Epic - Auckland No Agenda Iba

Epic Brewing Co's big hope in the 2015 West Coast IPA Challenge is this dark horse in the form of an India Brown Ale and boy does this beer buck. If you were to taste it blind you'd be forgiven for thinking it was an IPA, the aroma is full of pine and grass with grapefruit and citrus zest - characters from the Chinook, Centennial and Equinox hops. The taste is equally bold, it's big, dry and bitter courtesy (of only) 40 IBU's, but the hops are balanced nicely by the dark chocolate and coffee characters you'd expect to see in a dark ale. Very long and complex, very impressive