There’s never been anything remotely subtle about Epic Brewing — not in their beers, not in their history, not in the sheer audacity of building a high-ABV empire in a state that once flinched at the idea of anything over 4 percent. Founded in Salt Lake City in 2010, Epic made its name by refusing to color inside the lines: big IPAs, monstrous stouts, and a flagship series so bold it warped the gravity of any tap list it entered. For a while the story sprawled across two states, with a full production facility in Denver — until 2023, when Epic pulled out of Colorado altogether, shuttering the RiNo operation and collapsing the center of gravity back home. What looked like retreat was really recalibration: a return to their natural habitat of oak, ambition, and unapologetic intensity.
Inside that intensity lives the Big Bad Baptist — not so much a beer as a pantheon, a barrel-born oracle in a choir robe singed with bourbon char. What started as a single, coffee-laden imperial stout evolved into an annual liturgy of variants: pastry-dripped, spice-bitten, cocktail-bent, limited, forbidden, adored. The Baptist doesn’t whisper. It strides. It sermonizes. It wears its ABV like jewelry and its chocolate like scripture. Every version is a chapter in a saga of indulgence, reminding drinkers that excess, when crafted with intelligence and intention, can be a kind of higher truth.
Which brings us to today’s ritual at Peaks & Pints — the Epic Thursday Beer Flight — five incarnations of the Big Bad Baptist, each with its own swagger, its own sins, its own lessons to teach. From Macaron’s dessert-drenched mischief to Samurai’s quiet steel, from the masked spectacle of Lucha Libre to the Manhattan’s cocktail-dark seduction and the thunderous authority of The Godfather, this isn’t just a flight. It’s a barrel-aged opera. Brace yourself. Sip slowly. Confess nothing.
Peaks & Pints Epic Thursday Beer Flight
Epic Brewing Big Bad Baptist Macaron
11.5% ABV | Imperial Stout w/ Coconut, Almond & Vanilla
Macaron sweeps in like a dessert that’s discovered the joys of bourbon and refuses to go back. Crafted on the Big Bad Baptist’s formidable barrel-aged base, it folds coconut, almond, and vanilla into a dark chocolate undercurrent until the whole glass hums like a patisserie lit by candles and questionable decisions. Toasted coconut rises first, marzipan follows close behind, and the bourbon warmth ties everything together in a slow, indulgent drift. It’s sweet but never soft, elegant but slightly unhinged — pastry with a pulse.
Epic Big Bad Baptist Samurai
12.7% ABV | Imperial Stout Aged in Sake Barrels
Samurai arrives with discipline — a mood of quiet precision rather than brute force. Aged entirely in sake barrels, it trades bourbon’s swagger for something more enigmatic: espresso and roasted malt wrapped in rice-wine stillness, oak whisper, and a quick silvered sweetness that moves across the palate like a blade in moonlight. It finishes dry, contemplative, purposeful — the rare Baptist variant that doesn’t dominate the room but commands it with poise.
Epic Big Bad Baptist Lucha Libre
13% ABV | Barrel-Aged Imperial Stout w/ Chocolate, Cinnamon, Vanilla & Chiles
Lucha Libre bursts forward like the masked hero you always rooted for — bold cape, chocolate bravado, cinnamon heat flickering beneath every move. Built on the iconic barrel-aged imperial stout, it layers cocoa, vanilla, and a trio of chiles until the aroma alone feels like smuggled dessert. The flavor is full spectacle: silky chocolate, oak glow, cinnamon warmth, and a rising chili shimmer that lands like a theatrical flourish. It’s a high-flying, heat-kissed performance piece — and it absolutely nails the finale.
Epic Big Bad Baptist: Manhattan
13.5% ABV | Barrel-Aged Imperial Stout
Manhattan doesn’t walk so much as glide — a cocktail lounge in stout form, all dim lights, jazz undertones, and bourbon-soaked elegance. Coffee, cacao, cherry, and a twist of orange peel swirl through the dark body, transforming the classic cocktail into something heavier, deeper, more wickedly lush. Each sip slips from cherry cordial to roasted espresso to bittersweet bourbon finish. It’s part dessert, part nightcap, part whispered confession. And it knows exactly what it’s doing.
Epic Big Bad Baptist: The Godfather
15.2% ABV | Barrel-Aged Imperial Stout
The Godfather doesn’t arrive. It emerges — slow, inevitable, carrying its 15.2 percent like a velvet-lined threat. This is the apex of the Baptist lineage, aged deep in bourbon until it radiates dark chocolate weight, roasted coffee depth, and oak-smoked authority. The aroma alone feels like a sworn oath: fudge, tobacco, char, the warm breath of bourbon promising consequences. The palate rolls heavy and deliberate, finishing long enough to negotiate terms. It never shouts — it simply exists, and everything else moves around it.
LINK: Peaks & Pints beer and cider cooler inventory
