My first Pliny the Elder

So, two co-workers and myself went to a local bar at lunch. Yeah...we roll like that!

Anyway, my one buddy likes really, really hoppy beers. He is a huge Hop Devil fan (for anyone familiar). This particular bar is known for carrying a great beer selection...both kegged and bottled. We looked over the beer menu and the closest thing I could find to Hop Devil was Bell's Two-Hearted Ale so he orded one.

We started talking beers and I brought up Pliny the Elder and the IBUs and how hard it is to come by. 5 minutes later that bartender comes out and says "we just got two kegs of Pliny the Elder in and just tapped one of them...$5 a pint." The funny part is that she never heard a word of our conversation. GAME ON!!!



This is the first time I have ever had Pliny and I have to say that it is not nearly as bitter as I had expected (which to me is a good thing). I almost expected a beer that was undrinkable based on the IBUs. Surprisingly, it was very mellow with nice bitterness (close to Hop Devil but without that brutal "bite"). Man was it good!!!

So, I think my next batch will be a Pliny the Elder clone. Any suggestions for recipe?

John

I wish you better luck than me. Both of my pliny clones have failed...

Here's the recipe straight from Vinnie at Russian River:

http://beerdujour.com/Recipes/1Pliny the Elder clone PDF.pdf

RR uses Hop extract for the 90minute hop addition. So feel free to substitute any super-high alpha acid hop for CTZ at 90min. Warrior or Summit come to mind. CTZ works fine though. I also heard Vinnie talk about Pliny on a podcast lately, he's now adding Amarillo to the dry hop in addition to what's already there.

The critical part about this beer is: It has to finish dry. OG should be about 1.070, and you want the FG as low as you can get it, 1.010 or so. So you need to pitch a boat load of healthy yeast.

Farmhouse Brewing Supply sells Pliny hop kits. I think he may have some available now or coming soon.

http://www.farmhousebrewingsupply.com

scottland said:

Here's the recipe straight from Vinnie at Russian River:

http://beerdujour.com/Recipes/1Pliny the Elder clone PDF.pdf

RR uses Hop extract for the 90minute hop addition. So feel free to substitute any super-high alpha acid hop for CTZ at 90min. Warrior or Summit come to mind. CTZ works fine though. I also heard Vinnie talk about Pliny on a podcast lately, he's now adding Amarillo to the dry hop in addition to what's already there.

The critical part about this beer is: It has to finish dry. OG should be about 1.070, and you want the FG as low as you can get it, 1.010 or so. So you need to pitch a boat load of healthy yeast.

Click to expand...

Incredibly simple recipe for the beer considered one of the best in the world!

If indeed the dry finish is the critical part of this beer, make sure you mash at the lower range of saccharification rest at 150-152F. The dextrose sugar in the recipe is critical because it also helps with the dryness.

It is way more complicated the Westvleteren 12.

1. Pilsner and pale ale malt
2. Sugar
3. Hop extract
4. Get some yeast from that brewery down the road that knows how to handle it
5. Make it really hard to buy
6. ???
7. Profit

scottland said:

Here's the recipe straight from Vinnie at Russian River:

http://beerdujour.com/Recipes/1Pliny the Elder clone PDF.pdf

RR uses Hop extract for the 90minute hop addition. So feel free to substitute any super-high alpha acid hop for CTZ at 90min. Warrior or Summit come to mind. CTZ works fine though. I also heard Vinnie talk about Pliny on a podcast lately, he's now adding Amarillo to the dry hop in addition to what's already there.

The critical part about this beer is: It has to finish dry. OG should be about 1.070, and you want the FG as low as you can get it, 1.010 or so. So you need to pitch a boat load of healthy yeast.

Click to expand...

Here's a good article too.

http://486286.cache1.evolutionhosting.com/attachments/0000/6351/doubleIPA.pdf

The end of the article he talks about the younger too and how it has Amarillo in it. I brewed the recipe and added Amarillo every time there was a simcoe addition. Turneded out awesome!

Turner5 said:

Here's a good article too.

http://486286.cache1.evolutionhosting.com/attachments/0000/6351/doubleIPA.pdf

The end of the article he talks about the younger too and how it has Amarillo in it. I brewed the recipe and added Amarillo every time there was a simcoe addition. Turneded out awesome!

Click to expand...

This is absolutely perfect!!! Thanks for sharing.

John

I recently brewed a Pliny kit and I'm not happy with it. It's good, but it's not what I remember Pliny to be. It was also my first time dry hopping with pellet hops, I have since sworn off using pellet hops ever since. The one thing I am happy about is I think the recipe could have been great with a couple of tweaks, so I can now tweak it into something more interesting.

I think my biggest downfall on brewing this was not filtering out the hops. On most beers, just throwing the hops in without a bag is adequate, but with such a huge amount of hops on this recipe, I will definitely use a hop bag next time!

You definitely need to do something to handle all the hops in a beer with this much hop in it. Strain it, use a hop bag, hop spider, whirlpool, etc, but you definitely don't want all that vegetable matter to end up in your ferementer.

I'm planning on doing a Pliny-esk beer soon. Basically Pliny + Amarillo and Citra in the 0min additions and dry hop.

scottland said:

You definitely need to do something to handle all the hops in a beer with this much hop in it. Strain it, use a hop bag, hop spider, whirlpool, etc, but you definitely don't want all that vegetable matter to end up in your ferementer.

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I agree! After pouring a few gallons of vegetal flavored hop water down the drain, I can safely say that I learned my lesson!!!

scottland said:

You definitely need to do something to handle all the hops in a beer with this much hop in it. Strain it, use a hop bag, hop spider, whirlpool, etc, but you definitely don't want all that vegetable matter to end up in your ferementer.

Click to expand...

When I did it, I just whirlpooled a little bit (I wasn't too concerned) and then cold crashed before I kegged it to get rid of the dry hop. Seemed to work well for me.

Dry hopping using muslin bags is so easy and cheap, but the only problem I have with it is when I need to dry hop in a glass carboy. How in the world can I get the bagged hops with the marbles inside the carboy through the narrow opening?

I've never had PTL. I'm visiting Santa Ana in two weeks and can't wait to visit RRB to drink it straight from the source!

ceweldon said:

I recently brewed a Pliny kit and I'm not happy with it. It's good, but it's not what I remember Pliny to be. It was also my first time dry hopping with pellet hops, I have since sworn off using pellet hops ever since. The one thing I am happy about is I think the recipe could have been great with a couple of tweaks, so I can now tweak it into something more interesting.

Click to expand...

i just dry hopped two beers with pellets (i have always used whole) - never again if i can help it. what a mess.

as for pliny, it's great because it's simple... it's dry, has a good mouth feel, good abv and balanced hops with a ton of non-bitter acids...

of course, i'm a RRB apologist.

johnodon said:

We started talking beers and I brought up Pliny the Elder and the IBUs and how hard it is to come by. 5 minutes later that bartender comes out and says "we just got two kegs of Pliny the Elder in and just tapped one of them...$5 a pint." The funny part is that she never heard a word of our conversation. GAME ON!!!


John

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you lucky :rockin:

OK...using the supplied documentation I have created the recipe in Beersmith. I am doing BIAB Full Volume which I know can be a difficult task for big beers but I'm a glutton for punishment. Honestly, I think I can pull it off. The grain bill is not nearly as big as I thought it would be.

I have attached a 2 snips of the beersmith brew steps if you guys want to look it over and comment. I substituted Crystal 40 and Crystal 60 for the Crystal 45 which I know my LHBS doesn't carry. This shiuldn't have any impact though.

John

Looks good. I would also throw an ounce of Amarillo into the dry hop schedule.

This beer is hard to do well. I know my first attempt was a failure as I had some oxidation due to the large amount of dry hop and syphoning issues. I'm going to take another run at it this fall however with a new dry hop system which allows for closed transfers under CO2.

shuckit said:

I've never had PTL. I'm visiting Santa Ana in two weeks and can't wait to visit RRB to drink it straight from the source!

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Are you driving up north? Santa Rosa is about 8 hours North of Santa Ana. If you do go there, they have a great selection of other brews and sours. Try them all.

Sacdan said:

Are you driving up north? Santa Rosa is about 8 hours North of Santa Ana. If you do go there, they have a great selection of other brews and sours. Try them all.

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Santa Ana? I was a little too excited when I wrote that. I'm going to Santa Rosa in two weeks. To the source!

johnodon said:

OK...using the supplied documentation I have created the recipe in Beersmith. I am doing BIAB Full Volume which I know can be a difficult task for big beers but I'm a glutton for punishment. Honestly, I think I can pull it off. The grain bill is not nearly as big as I thought it would be.

I have attached a 2 snips of the beersmith brew steps if you guys want to look it over and comment. I substituted Crystal 40 and Crystal 60 for the Crystal 45 which I know my LHBS doesn't carry. This shiuldn't have any impact though.

John

Click to expand...

I'd like to know how this turns out.

I have brewed the Pliny Clone twice. Like what others have said, the key to making it great is getting a dry finish to make the hops really stand out. To do this, mash low and pitch a lot of healthy yeast. Both times, my finishing gravity was 1.005. Here is what I did.

Mashed at 148 deg. for 90 minutes, 90 minute boil, hops in hop hanger bag, drained boil kettle into bucket with strainer bag to reduce the hop particles. Pitched a decanted 1600ml starter (from stir plate), aerated with O2 for 2 minutes. Strained through a bag, going from secondary to keg, to reduce dry hop particles.

Hope this helps and good luck.

What recipe did you use for the Pliny clone?

This og story is like a good daydream.Drift drift drift 2 hearted hop devil thought thought,mmm pliney what is it... hmm ding ding ding PLINY ON TAP! ON TAP!ON TAP!"Were you dreaming what i was dreaming bro?".......... lets go take a swim in lake pliny. That beer seems like the holy grail of beers,ive also heard otherwise but anybody that feels sorry for me,pm me for some Pliny.m k.. Oh and by the way anybody care to compare this to something more availble that may be similar- that i could buy any where please post.
Ill let some in on this though. If anybody is curious of Three Floyds Gumball head- its like lagunitas sumpin sumpin sorta just more sessionable,but by far the best hoppy wheat beer ever. Just a random thought.

Had my first bottle of Pliny like a week ago and loved it and I have to attempt to make it now