photo credit: epicbeer

Great indy New Zealand brew Epic Beer was featured on Campbell Live earlier this week.

You can stream the video from TV3′s website or from here if TV3 sucks, as it often does.

The story mostly concentrated on the “little guy succeeding where the big guys are falling” angle, but looking further into the way Epic conducts business makes for some very interesting and exciting discoveries.

Epic Beer not only is a great tasting brew with a pile or hops crammed into each bottle, but the Chief Brewer, Luke Nicholas is a rather savvy chap. Instead of spending thousands of dollars to compete directly with the huge breweries in the media, he built up a grassroots fan base from the ground. By utilising new media and other internet-based technologies (such as blogging, Twitter, Digg and more) and frequenting craft beer festivals Epic can keep costs down, but the fan-base together, in contact and mobile.

Not to mention, it’s an absolutely fantastic tasting beer. It’s even inspired me to start brewing my own (soon…). If you want to give it a try, Luke’s put together a handy mashup with Google Maps showing where you can grab it. You can also find it at most NZ beer festivals (and now in the UK, too!).

Also from Luke: realbeer.co.nz – a site about brewing and Hot Chilli Sauce New Zealand.