Owner of Epic Beer, Luke Nicholas has been brewing for 25 years - that’s half his life!  “I grew up around home brewing, with my grandfather starting brewing after WWII. It’s been in my family a long time.” After home brewing at university and then as a hobby while living in California in the 90s, Nicholas returned home to New Zealand. Asking the local brewpub for a job, he promptly turned his hobby into a profession. Nicholas’ approach has always been about making the best beer he can. This involves using the best ingredients, which sometimes means importing. At Epic Beer, the team ..read more

We’ve got an Epic collab launching this month! AJ Hackett Bungy New Zealand have teamed up with our pals at Epic Beer to bring you our very own craft beer: IPAAHH. A New Zealand brew that dares you to live your life to the MAX. We sat down with Luke, owner and chief brewer at Epic Beer to get all the juicy details… So, tell us about the beer! IPAAHH is an easy to drink and delicious IPA. We wanted to make a classic NZ IPA using the new Kohia Nelson hops. This was a great chance to do that and for two great Kiwi brands to come together. What’s the difference between an IPA, Pilsner, Lager, etc ..read more

It was so great to read the article written by Martin Bridges. I thought it might be fun to write a reply which may add a different perspective to hazy beers in New Zealand. It is interesting how Martin starts out basically by saying he isn’t much of a fan of Hazy IPAs and prefers clear West Coast IPAs. I too would rather have a West Coast style IPA with its dry and confronting bitterness, balanced with the upfront fruity/tropical/piney hop flavours and aromas. Many seasoned craft beer drinkers and brewers don’t like, or prefer not to drink, Hazy IPAs. They would much rather have a West Coast ..read more

The hops have been picked, the beers have been brewed, and now the trucks are chilling down for the final step in the return of Fresh Hops at New World – when the very freshest of beers will hit shelves again in April*. Eight of New Zealand’s top breweries – Baylands**, Behemoth**, Epic, Garage Project, Liberty, Parrotdog, Sawmill and Urbanaut – are working with New World to give supermarket shoppers access to a limited edition range of beers brewed using freshly-picked New Zealand hops. The beers’ super-fresh origins mean they are available in very limited quantities and for just a short time ..read more

  There aren’t many drinks that start with a dawn dash to the airport, but green hops craft beers do. Using fresh hops is a race against time for Kiwi craft brewers keen to take part in the once-a-year opportunity. They only have a 24-48 hour window to capture the little green flowers’ unique, aromatic flavours once harvested. The clock is already ticking when they're picked in the Tasman area in the wee small hours. They’ll only be good for a few hours more, so it’s onto the first flights out to Wellington and Auckland, into a van and the quickest route to the brewers' boiling kettles ..read more

Epic Beer's Onehunga taproom originally launched as a pop-up in October 2019 and has since been operating across select weekends with special liquor licenses. After more than 12 months of delays from COVID-19 and a drawn-out licensing process, the craft brewery's sprawling space is now open to the public. The taproom can be found right in the middle of the brewery's functioning warehouse down the driveway at 230B Neilson Street. The delightfully no-frills beer hall was inspired by owner Luke Nicholas' trips to similar industrial spaces in Los Angeles. Between the warehouse roller doo ..read more

What an incredible night we had last night at the Epic Beer HQ Taproom. After an intense, busy, stressful, confusing week I think we pulled it of while complying with the distancing rules of Level 2. We turned a crazy mess that has been our lockdown home of packing Mixed Six Packs, and shipping online orders into an amazing Beer Hall with an inside food truck - Home Grown Food Truck. I'm so proud of the team at Epic. Not only have they been work so hard all week getting the warehouse ready while doing their normal jobs, they then stepped it up and gave an huge performance and worked last nigh ..read more

Stout, the original craft beer. From a time when the world was awash in a sea of industrial lager, you could always find that one beer of difference; Stout. From the company whose brand was as strong as Coke, and the only beer that has its own annual holiday celebrated globally. Where everyone finds some distant relative from Ireland to justify taking the day off work and drinking Stout. Here is our homage to hope and choice when things looked as dark as the beer. The last couple of years we have released Beer Blanket and Fat Shady as more approachable lower ABV Stouts verses our bigger stout ..read more

MAYZ is a beer that we brewed right before lockdown and has been sitting in the tank just waiting to be set free. It is our first new Hazy IPA in a couple of months which I am sure will make many people happy to get their hands on another Orange Can. This time we have had a play with using some Corn Flakes in conjunction with Oats which help contribute to the hazy character of the beer. We believe that the corn flavour will also give a level of sweetness that will complement the fruitiness of the hops. For this batch we have used some old school hops which we love using in our Epic Pale Ale ..read more

Since going to Level 3 lockdown on Tuesday 28th April we have had many many issues with courier delays. It seems as though everyone has hit those online stores that can now do deliveries. This has meant an overwhelming volume of freight for local couriers. This was highlighted recently in this article. [NZ Herald] - Covid 19 coronavirus: Businesses front impacts of NZ Post courier service delays Ben who is our manager for the Epic Beer HQ Taproom has been tasked with following up courier delays during lockdown. He has been overwhelmed with the number of delays, getting hold of the courier comp ..read more