Australian Animals, Bottled Beer, Captivating Containers

Seeing as, at the end of the week, I'm off to the land of kangaroos and creatures that hop (skip, jump), I thought a novel New Zealand beer might be in order. And what beer could better punctuate the end of my time studying in NZ than the Amrageddon India Pale Ale from Epic breweries with a massive 42 hops per bottle. 42 hops! That's more bounce than the combined population of wallabies who wander my future place of work.



Modestly calling itself "the answer to everything" Epic Armageddon is not as bitter as I expected having already tried the Epic Mayhem and Epic Pale Ale which both have (nominally) fewer hops per bottle. The Mayhem in particular had significant resiny bitterness which made it a beer which it is inadvisable to rush. The Armageddon, however, is much more citrusy and fruity (though not in a Belgian Lambic style) with some delicate floral flavours mixed in. In short; is delicious an worth every cent of the ten-odd dollars is costs for a 500ml bottle (I got mine at Moore Wilson's but Wellington Regional Wines and Spirits may have it available for ordering online.)

Still on the topic of beer, I bottled ours on Sunday. The specific gravity was still over 1.01 but the signs of fermentation which were previously present seemed to have vanished.



Hopefully the reading was overestimating on account of all the sediment (there was a layer of about 9l of gunk in the 20l of beer) and I haven't bottled too early and made bottle bombs. Anyway, now I think some labels are in order. One challenge is that I bottled it in re-used Grolsch bottles which have a pattern stamped onto them making it hard to apply a sticker smoothly. There are a few dozen bottles and I was thinking that if someone with a background in graphic design, or something, (Travis?) came up with a label then a few bottles might head their way in exchange.
Just sayin...