Pliny the Elder

This is another beer from the outrageous package that Grapes sent me. This was one of the holy grails for hop-heads (which I’m admittedly not one of) before they started bottling it, but since has lost a little of the hype, but is still very highly regarded.



Style – American Double/Imperial IPA
ABV - 8%
Brewed In – Santa Rosa, CA
Availability – Rotating

Pliny the Elder was a Roman naturalist, scholar, historian, traveler, officer, and writer. Although not considered his most important work, Pliny and his contemporaries created the botanical name for hops, "Lupus salictarius", meaning wolf among scrubs." Hops at that time grew wild among willows, much like a wolf in the forest. Later the current botanical name, Humulus lupulus, was adopted. Pliny died in 79 AD while observing the eruption of Mount Vesuvius. He was immortalized by his nephew, Pliny the Younger, who continued his uncle's legacy by documenting much of what he observed during the eruption of Mount Vesuvius.

-Russian River website

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Score - 8/10

Appearance
Pours a hazy, light amber into my snifter. The head is big, soapy, and stark white. The retention is nothing to write home about, but despite this, the lacing is very heavy. I’m looking forward to delving into this one.

Smell
There’s no mistaking this one. Hops, hops, and then some more hops! There is a little of everything hoppy in this aroma. Resiny hops, piney hops, citrus hops, and floral hops. Did I mention that it smells hoppy?

Taste
Surprisingly, the flavors are actually really balanced. Along with the pine and grapefruit from the hops, there is also a nice touch of malty sweetness. It’s a bit straightforward, but enjoyable. There’s no mistaking that this is a hop dominated beer, but it doesn’t have the over the top bite that a lot of DIPAs have.

Feel
The body of this one falls somewhere in the middle. Carbonation is very light, almost non-existent. It’s probably the smoothest DIPA I’ve had, I could drink many of these in a sitting with no problems. It’s very drinkable, especially for 8 %.

Verdict
As I said before, while it's a good beer, and is surprisingly drinkable, it isn’t great. The lack of complexity is the biggest disappointment. Perhaps it is just a victim of my expectations being too high? Thanks again Josh, I still have quite a few reviews to get through on the stuff you sent me. I’ll try to suffer through it!

Shame I can't get up here................. :whistling:

Paul

smellysell said:

Score - 8/10

Verdict
As I said before, while it's a good beer, and is surprisingly drinkable, it isn’t great. The lack of complexity is the biggest disappointment. Perhaps it is just a victim of my expectations being too high? Thanks again Josh, I still have quite a few reviews to get through on the stuff you sent me. I’ll try to suffer through it!

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Nice review man, this is one of my favorites although I am an admitted hop-whore.

I am surprised (or confused), you say it isn't great but you gave it an 8/10, what gives? Maybe you need clue me into your rating scale. :thumbs:

Nice review. It sounds pretty tasty to me. I never thought I was much of a hop-head, until I got my hands on some Tröegs Nugget Nectar, and then some Surly Furious, and it's all been downhill from there. The key to super hoppy beers is to have enough malt to keep it in balance and drinkable. Those two beers do that wonderfully, while some others I've had don't, and it's just nasty and bitter.

denverdog said:

smellysell said:

Score - 8/10

Verdict
As I said before, while it's a good beer, and is surprisingly drinkable, it isn’t great. The lack of complexity is the biggest disappointment. Perhaps it is just a victim of my expectations being too high? Thanks again Josh, I still have quite a few reviews to get through on the stuff you sent me. I’ll try to suffer through it!

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Nice review man, this is one of my favorites although I am an admitted hop-whore.

I am surprised (or confused), you say it isn't great but you gave it an 8/10, what gives? Maybe you need clue me into your rating scale. :thumbs:

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I was thinking the same thing!

Phlicker said:

denverdog said:

smellysell said:

Score - 8/10

Verdict
As I said before, while it's a good beer, and is surprisingly drinkable, it isn’t great. The lack of complexity is the biggest disappointment. Perhaps it is just a victim of my expectations being too high? Thanks again Josh, I still have quite a few reviews to get through on the stuff you sent me. I’ll try to suffer through it!

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Nice review man, this is one of my favorites although I am an admitted hop-whore.

I am surprised (or confused), you say it isn't great but you gave it an 8/10, what gives? Maybe you need clue me into your rating scale. :thumbs:

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I was thinking the same thing!

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I just used the score I get on another site and changed it from 78 to 8.0 :shrug:

Had one of these last night.

Stopped by the german deli/HTF beer store and this was in a small pile, said "purchases limited"... must be decent.

Pliny Elder is delicious. I made sure to enjoy it out of a large snifter. Highly Hoppy, Highly Recommended!

9.999999999/10

audilicious said:

Had one of these last night.

Stopped by the german deli/HTF beer store and this was in a small pile, said "purchases limited"... must be decent.

Pliny Elder is delicious. I made sure to enjoy it out of a large snifter. Highly Hoppy, Highly Recommended!

9.999999999/10

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That's some deli!!

Gregg said:

audilicious said:

Had one of these last night.

Stopped by the german deli/HTF beer store and this was in a small pile, said "purchases limited"... must be decent.

Pliny Elder is delicious. I made sure to enjoy it out of a large snifter. Highly Hoppy, Highly Recommended!

9.999999999/10

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That's some deli!!

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I was thinking the same thing! I'm happy to see Victory in a deli around here...

Nice review. I'm headed up to Santa Rosa today, think I'll pick up a fresh growler fir Thanksgiving

This is a fantastic Imperial IPA. Thanks for the review.

Great, now I need to go drink some of mine.

My first review of 2009! After suffering through a post-Christmas cold (and 5 days with no beer!), I decided to start the year off the best way I could think of and finally enjoy the beer that has been calling to me from my fridge ever since I received it from Nic (FlyingPanther) in the Beer PIF last fall. I'm not feeling quite 100% yet, but I'm awfully close, and I'd hate to let this sit any longer. Reading the label I feel guilty holding on to it as long as I have already! I've had this a couple of times on draught in the area, so I have a benchmark on memory already and I'm relatively certain I have an idea of what the experience ought to be:

Appearance: A 500 ml NR with a bottled date of 08/13/08 poured into my Duvel tulip glass. Beer is a gorgeous deep copper orange. 2 fingers of off-white foam so densely packed it could have passed for a tempur-pedic mattress sit atop the glass capped by soapy sticky bubbles. Head shows great retention and leaves trails of fine lacing down the sides of the glass as it recedes. Beer is remarkably clear and shows some active carbonation from the laser etching in the bottom of the glass.

Smell: HUGE citrus hops in the nose. There are hints of some honey-like sweetness, but the smell is dominated by oranges and tangerines throughout the progression of the beer. I could literally smell this all day and never tire from the enormity of the inviting hop presence.

Taste/Mouthfeel: Initial sips reveal primarily bitterness. After enjoying the nose so much my first thoughts are that I hope the beer hasn't already peaked, and that my lingering cold isn't interfering with my tastebuds. I wish the citrus came through on the palate as well, and it starts to more so as the beer approaches room temperature. The somewhat sweet malt backbone never competes for attention, but helps to provide tremendous balance and drinkability to a beer that's otherwise all about the hops. Mouthfeel is silky smooth with a creamy carbonation approaching cask-conditioning. Finish is bitter and relatively dry, and the well-hidden ABV becomes more noticeable in the last few sips.

Drinkability/Overall Impression: A beer that is well-worth the hype, and even better if you can find it fresh on draught. One of the easiest drinking and most balanced DIPAs around, I hope this finds wider distribution in bottles, as I'd like to try a brewery-fresh batch with no lingering illness.

Score - 9/10

Nice review Mike. I'm anxious to try the Younger now when it comes out in bottles. I had another Elder a while back and liked it better than the one I reviewed here, but still didn't think it was amazing.

Thanks to one of the most generous, F that, the most generous person around here, I am going to crack one during the game tonight. Can not wait!

Gregg said:

Thanks to one of the most generous, F that, the most generous person around here, I am going to crack one during the game tonight. Can not wait!

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Hope your team won! :thumbs: :whistling: