Epic Brewing Company (Salt Lake City, Utah) - 15 JUL 2014

First things first.  In Salt Lake City you have to figure out the really strange liquor (beer) laws.  Here they are as I understand them.  If you are at a bar, they can only sell draft beer at 3.2% alcohol by weight (ABW) or 4.0% alcohol by volume (ABV).  For reference a Budweiser is 5.0% ABV.  If you are at a restaurant, you are still constrained by the draft rule, but you can order bottled beer that doesn't have the same ABV requirements, but you also have to order food, and, as I understand it, you have to make a legitimate attempt to eat such said food.  

Because of these rules, this is the situation at Epic Brewing Company.  They have a restaurant.  By Utah definition, a restaurant has to have at minimum 6 seats, 2 of which are handicapped accessible. So, that is what they have at Epic Brewing Company.  It's pretty hard to see from the photo below, but there 4 chairs at the high top bar and two others at table height.  The sign outside says maximum occupancy of 9.  When I was there, the clientele included the following:  me, the Mom of the guy working the "restaurant", another guy in Salt Lake City on business (found the place by asking Siri for the best place to eat), and a local couple with their young son.

Restaurant at Epic Brewing Company.

AWESOME! Goat Cheese Sammy.

I kind of knew some of this so was planning to eat there.  What I wasn't expecting was that the food would be so good.  I ordered the Goat Cheese Sammy which included goat cheese, spinach, kalamata olives, tomato, and onions - grilled cuban style.  I have got to say that this sandwich was spectacular.  I can't wait to try to reproduce at home using our panini maker.  As you can see from the photo at right, I couldn't wait to take the picture until I'd had a few bites.


So onto the beers and more about the liquor laws.  Because I ordered food, I was entitled to 1 glass of beer and 4 samples OR 8 samples.  I of course chose the 8 samples in order to beef up my Untappd numbers.  I had the following:  Copper Cone Pale Ale, Imperial Red, Double Skull DoppelBock, Santa Cruz Brown, Saison, Utah Sage Saison, Wit Beer, and Intermountain Wheat.  Again, because of Utah liquor laws, I was only able to get two samples at a time.  I asked the bartender to bring me his favorites.  I list them as he brought them.  It was interesting to compare and contrast them as he brought them out to me.  (BTW - I should note that all of these beers were poured from bottles - remember draft beers can only be 3.2% ABW - so some were more carbonated than others).  Comments:  The first two were excellent.  A classic American Pale Ale and a hopped up Barleywine (at least that's how he described it to me).  The second two were good to contrast.  A traditional Brown Ale (but hoppy) versus a very sweet high ABV DoppelBock.  The saisons were interesting.  At first I thought that there was some heat in the Utah Sage Saison, but (after I knew the name) I noticed that the "heat" and spice was from Sage.  Who'd a thought.  Pretty darn good.  Finally, there was the comparison between an American Wheat (Intermountain) and a Belgian (Wit).  It was fun to trust the bartender.  There were probably 20 more beers, but I guess I would have had to order another meal.  Just kidding.  I am sure that wouldn't fly in Mormon Country.

Entrance:  You can by bottles of their beers as well as visit the restaurant and try some of the beers.  There's also a patio section, but it was unclear to me why anyone would want to sit outside when the temperature was 100.

By the way, there is one thing that has to be mentioned.  I knew that Epic was best known for its high gravity beers, so I asked the bartender if that is why they picked the name Epic.  No, he said.  When they original business plan was presented to the community, they were told that the brewery would be an Epic failure.  The owners decided that would be a perfect name.

State Street view of the Brewery.  They cellar some of their beers off-site.