Pic courtesy of The Homebrew Chef, Sean Z. Paxton
(San Francisco, CA) – This is absolutely wild. Russian River Pliny the Younger went on tap at 11am PST today and kicked in less than 10 hours! Compare this to last year when the beer went on tap on February 2nd and was “almost gone” on February 10th. For those who are angry about not getting any, I don’t think Vinnie and Co. could have possibly foreseen this happening.
One Beer Advocate drove 7.5 hours and placed an order for the beer just as it ran out. Another was apparently making a cross-country trek from Portsmouth, NH, and had left at 2:30 this morning. Hopefully those who walked away with a few growlers will hook these guys up.
All those one-day spectacular Imperial Stout releases: Three Floyds Dark Lord, Portsmouth Kate the Great, Foothills Sexual Chocolate, The Bruery Black Tuesday . . . you can now add a Double IPA to those because the Pliny the Younger release will never be the same again. Unless Russian River can make more of it, which seems like a difficult proposition given how much time that beer takes to make, setting lower limits on growlers would be a logical move. You can also expect to see a line forming, perhaps even in the wee hours of the morning, next year.
You can catch up with the madness that was through Twitter. Over 200 “Pliny” tweets flowed through Twitter today.
The good news is that Russian River held enough back to send to some SF Beer Week events as well as Southern California, Portland, Seattle, Denver, and Philadelphia. Here’s the discussion on Philly and one that just started on Seattle. One confirmed location is Blue Palms Brewhouse in Hollywood according to Food GPS. For the locals, it will be on tap at Toronado in San Francisco on Tuesday and the Rose and Crown in Palo Alto on Wednesday according to the SF Beer Week schedule. Note that is a very partial list of to-be-tapped locations. So hope is not completely lost.
Pic courtesy of @leifnordberg on Twitter
I actually think this beer is overrated. But, I like completely unbalanced, bitter hop monsters that melt your face and paralyze your jaw.
Catch as catch can. I am sure Younger, Dark Lord, Kate the Great etal are good beers, but how much better could they possibly be than others in their style range? This is a lot like Westvletern to me, has more to do with the hunt than the absolute quality.
What a wonderful thing the Internet is. I totally agree with Ep. This beer is all hype. It is certainly drinkable and interesting. But you’ve got to be out of your mind to fly cross country for this beer.
For those who insist on flying CC: Please check out the following before you leave empty-handed next year:
Bear Republic: Five Zero
Bear Republic: Renegade
Magnolia Pub: Promised Land or Proving Ground
El Toro: Deuce (the best DIPA in the land) and their IPA killer as well
Moonlight: Bombay by Boat (Arguably the best IPA in the Bay Area) OK my favorite
Moylans: IPA – Hopsickle – DIPA (pick ’em)
Russian River: Ugh – forget it – Don’t believe the hype
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