes the Epic Pale Ale was different, but in a highly more sessionable way. I was extremely impress with the balance and drinkablity of the beer. I would agree it wasn't the best beer of the festival but it was well in the top ten if not the top five.

This difference will be reflected in my up coming changes to using some percentage of Maris Otter in the grist in the New Zealand version.

[Stu McKinlay]

Nice to hear your thoughts Luke. Why do they bother voting at all...? Isn't enough that

I'd really love to hear a lot more about the general state of brewing and pubs in the UK, from your perspective on those few short trips. It was really great to see your twitter comment about being wowed by the (Fuller's?) mild. What else was great?

Also nice to hear that you're going to get some Maris Otter in the EPA. I've always thought that Epic tastes best when the malt character is at its biggest.

[nzbrewer]

I was hoping to get a blog post finished today for the weekend in Brussels but that might not happen now till next week.

Over time I hope to blog all my notes of what I was impressed with.

Also I have a blog post for the epicbeer.com blog about some changes in the lates batch of EPA and then the Maris Otter trials to follow.

[Stu McKinlay]

Very much forward to your UK/Belgium thoughts.

[Hey!! - my last post disappeared ;-)]

[Glynn Foster]

At least http://www.ratebeer.com/beer/epic-pale-ale-cask/102135/30436/ seems to put it strongly within the top 20 if not higher, which probably gives a better indication of what it was like :)

Loved the video series, and appreciate the time you put into it.

(can't wait to see some MO in EPA)

[nzbrewer]

Well the ratings do look better than the Baron's
http://www.ratebeer.com/beer/barons-bush-berry-porter/102094/

[James P]

Luke, will that batch number be shown on the bottle so we can compare the old and the new?