Russian River Pliny the Elder

500ml bottle, packaged on 7/30/08: Glowing yellow pour with a nice, thick cap that offers some decent lacing. Wow - big and bright nose. Hoppy goodness for sure - loads of pink grapefruit, candied oranges, tangerines, fresh lemon, pine needles, wet grass, floral perfume, fresh roses. This really runs the spectrum of hop aromatics. Very nice. The body starts with a heavy wall of bitterness that is both rindy and filled with deep resin. A mild caramel maltiness surfaces to offset the bitterness. The hops continue to dominate with soft orange and apricot juiciness on the tongue. As the beer continues to warm, the malt middle also continues to develop. Light notes of butterscotch and honey intermingle with the citrusy hops. Finishes properly bitter with a good old dose of tongue scraping rind. A solid example for sure. If the tap version really is better, I need to come to CA to try it. This is one of the lower ABV DIPAs that I have tried.

Bottle. Dark yellow body with an off-white, diminishing head. The aroma is hoppy with orange, orange peel, grapefruit, pine and resin. Notes of dough and pear juice. The flavor is moderately sweet, moderately to heavily bitter. The finish is moderately to heavily bitter and dry. The bitterness lingers for a long time. Medium body with sticky texture, lively carbonation. Outstanding double IPA, but not as overall satisfying as the very best double IPAs because it is fairly straightfoward — not the type of double iPA that you keep getting different aromas and flavors from as you drink it.

I approached this beer like you might the most popular television show that you’ve been too cool to even turn on once. Let’s say, for the sake of argument, it’s LOST. "Yeah I know that everybody I know (whose viewing opinions on electronic media I generally trust) loves the show, but I don’t have time to even bother with caring, much less take on a new television series into my otherwise full viewing schedule." You’re a good speaker. Let’s move on. One of your friends hands you the first season of LOST on DVD and makes it apparent that if you don’t watch at least the first episode that you will be offending them. You watch the first episode while making dinner with your girlfriend. Two days later you have watched all 22 hour-long episodes and the two of you are standing outside your friends place at 3 in the morning to see if you can trade him for season 2. My experience with this beer was exactly like that. I knew it was highly rated. I got one when I probably shouldn’t have. I drank it with high expectations and didn’t have any complaints. Hours later I was recreating its pine-y smell in my head and wishing I had another one. It had a small taste of apple in the background. The blume was more dense and hung around longer than I expected. The longer I go since I had it, the more I want one again.

500 ml. bottle, bottled on 08/13/08, drunk on 10/03/08, bottle courtesy of CelticBrew - thanks much for this, Jim! Clear gold body under a medium, but very lingering head, and a ropey, adherent lace. As expected, the hops are all over this with citrus and pine predominantly, but a healthy dose of some floral notes as well. However, not to be lost in the aroma are significant malt contributions in the form of toffee and stone fruit. The flavor is a well tuned balance between a light malty sweetness and the typical citrus zest bitterness of Northwest hops. Medium body and carbonation, resinous, but not excessively so, startlingly smooth, and a pleasingly dry palate. This beer arrives with quite a reputation, and it certainly lives up to it. In this increasingly ubiquitous style, it is not the best, but it is right up there.

Pliny is very good. I think some people are over-enamored with it’s reputation however. Appearance- Orange in color with good clarity, it has a decent head that sticks around for a little while. Aroma- A very hoppy aroma, smelling of Piney and/or citrusy hops. Taste- Extremely hoppy. Very heavy bitterness, the hops attack at every level. I tasted a little sourness from the malt, but it did a decent job at trying to balance the beer. The high alcohol level is not obvious, but the high hop rate might inhibit the drinkability of this beer. Not me however, I liked it alot... It could be more balanced.

[Thanks to drewbeerme and xnoxhatex for sharing] Wonderful grapefruit aroma with some notes of sweet honey. Flavor is straight-up grapefruit and honey. Smooth medium body, pretty viscous for an IPA with light soft carbonation. Thanks for sharing!

Rating #200 for me, and thanks to BOLTZ7555 for the trade on this one! Pours an orange hazy body with a thin, but quite bubbly white head. Aroma is floral, citrus, and grapefruit hops. The bottle isn’t too old at 2 months, but the hops are definitely fading in the flavor, which is kind of disappointing. It’s still quite good. Nothing but piney hops and sweet malts, but certainly not a hopbomb, possibly due to the 2 month bottled on date. It’s quite balanced though, which is enjoyable. Palate is medium bodied, but quite creamy. Pretty nice beer.

Looks like a pretty standard, but solid double IPA. Awesome aroma - runs the gamut in terms of hop notes, lemony citrus, grapefruit, pine, and a light floral aspect as well. The flavor is a slight step down from the aroma. The orange/grapefruit dominates first, then gives way to pine, the finish sweetens things up slightly, but is mostly defined by a dry, lingering bitterness. The mouthfeel is incredibly soft, almost to a fault. I could almost use a little more carbonation. Very smooth, medium bodied. Awesome beer overall.