Thursday, March 3rd, 2011 March 3rd, 2011

Pliny the Younger

I met Jake down at Oscar Blues in Longmont tonight to taste Pliny the Younger. Pliny the Younger is brewed every January/February by Russian River Brewing Company in Santa Rosa California. This beer is in high demand and usually sells out very quickly.

I got there around 5:30 and we waited by the bar until 6:30 when they were tapping the 5 gallon keg. By comparison, a normal keg is 15.5 gallons. There are 128 ounces per gallon, and with 10 ounce samples, they poured about 60 glasses. We got one of the first 10! They limited it to one glass per person and was basically a free-for-all at 6:30.

Pliny the Younger is a triple IPA with 11% ABV. It has three times the number of hops which dominated the aroma and taste. The Simcoe and Amarillo hops were so intense that it seemed to have almost a pine chili taste. It was a good beer, but given the price tag of $12 a glass, I wouldn’t have purchased a second glass (if given the opportunity).