 ben4321 (952), Rockville, Maryland, USA
Sep 8, 2009 Location: 500 ml bottle via trade with NickD717, 9/8/09
I have been looking forward to this one since it arrived in the mail, and it lived up to the expectations.
Aroma: Wonderful aroma of citrus hops, peach, pine hops, hops, some mild caramel thanks to the nose, right off the bat I can tell this beer is going to be wonderful.
Appearance: Pours a nice hazy bright orange color, with a wispy white head, and retains some nice, almost uniform, spotty lace on the glass.
Flavor: I thought that nose would be hard to live up to, well it does, great hoppy flavor, some nice peach, pine, and just a little caramel/bread malts for "balance."
Palate: Really nice palate as well, smooth and easy to drink. Giving this a 5 over a 4 purely because of the absurd drinkability, I could drink this constantly.
Overall Impression:
I’m jealous of everyone who gets to drink this stuff regularly, I kind of want to move to the West Coast just so I can drink more Pliny! I can’t even imagine how good the Younger must be. Seriously Nick, you are one lucky bastard for living so close to these guys, color me jealous! I could probably rant about this beer for hours, and I can see why people call Russian River the best IPA brewery (after having only this and Blind Pig, I might be inclined to agree). Wow, I have certainly found a new beer to add to my favorite list, that is for sure. Here’s the ultimate compliment: my glass is almost empty, and it is actually making me sad that I can’t just pop another one of these. I look forward to seeing "Ben has a new Top 10 beer..." next to my rating for the next few days, with regards to this beer.
osu97gp (168), Atlanta, Georgia, USA
Sep 6, 2009 Pours a cloudy gold. Aroma is of citrus hops. Flavor matches the aroma with some malts. Very smooth and not overpowering. I like this one.
Lowe1983 (1029), Fairborn, Ohio, USA
Sep 6, 2009 Pours an amber color with a white head. Nice citrus and pine hop aroma with some caramel, and some fruits. Flavor has plenty of hops to it but is balanced well with the caramel malts. Nice bitter finish that lingers with almost no alcohol warming.
Nalu (32), Washington, USA
Sep 6, 2009 Cloudy dark gold, thin white head. Complex aroma and palate, with oranges, cherries and melons accompanied by pine and oily hops. Solid body with hoppy finish. One of the best, high-ABV IPAs out there!
thirdeye11 (403), Texas, USA
Sep 6, 2009 ( 500ml bottled on 8/19/09 thanks to mar) pours golden with fluffy/oily head that sticks around and tons of lacing. Nose is citrus hops like pineapple and bitter orange. Taste is so delicious. Creamy, oily, great match between the sweetness and hops, some citrus oily hops, and sweet malts. DIPAs do not get much better than this. Complex in both nose and smell I think the freshness of only 15 days old helped this one.
MarinaMarket (31), Washington, USA
Sep 5, 2009 I just don’t see it. 51F from the bottle, and a bit bland to be honest. Not a bad beer, but nothing to write home about either.
cowhead (1), Chevy Chase, Maryland, USA
does not count  Sep 3, 2009 Finally stumbled across the Russian River Company in Santa Rosa to try what I had only thought was urban legend. Everything as I had been told in perfect balance. Wonderful aroma, smooth not overly bitter flavors. After trying a very nice Blind Pig had to go back to the Elder as who knows when I will have the next opportunity.
beerbuzzmontreal (2909), Montreal, Quebec, Canada
Aug 29, 2009 Pours a cloudy golden color with a thin white head. Excellent aroma of citrusy, coniferous hops. Superb flavor of coniferous, citrusy hops with some bitterness in the end. The body is light to medium with a liquorous texture and gentle carbonation. Like Blind Pig IPA, this is an amazing piece of craftmanship that leaves you wanting more.
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