When Epic Brewing Company turned 10 years old there was only one way to celebrate - with a 10 per cent birthday beer.

Luke Nicholas founded Epic in 2005 and has been contract brewing at Steam Brewing Company's Otahuhu facility ever since.

Coincidentally around the same time as Epic's 10th birthday towards the end of 2015, Steam Brewing, which is the brewing arm of the Cock and Bull pubs in Auckland in Hamilton, celebrated the 1000th batch brewed.

ALASTAIR PAULIN/FAIRFAX NZ Epic Brewing Company owner Luke Nicholas said the 10th birthday celebratory ale could be cellared for up to 10 years.

To commemorate Nicholas and Steam Brewing collaborated to make a celebration ale using five yeasts, five malts and five hops, bringing together a range of elements from Epic's beers over the years.

The end result was a 4000 litre batch of 10.1 per cent ale designed to be drunk now or cellared for up to 10 years.

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The first batch was released just before Christmas retailing for about $20 a bottle.

A further 800 litres aging in oak barrels will be released before the end of 2016, followed by more staggered releases.

"I'm expecting this will still be quite drinkable in 10 years," Nicholas said.

The brew's flavour profile would change flavour over time with sweet, malty flavours morphing into hints of treacle and toffee before developing notes of "leathery, tobacco", he said.

While making the beer Nicholas reflected a lot on the past 10 years and how much the craft beer market had changed in New Zealand.

"This beer's capturing the past and celebrating the now."

It also provided an opportunity for the Steam Brewing team to put their ideas into an Epic beer, he said.

"Even though we work close with them everyday as our brewing team it was nice for them to have an input into something that they're celebrating as well."

Being a celebration ale Nicholas chose not to package it with Epic's regular labelling.

Instead bottles were hand-wrapped in black packaging and sealed with a wax lid.

Removing the wax could prove challenging for first time drinkers of the beer because once chilled it hardened making accessing the beer difficult.

"You're going to need a knife to cut into the hardened wax."

Each bottle took about five minutes to wrap and seal - a time consuming process considering there would be about 8000 bottles in the first release alone.

"Extra love has gone into it beyond the brewing."

Asked what the next 10 years had in store for Epic Nicholas said: "brewing a whole lot more beer and using a whole lot more hops."