Three Pale Ales and One DJ

I was feeling quite thirsty on Saturday, so I decided to have my own little beer tasting. I've spent a lot of time with the darker ales of late so it seemed like time to explore something different. Enter the "Three Pale Ales and One DJ" tasting. OK so there wasn't really a DJ.

First up, Epic Pale Ale. I can still remember being blown away when I first tasted this. It was one of the first craft beers widely available in supermarkets and back then as an uneducated Lager drinker it rocked my world. This is quite possibly the first Pale Ale I ever tried. Wow. The label doesn't lie - it does indeed just taste bigger.

The nose is all citrus with a bit of caramel, the colour is the most appetising of bright gold, then the taste. BANG Hops. Fruity Hops. Crystal sharp taste and that lovely lingering bitterness. Yes, Epic Pale Ale is all good.

Next out of the gate, Wigram Mustang Pale Ale. It might be that I did this tasting in the wrong order, but I kind of expected more from this. Granted, the style is intended to be American Pale Ale, but to my mind the differences should only be in the hops flavour and Epic uses US hops.

So maybe it's me but first whiff and a distinct something missing. Nice chocolate malts, but not really any hops up front. Not to be put off I pushed on. Colour was slightly muddier than I like a Pale Ale, but again, nothing too amiss and the colour is easily representative of a clever malt mix right? On to this sipping. There they are! The hops flavour starts coming through, unfortunately instead of the crisp fruity American hops I'm expecting, I get the earthy subdued flavour of UK Fuggles or something fairly similar. This might have been a passable bitter, but as an APA I feel a bit let down.

Now comes the stars of the show. I recently discovered that a local bottle shop stocks a fine, fine range of craft beers, including a couple that I've been hearing about for a long while. Last years Epic Hop Zombie was high on my "must sample" list.

What to say: If Wigram didn't meet expectations, Hop Zombie blows them out of the water. I almost think this is something beyond beer, except it most definitely is. Aroma is like the undead, earthy, musty, fruity sweet floral and honey, incredibly pleasant and already promising succulent fluid within. Lovely colour again, gorgeous, light golden as you'd expect from Epic. The taste, it's like they've resurrected hops from the dead, really just unbelievable. It's alsmot sweet but the sweetness doesn't seem to come from the malts - theres really something special about this hops (it's classified) and I'm not at all surprised that Epic are keeping this one close to their chests. Simply put, this is a beer unlike any other and highly delicious.