NZBeerBlog.com

I’ve read that you will hear the best music of your life in your early teens, and three decades later I don’t disagree (although Miles Davis would have been wasted on the 15-year old version of me).

One of the most memorable records (12″, vinyl, 45rpm) of my mid-teens was Boodle Boodle Boodle by The Clean. Crap instruments, simple riffs, and a shit load more humour than most New Zealand music at the time.

So when the courier interrupted my breakfast this morning, with a box of Flying Nun Records 30 Year Ale, I was surprised and intrigued.

Turns out is is another Epic production, as Epic’s Luke Nicholas explains:

“A few months ago Flying Nun approached us to make an anniversary beer for them. I asked why? They said they were big fans of Epic beers, and would love for us to make a beer for them. They had made a couple of commemorative beers over the years and wanted to do a beer for the 30th anniversery, and have it available at the gigs they will have around the country during the month of ‘Nunvember’.

With such a privilege of being able to make a beer for a true Kiwi icon such as Flying Nun Records, we sat down and thought about what type of beer it should be. First we decided it had to be light in colour as we figure the majority of the people that are Flying Nun fans probably have never drunk craft beer, and would likely be scared of anything darker than the lagers they probably drink. But at the same time we still needed to give the beer the signature Epic character of lots of hops. Ultimately we wanted a beer that people would love to drink, and Flying Nun Records would be proud to have their label on the bottle.

So we decided we would make a beer along the lines of our flagship Epic Pale Ale, but with a whole new recipe. We changed the malts and the hops and ended up with this 5.5% abv Pale Ale. The ingredients we used were UK grown Maris Otter malt, and German Munich malt to give a subtle sweet biscuity malt background. The hops were US-grown Liberty (Hallertau parentage), Cascade and Falconers Flight (which is a proprietary blend of Simcoe, Sorachi Ace and Citra) and the new Australian hop Galaxy. The beer was dry hopped twice.

More information about the Nunvember gigs check out http://www.flyingnun.co.nz/stories/78”

Cheers Luke and Flying Nun!

Filed under: Beer Makers, Gushing forth | Tagged: Epic, Epic Pale Ale, Flying Nun, Miles Davis