Something special has been brewing in the Epic beer lab. They spent their first four years perfecting that signature style of extremely hoppy brews. But this year they changed it up a gear and released something completely new, the Epic Thornbridge Stout. The Stout was a collaboration with UK brewery Thornbridge. For their next special release the Epic guys have partnered with US brewery Dogfish Head.
Dogfish are an intriguing partner for an international collaboration. In 1995 they started as a brewpub in Delaware producing innovative and experimental beer and spirits. Similar to local equivalents like Hallertau, the Dogfish brewery serviced the restaurant and pub, but soon released their own range of bottled beers. This range is now available in 28 states. Their year round range of brews are supplemented by innovative specials. Their current specials include a dark beer made with organic Mexican coffee,.neo-BerlinerWeisse fermented with peaches and an Ale with pumpkin, organic brown sugar and spices.
Sam Calagione, the founder and President of Dogfish Head came down under to collaborate with Epic’s Luke Nicholas on something innovative and distinctly kiwi. On Monday we finally got our hands on the result, a bottle of Epic Dogfish Portamarillo.
A beer made by these two innovative brewery's has to be different and the Epic Portamarillo doesn’t disappoint. This huge statement to creative brewing is a ‘sorta-porter’ fermented with Brazilian Rapadura sugar and a couple of very kiwi ingredients. The brew contains tamarillos smoked over Pohutakawa wood. Check out the photos of the tamarillos being smoked on a kettle style BBQ.
Let me just say upfront how much I hate Tamarillos, the brussel spout of the fruit world. As kids we had a tamarillo tree in the back yard and these acidic and arid tasting red nightmares made their way into crumbles and cakes where they just had no business. Needless to say the results were terrible, leaving me with a life long hatred of the humble tamarillo. So I was curious to see if this could finally be a good use for the fruit.
Pouring the Epic Portamarillo into a glass the porter is the colour you would expect with a medium sized brown head. The aroma is enticing, chocolate malt with a sweet almost bubble gum like hint. I’m pretty excited to try this collaboration and the first mouthful is as complex as I hoped it would be. I love knowing that you will have to drink your way through a few glasses to decode all the flavours being thrown at you.
You can easily taste nuts and smoked malts, slight spice and milk chocolate. The smoked ashy flavours carry right through the mouthful. To be honest it’s not obvious to me which flavours are contributed by the tamarillo. It could be my imagination that it adds a background sourness right through the taste range. Something more than the hop flavors which are balanced and complementary.
Overall it’s a smooth and engaging drop, which slides down easily leaving an interesting spectrum of flavours. The brew is jointly labelled Dogfish and has been released in the states under their label. Tamarillo porter is not something you see everyday, nor is Dogfish beer in NZ, so I would rush out and grab some. I’ve heard people asking where you can find a bottle. I found some in Farro Fresh on the North Shore, Auckland. So good luck and enjoy.
Smoked tamarillos on the BBQ
Sam & Luke enjoying Portamarillo
