Russian River Pliny the Elder

Brewed by Russian River Brewing
Style: Imperial/Double IPA
Santa Rosa, California USA

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.

500mL bottle from Beerstore.co.nz , bottled on 23.01.09. Let him warm up for a couple of hours out of the fridge. Cheers beerstore!! Pours hazy dark golden with a filmy off white head.
Aroma is full of those beautiful piny American hops and citrus fruit. I get some orange peel, yet the malt gets through, caramel poking its nose in.
Wow, the beer is highly drinkable yet the flavours are very pronounced. Resinous hops coat the mouth with a medium to strong bitterness which brings the pine flavour. Behind this cloying hop is a somewhat robust malt, which sweetens the deal and makes for a very balanced beer. Hops turn citric on the finish, probably like orange rind – very bitter. The finish is very long, as one would expect with an uber hoppy beer.
All together a strong beer for sure, in its flavour. The 8% ABV doesn’t show itself, in fact I’d liken this strongly to its smaller brother ‘Blind Pig’, yet more balanced. Woooow, a dangerously delicious beer.

This is the first beer I have tried under the training of a seasoned taster. The grapefruit hops taste was strong but not overpowering. Had it on tap at Churchill’s in San Diego and it was excellent.

Aroma is very fresh (it was only a month old) with notes of grapefruit, orange and pine hops and sweet malt. Flavor is pretty mellow, with grapefruit hops being the main flavor with a mild bitter finish. I was a bit disappointed with this one though, because I thought the hop flavor was too mild..in that the hops weren’t prevalent enough. I’ll probably get criticized for this, but for me Hopslam is far better and far fresher. But, this is still a great DIPA.

Yum! Lots of hops in this one, in the nose and in the taste, but it went down really well, and they weren’t overpowering. I really wish I could get this one more regularly.

50cl, bottled on April 11. ’08, so pretty aged.. Slightly hazy deep golden, coarse pale head. Very citric, fresh grapefruity nose, honeyish sweetness, faint pine, very balanced, not that attacking. Still pretty well hopped, bitter flavor with grapefruit, flowers and moderate sweetness, very nice lingering bitterness, pretty strong seedyness. Almost full bodied, lovely smooth palate. Misses the best aroma hops already. Malts are totally secondary, this is a pale bitter show.