Russian River Pliny the Elder

Appearance – This is definitely one of the best looking DIPAs I have ever seen. Pours a yellowish orange color with a large billowing white head that only has small traces of tan in it. As the head slowly recedes it leaves lacing that every DIPA should strive for; absolutely beautiful. Smell – Hops, hops, hops, and hops. This smells like if there were any malt in it, the hops already took the malt out back and beat the crap out of it. Good job hops! Very piney and floral with just a hint of citrus. The malt gives a little bit of a caramel scent rounding it out at the end, but in no way dominates this hop bomb in any way, shape, or form. Taste – This has a hop zing to it that isn’t overbearing but it lasts the test of time. It lets you know that the hops in this sucker are here to stay and will kick your ass just like they did the malt. It has a very strong piney taste to it. After the pine settles down a little bit the tangerines and grapefruit come out to play and they do it well. After all is said and done the malt is still struggling to make an appearance, but those hops are just relentless. Mouthfeel – This alone makes me want to take gulp after gulp of this amazing DIPA. Thick and resinous with lasting appealing. It feels like it envelopes your tongue like it just took it hostage. Drinkability – I would drink this daily if I could. Russian River really knows what they are doing when it comes to just about any style. Well played RR, well played.

Pours out a hazy gold with lots of head. Smells sweet and piney. Taste is more of the same. Good balance. Lots of citrus and floral flavors with bitter hop finish. Very tasty DIPA.

Hop bomb! What a delight. Had it in Berkley and had it again at the brewpub even though there were so many other delicious beers I hadn’t yet had. Pours a dark copper-y color and the aroma had wafts of citrus (namely grapefruit), and some floral notes as well. Under those aromas were some pine and overall goodness. As mentioned in prior posts, despite the all hop aroma all the time and the BIG hop taste, it didnt have the bitterness that sometimes a hop-bomb can have. The flavor was everything the aroma was, yet slightly more balanced. A suprisingly soft finish topped of this near-perfection beer. Loved it!

This beer was world class. Poured a nice hazy golden colro with a bit of a rocky white head. Aroma was straight up hops, a prefect blend of citrus, pine, grapefruit, the nose on this was magnificent. I wa sa little worried the flavor would be overly bitter in the way super hoppy beers can get, but this was like drinking a big glass of fresh hop juice. The hops flavor just exploded and flooded your mouth. This beer was bliss.

500mL bottle: Appearance is amber brown with slow fading off white head, aroma is strong in hops with hints of pale malt, flavor has a very strong taste of floral hops with almost no citrus bite but still very hoppy good malt backbone. Was looking for more out of this top 100 beer but none the less was still damn good.

Bottle from Bottleworks. Hops...bang! The aroma hits with the force of a wrecking ball, and that’s just the tip of the iceberg. Pours an attractive gold, but with some yeast floaties. Nice white bubbly head with decent lacing.This is one incredibly hoppy beer that is balanced well with two incredibly unique tastes. First, you get a citrus sweetness on the tongue, but that quickly fades as the bitter hops linger on the palate. This has lived up to the hype and I’m glad I had the chance to try it. incredibly drinkable. Nice work, RR!

Easily the biggest hops ever. Very interesting. Bought at Whole Foods ... kinda pricey, but a lot of fun.

Wow! Very piney smell almost like evergreen mixed with hops. Very bitter hop presence followed by grapefuit citrus tartness. Not my favorite Double IPA but very high up there.