Pliny the Younger

So, my LHBS is having a Russian River Brewing tasting this Sunday. They got 1 keg of pliny the younger and they are doing 1 ticket per person @ 10 bucks for an 8oz pour. I've had the elder, and it's delicious..is it that much different than the elder?

completely different, it's worth a taste. not sure about 10 bucks for an 8 oz pour. damn that is price gouging!

It's an AMAZING beer. 10$ is a lot but RR doesn't even let people take growlers of it home. The only way you can get it is to drink it at the RR tasting room. Plus 8oz worth is about 3 regular beers so it's not that bad of a deal

jphebbie2 said:

It's an AMAZING beer. 10$ is a lot but RR doesn't even let people take growlers of it home. The only way you can get it is to drink it at the RR tasting room. Plus 8oz worth is about 3 regular beers so it's not that bad of a deal

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They send kegs all over the place... there is Huge demand and often long lines but not quite a month ago I got a glass for 4.00 at Bailey's Taproom in Portland. It is very good. Similar to Double Jack from Firestone in many ways. A little lighter in color and slightly more hoppy

Ehhh...

I believe you are thinking of Pliny the elder which is widely available. We are speaking of Pliny the younger which is an Extremely limited release and a real treat to ever come across

jphebbie2 said:

I believe you are thinking of Pliny the elder which is widely available. We are speaking of Pliny the younger which is an Extremely limited release and a real treat to ever come across

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I don't think he's mistaken.....In Nor Cal (and I imagine Portand) its not that hard to come across each Feb.

A quick story from a friend of mine who lives near Santa Rosa...

Members of his local homebrew club all began talking (via Facebook) about how a certain homebrew shop in town was able to score a 5 gallon keg of Younger. That shop had posted an "ad" on Facebook telling guys to be at the shop early a few Saturdays back if they wanted to be sure to score a 8 oz pour. Indeed, a bunch of guys were there for the tapping, which led to an onslaught of comments on Facebook, all stating just how amazing Younger was. Well, later that afternoon, one of the guys from the homebrew shop serving the beer informed everyone that the beer was not "genuine," but rather a clone of of (I believe) Vinnie's Blind Pig, or maybe it was Elder. Either way, as soon as that post went up, another onslaught of Facebook posts came, only this time folks were making comments like, "Yeah, it really wasn't all that special." C'mon!

My point here is this: hype has a huge impact on perception. I'd be willing to bet if I drank a glass of Younger without knowing it was Younger, it'd taste just like any other good IIPA. Russian River makes f*cking awesome beer, and they're also a brilliant business... brewing an IIPA once per year, charging a lot for it... they know people get worked up into a frenzy about this stuff. I wonder how big of a kick they get out of watching all these people do so on a yearly basis???

fletchsj said:

completely different, it's worth a taste. not sure about 10 bucks for an 8 oz pour. damn that is price gouging!

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Yeah. I would probably pass on it at that price. I'm not necessarily a cheap beer guy, but 1/2 a beer for 10 bucks is pushing it for me.

Yeah I wasn't mistaken... Actually, I posted my story on the boards here last month... Basically I showed up for the last 8oz glass being poured before my eyes and knew I had missed out for the 3rd time this season on Younger. So I ordered a pint of Elder. not 2 min later a random busines man came over and offered me his 2nd glass of younger (he was sitting at the bar, and I asked not only the people sitting next to him, but the beer server if it was indeed Younger) turns out beer lovers in portland at least are pretty awesome people! This was at about 2:30pm on a Tuesday I believe... So all thank you's and what not later I sat and was able to do a side by side tasting of both elder and younger. Both delicious in their own way but very different. and both were less than 10 combined lol