Pliny the Elder is one of those legendary brews known the world over: it's rated #14 on the highest ranked beers of all time on BeerAdvocate.com and is on par with such famous creations as Alchemist Brewing's "Heady Topper" and Founders' "Kentucky Breakfast Stout." According to VinePair.com, the 2018 release of Pliny The Elder brought "12,500 visitors and $3.4 million from around the world to Sonoma County." First brewed for an IPA festival in 2000, the brewery has Pliny-branded merchandise, and some Santa Rosa hotels even do travel packages for any given year's launch party. There's also a healthy black market for Plinies on the East Coast. Wow!
Now, I am always cautious about this kind of hype. Yes, there are some really great beers out there, some which are worth seeking out and waiting in line for, but flight and hotel pacakges? A black market? Seems like a lot for just a beer. Sometimes these things get blown way out of proportion. Skepticism aside, I've never tried it before, and when I saw this for $6.99 at Whole Foods in Novato, CA, I had to grab it.
Brewed with CTZ, Centennial, Simcoe, and Amarillo hops, this double IPA clocks in at 8.00% ABV, a lot less than I was expecting. The label is ringed with various warnings: "Super fresh! Drink immediately! Don't let it age! Don't save for a rainy day! Not a barleywine, don't age! Age your cheese, not your Pliny!"
Ok, I get it.
It pours a light orange, and generates a strong, foamy, bright white head. There's a deep aroma of hops, with a little bitterness in the nostrils, a la Great Divide's "Hercules" double IPA.
Upon swishing the glass, there's lots of sticky white lace on the side. Pretty color when candled - electric orange!
Huh, interesting. It's far softer than I was expecting, seeing as the beer is 100 IBUs (relatively quite bitter.) I'm tasting some grassy notes, with flavors of grapefruit and a super resinous quality that really coats the throat. My brother Dan, who is tasting alongside me, notes a bit of lemon. I counter that the fruit I'm tasting (which isn't the dominant flavor) is more of fruit meat than it is fruit juice; think the juiced pulp of a grapefruit instead of a whole fruit. There's a burst of bitterness on the finish, quick but high, and that resin note hangs on on the aftertaste.
For the style, it's a rather approachable IPA, actually, and I can see why people like this. There's a particular ease of drinking with this that you don't get with some beers of the same class (or a similar IBU range, like DC Brau's "On The Wings of Armageddon", which just goes to show how important the role of hops is in dictating flavor and body!) Despite being 100 IBUs, I'm not sensing any boozy bitterness, which one could be forgiven for expecting in such a beer. You can still taste the bitterness, of course, it's just not cataclysmically hoppy as one might expect.
OK, so - is it worth the hype? It depends. I'm not completely awestruck, as I've had a few beers like this over the years. The market is flooded with juicy IPAs these days, everything from New England style beers that taste more like orange juice, to India pales made with lactose to simulate the flavor of marshmallows. So similar-tasting beverages can be had. However, historical precedent must be taken into consideration - Pliny's legacy was cemented back in 2000, just as the craft beer scene was beginning to explode, when I'm sure the concept of a grapefruity, strong, but smooth IPA was quite new. The fact that Pliny has remained a cult favorite after almost two decades is nothing to sneeze at, and is almost worth trying just for that. While the flavor alone does not make me want to fly to Santa Rosa each year to buy it, I do think it is quite tasty and enjoyable and worth getting, especially for $6.99. So if you're out in California and in search of a strong - yet approachable - IPA, give this a try.
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