Beer Review: Epic Brewing Company Escape to Colorado

Brewery: Epic Brewing Company
Beer: Escape to Colorado
Style: American IPA
ABV: 6.2%
Character: Brewed with Mosaic and whole leaf Apollo hops. This is their first batch of beer brewed in their Denver brewery
Ratings at time of Review: BA: 83 | RB: 91
Metal Connection: SEPULTURA – Escape to the Void

Epic Brewing Company is new to Texas, and trust me when I say this, but we, as a Craft Beer drinking community welcomed them with open arms, for sure. I remember having a good sized sample of Big Bad Baptist (#14) back in 2013 at a bottle share when Epic was a brewery we Texans traded for. Since settling in nicely in the Texas Craft Beer market, I have had my hands on a few little gems from Epic, but this one here is even more special at this point. This particular beer isn’t exactly in our market yet, but I was able to get a hold of a can, thanks to a good buddy who had visited Colorado and brought back a bunch of stuff.

Epic Brewing Company officially opened in Salt Lake City, Utah in 2010, and in 2013, they opened up a second brewery located in Denver, Colorado. This is the first beer that was brewed at the new facility. This is a great start for them there in Colorado. This is a very good IPA. Please read to check out my thoughts about this beer. Cheers!

I do like to drink beer out of cans, except for when it is the very first time having the beer, or of course, if it is for a review on my site. That being said, I poured this beer from the can into a specialty glass designed for drinking IPAs. Escape to Colorado has nice golden orange color, and is semi-hazy in appearance. It has a similar look to orange juice. Even with a non violent pour, this beer was topped with a massive 3 inch wide white foamy head. There was great head retention, though it reduced down to a thin layer, but left excellent spotty sticky lacing down the glass.

The aroma was all hops initially. Hints of floral, wet grass, citrus orange, grapefruit and lemon zest all hit the nose first. There is a nice backbone of pale malts, grains, and white bread loaf to round out the entire aroma of this beer.

The taste follows the nose exactly. Great job! Hops hit the palate first with the same bunch of characters; floral, wet grass, citrus orange, grapefruit, and lemon zest. The body is all pale malts and grains with a nice touch of a baked white bread loaf. The lingering aftertaste is back to the bouquet of hops.

The body was a bit underwhelming, as I thought it was a bit thin. Not by much though, but I do wish this beer had a more heavier body. The mouthfeel was oily with a crisp bite. It was like drinking a session IPA, even though this one had a 6.2% ABV. It was a bit strange for this beer. It finished dry which, of course, works great with the hop aftertaste.

I’m hoping that this beer gets distributed to Texas regularly, as I would like to get my hands on more than one more, so I can drink and compare notes. I really want to thank my friend for bringing in this beer along with many others from CO, so people like me could get some to try, and in my case, review for the site.

Metal Connection: What better way to compliment this beer than by adding a classic song by one of Metal’s greatest. I am referring to Brazil’s Sepultura, and their song, “Escape to the Void” from their 1987 full length album, Schizophrenia. This band was definitely one of my favorites early on in life. I didn’t get to enjoy them exactly when they came out and released their first 3 albums. It wasn’t until 1991’s full length, Arise that I was introduced to this Metal machine known as Sepultura. I was instantly hooked to their fast faced Thrash/Death style. After listening to Arise, I went back and purchased their back catalog to that point, which included 3 other full length albums, Beneath the Remains (1989), Schizophrenia (1987), and Morbid Visions (1986). All of these albums would prove to be the band’s best releases by most of the Metal community’s standards. They would stray away from their Death/Thrash approach on their next couple of albums, and incorporate a more groove Metal style similar to that of mainstream music, like Korn. They even went real heavy into adding a lot of tribal influences, which is found on their albums Chaos A.D. (1993) and Roots (1996). Roots would be the last album I really payed attention to at all from the band, as they lost their vocalist/guitarist, Max Cavalera, who went on to start the band, Soulfly, which I really never gave a chance to. Sepultura is still around today, with a complete different line-up of musicians, and have released a total of seven albums that I have never heard before. Call me what you will, but I support and prefer the old Sepultura any day of the week. Enjoy this blast from the past…