From Epic Brewing:
Collaboration requires creativity, passion, friendship, patience and
an open mind. When all of these elements come together you have
the conditions for a perfect storm or in our case, a blizzard. We’ve
teamed up with our good friends at Telluride to bring you “Blizzard
Conditions”: a New England-Style IPA featuring Cashmere hops and
enough haze to create a delicious little snow globe-in-glass.
While enjoying pints together this winter 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.
“IBUs are a thing of the past,” says Epic Brewmaster, Kevin Crompton. “These IPA’s are about the myriad of hop
flavors we can infuse in the brew. So much of those delicate compounds are lost in the steam of the boil – we’re
doing as much as we can to avoid that and pack all of the
interesting parts of hops into the final beer.”
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 was brewed to be showcased during Denver’s Collaboration Fest on March 25th. Tickets are
available online at www.collaborationfest.com. The beer will also be tapped around Denver leading up to the fest.
3/20 - Sloans Tap and Burger Run event – 6 pm
3/21 - Choice City Butchers 12-1 pm Ft. Collins
3/21 - Freshcraft 7 pm
3/22 – Epic Brewing Company Denver Tap Room 12 pm
3/22- West End Tavern Boulder 5-7 pm
3/22- Highland Tap and Burger 5-7 pm
3/23 - Lowery Beer Garden 6:30pm
3/24 - Walter’s Pizzeria and Publik House Uptown 6 pm
Here’s the approved label: 
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