Pliny the Elder
I'm stricken with manflu. I was next to useless at lunchtime. I spent the afternoon in bed. When I emerged to help with the after work rush, my haggard appearance disturbed one regular so much she told me to go back upstairs. Well, the customer is always right. Here I am, sitting in the pub's cosy living room, watching a Doctor Who repeat, wrapped in my favourite cardi, a feverish sweat gathering on my brow.
I should have known I was falling ill when I stopped drinking on Tuesday. Time to get back on the wagon. Stumbling around in the cellar for something to cut through the phlegm and stinky illness, my hand fell upon a bottle of Pliny the Elder. It's come all the way from a Californian brewery called Russian River. Jay Brooks, the US beer writer, gifted it to me when he visited the pub recently.
It's 8% abv, it's hopped to buggery, it's full-bodied and clean tasting. It's absolutely lovely. This exotic, sexy (steady on) beer is the best thing that's happened to me all day. How can something that's been bottled, sent across America in a lorry, then stuffed in a suitcase and flown over the Atlantic by a generous journo taste so fresh, so alive?
More details about this fabulous beer can be found on Russian River's website. Jay Brooks, the chap who gave it to me, writes a blog called Brookston Beer Bulletin (among other things).
15 comments:
That is a kick arse brew Bell! I'll be drinking it tomorrow on draught. Russian River also brew Pliny The Younger, which is a Double IPA. Vinny, the owner, had another brewery called Blind Pig. He's resurrected the name and is brewing Blind Pig IPA. Maybe I should start importing it to the UK?
I've no doubt it's a fine beer but the stuff on the Russian River website about Lupulus salictarius is rubbish - the reason why the Romans called the hop "willow wolf"(which is what Lupulus salictarius means) is because the hop is a climbing plant that likes damp ground, as do willows, and when itgrows wild it will climb up the nearest tree - often, in the wild, a willow - and bring that tree down with its weight, like a wolf brings down a deer. The Italian for hop is still "lupulo", "little wolf". (Take a look at the ingredients listed onthe back of a bottle of Italian beer.) Carl Linne (Linnaeus), when he invented the botanical name for the hop, took the Swedish name, humle, and the Latin name, and combined them to make Humulus lupulus.
I'm so happy to know this beer made it across our country and the atlantic to your taste buds. It's an amazing beer, something I would pay shit tons of money for. Try to get your hands on Pliny the Younger, I hear good things about it.
But...to my understanding, the Elder is a Double IPA and the Younger is a triple...I could be wrong, but I think that's what it says on their website.
Pliny... delicious beer. Surprised you are drinking it. Impressed as well.
Glad you liked it. Though to be fair, it was never in a lorry. I helped bottle that particular one when I helped out on the first day Russian River ever bottled Pliny then drove it home myself, with the case sitting peacefully on the passenger seat. The rest of the journey is correct, though. Hope you're feeling better now.
Best,
J
At last you are beginning to pay attention to US craft beers, they are now the best beers in the world IMO.
Glad you decided to drink it! It was making me nervous seeing it on your list off to the left there.
I'll be going to Russian River in about 2 weeks. I've visiting family in the San Francisco Bay over the holiday but will drive 1.5 hours to their brewery and get the Pliny straight from the source!
ah...Pliny - one beer i've yet to get my hands on but this is yet another post raving about it...you've only made things worse! gotta get some!
This is a great example of a gourmet use of hops (versus just being heavy handed). There are so many different hop varieties and combinations in American craft brews (and certainly more and more in non-American beers) that you can have a vast range in beers that are "hopped to buggery". Overly bitter beers have never been my favorite (Arrogant bastard?). However, I have always enjoyed the flavor and aromatic aspect of hops. This is where I think Pliny-the-elder hits the nail on the head. The hop aroma is massive yet pleasing (to me). Therefore, in that sense it does not seem unbalanced just extra special.
Just opened a Bottle i traded for recently, and i totally Concur. It was Stunning. Such a shame that i cant just nip out for another.
craig
I've always loved this beer.
In response to the comment earlier from someone who was "surprised" and "impressed" I was drinking this beer:
I do try beers like this more than you seem to think. I just don't write about them all.
Pliny is great, depending on the occasion. I drank it on draught Saturday, and although I enjoyed it, I wouldn't want to drink more than 3 pints of it. Maybe if I could walk home. This is where the difference in drinking culture lies. For beer barons like myself, I want a pint in my hand the entire night. Not for the first hour.
Pliny is just an amazing beer. Glad you got to try it. I live on the East Coast and the only way I get it is to have it shipped to me which is a fortune. But who cares. It's fantastic.
Our American friends,Chris and Meredith (www.thebeergeek.com) brought some over in August, when they were here for GBBF. That was a stunning beer, which, unfortunately is all gone, having been drunk by the beer monsters who live underneath the sofa (scoundrels!!)
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