Epic/Telluride Collaboration Beer: Blizzard Conditions

This Beer Will not be released on March 30th. It will instead be released on April 6th.

Tomorrow, Salt Lake City will get it's first taste of the new collaboration beer from Epic Brewing and Telluride Brewing. The birth of this beer began last January when Telluride’s brewmaster Chris Fish and Epic’s Kevin Crompton discovered neither of them had brewed a New England-Style IPA before and both were intrigued by the new hopping techniques many breweries were using to pack insane amounts of juicy hop flavor into the beer without a high level of bitterness.

Approaching the new style together, both brewmasters set out to find just the right hops. “The excitement is all about juicy hop goodness! Not bitterness!” says Chris Fish. “We’re looking to present super tropical fruitiness in both flavor and aroma. To achieve that we got our hands on a new hop variety, Cashmere.”

Cashmere hops are relative new on the market, having been released in 2013 by Washington State University, and is the product of a marriage between Cascade and Northern Brewer hops. Their resulting daughter, Cashmere, is unique, producing aromas full of lemon and lime citrus, sweet ripe-cantaloupe, and tropical fruits like guava and mango. Because of these qualities Cashmere excels as a cold-side dry hop and is perfectly suited for New England-Style IPAs, which pull as much hop character as possible from late boil additions and dry-hopping.

Blizzard Conditions is hazy gold color with just a hint of green highlights. Its huge aroma is bursting with orange blossom, ripe melon and guava. The spelt, a type of malted wheat, helps give good body to the beer, which supports the sticky hop character. Bitterness is low with just a moderate amount lingering on the palate. If you’re a hop lover and enjoy the newer American varieties emerging on the scene this beer won’t disappoint; and if you’re the type of drinker who shies away from the traditional, piney IPA, you’ll be pleasantly surprised at how bright and juicy New England-Style IPAs can be.

Blizzard Conditions will debut in the SLC market April 6th tomorrow morning (3/30/17) at 11am. It will be packaged in Epic's Growlers. 22oz. bottles may appear in the future, but for your first taste, you get growlers. So don't forget to bring your empties to exchange.

Speaking of Epic. The Oak and Orchard Dark Sour with Plum and Apricot is now on sale. Only 74 left. Stay close for the other three releases.

The results for the Utah Beer Challenge's Elite Eight High Points are in and it looks like It's going to be a grudge match between RedRock and 2 Row. The Elite Eight Round saw mostly blow-outs, but the final scores that separated Dark Alley Barrel Aged and Paardebloem came down to just two votes. The ballots for the Final Four beers are up and in the column to the right. The voting on these beers will run for 48 hours and end at the time stamp on this post. These beers are all pretty different and it could go anyway.

Just a reminder that the Utah Beer Low Point Challenge will be starting immediately following the completion of this challenge. I'd love to hear some feedback on how you think things have gone so far.

Cheers!

Total	Answer
62.76%	2 Row Tastes Like Citrus IPA	123 (62.76%)
37.24%	Squatters 529	73 (37.24%)

(196 Total Votes)

Total	Answer
64.67%	RedRock Paardebloem	119 (64.67%)
35.33%	Shades Pale Salt City Citrus	65 (35.33%)

(184 Total Votes)

Total

	Answer
39.47%	2 Row Dangereux	75 (39.47%)
60.53%	2 Row Dark Alley	115 (60.53%)

(190 Total Votes)

Total

	Answer
49.5%	2 Row Dark Alley - Barrel Age	99 (49.5%)
50.5%	RedRock Elephino DIPA	101 (50.5%)

(200 Total Votes)