Message In A Bottle
Epic Brewing Company

 

 

 

 

 

 

500ml bottle purchased from Slowbeer in Melbourne. Shared with @tobeerornottobe.

Pours a lovely, clear red-amber colour, with a solid, minimal, fine white head. Lacing is streaking, but relatively minor. Decent body to it, and I love the fine carbonation. The colour is also good: overall, it's a pretty decent looking beer.

Nose is fresh and pleasant, without really wowing me: solid I-would-have-said NZ hop sharpness, but perhaps it is a herbal, green English hop character. Decent but inoffensive malt backs it up, without really doing anything spectacular. Solid.

Taste is also solid, with a more dusky, herbal bitterness providing the counterpoint to the smooth malt. Again, the malt is solid and smooth, and the hops are suitable, but they really don't excite me. There's very little to fault, of course, and perhaps that makes me angry: it's dull without having any reason for being so.

Feel is pleasant and smooth. Light, certainly, but pleasant enough: indeed, the lightness probably helps mask the alcohol.

Overall: I'm not sure I've had a beer that is so faultless and yet so dull. It's infuriatingly good: solid, brusque english earthy hops, very fine and suitable malt. And yet I find very little that excites me. Perhaps consistency should excite me.

This is brewed on the old style of IPA's imported from the motherland by ship and pours a copper hue with a fluffy three finger head and lacing everywhere.

The smell is herbal earthy hops,booze,treacle,mustiness,black tea,turkish delight and also hints of a cafe.

The taste is a good whack of those herbal earthy hops upfront followed by a touch of marzipan,blackberries,black tea with the finish being same as the start a good dose of those herbal bitter hops.

Mouthfeel is medium bodied with moderate carbonation.

Overall if it was a blind tasting id swear this was from the UK and a big move from their NZ IPA's which is great and good to see they change it up anytime they want,would buy again.