AHS Pliny vs. the real thing
 

Austin Homebrew Supplies Pliny the Elder versus a bottle of the real deal from Russian River.

Initial impression is AHS is damn close with this recipe. Color is just a touch darker, but in full disclosure, I padded the AHS 5 gallon recipe to 6 with some extra light DME (so I could brew two 3 gallon batches) so the extra color could be from that. Head retention and carbonation are identical. Hop aroma, flavor, and bitterness are on the money, in my opinion. This is rather surprising to me as we know RR uses hop extracts.

The malt flavor is where the two differ. The "real thing" has a distinct caramel note and sweetness, on the tongue and nose, that's missing from the clone. This first clone batch finished really dry at 1.008. I mashed the 2nd batch at 156 - significantly higher than the 150 the AHS recipe calls for. Hopefully that will bring back some of this caramel note and increase the FG a few points for round #2, which is now finishing in the fermenter.

Both batches were done as per AHS instructions (except for the mash temp adjustment on batch #2), and fermented with S-05 at 68 deg. Water was adjusted to: Ca: 104, Mg: 10, Na: 10, Cl: 64, SO: 125, RA: 9

If you're a Pliny addict like I am, the AHS kit is definitely a cure - especially with Forrest's frequent crazy sales. Highly recommended!

I just bottled my AHS pliny clone yesterday. It was less than 4 weeks old and still had a little bit of alchohol burn to it unless that was hops, it did go from 1.075 to 1.010 but the smell and other tastes are spot on. I split this batch with a friend who is a serious hop head, so he is really excited about this one.

My water is pretty similar except for the SO4/CL ration is 7 to 1 350:50

Cool humann_brewing. Post a pic and tasting notes here if you think about it. I know a lot of us took Forrest up on that killer deal so hopefully we can all compare...

I have never had PTE as it's not available here in CT. However, we are right now in the midst of a neighborhood party. One of the guests has had Pliny and is a huge fan. He said the one I brewed from AHS was spot on. I'll take his word for it seeing as he keeps heading back to the tap.

It's damn good.

Just transferred mine to a the secondary onto the first addition of dry hops. Smells great. SG is at 1.016 as I mashed at about 155F. A little higher than the 1.012 that the recipe calls for but I don't mind as the sample I have tastes great. No harsh flavors and nice hop bitterness and a very smooth malt flavor in the background. Hop flavor/aroma is lacking but the dry hoping has just begun. Can't wait to bust into these!

Thanks for this post and the link. What yeast and hops did you use, or did this recipe kit provide?

It's in the kit.

Yeah, I didn't see it labeled anywhere. I was just curious to see which ones were included in the kit. Thinking about getting this kit, and try it out; as it would be impossible to get these beers in Alabama.

It includes all the hops needed to replicate the beer as well as carapils, crystal malt and dextrose. 17oz of hops total which includes Simcoe, Columbus, Centennial, Warrior and Chinook if I remember them all correctly. All the hops are in pellet form and individually vacuum sealed. I think it follows this recipe which was released by Russian River Brewing.

http://www.homebrewtalk.com/f69/pliny-bastid-21229/

Sweet! Thanks for the information and that link! It helps alot.