MoreBeer Pliny vs. Northern Brew Plinian

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typebrad

typebrad

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Anyone been able to try both? Opinions? I hear great things about the MoreBeer kit.


/Will always still be figuring it out/
 
I got my brother the morebeer one for xmas and have to say it was VERY VERY delicious. I've never had the real pliny tho so unfortunately I have nothing to compare it to.
 
I bought the MoreBeer one a little while back. It tasted fantastic, and I had never actually had the real pliny. I then found a place in Philly that had Russian River on tap. We had a Pliny as well as a Blind Pig IPA. The MoreBeer Pliny kit actually tastes A LOT like the Blind Pig IPA, more so than the Pliny.
 
Another confirmation that the more beer kit is great, though never had a real pliny.
 
So, no one has had the Northern Brewer Plinian Legacy then? Their site has 25, 5-star reviews and 1, 4-star.


/Will always still be figuring it out/
 
Hi type

I bought the NB plinian kit and I have one week of dry hopping left. I did cheat and sample a pint or 3 and I have to tell you, it's one of the best IPAs I have had. I know it's the best I ever made. It uses about 15 oz plus the resin hop shots so it's over the top hoppy. With that said, there are so many varieties of hops added in so many stages that the result isn't overpowering, it's complex in a great way.

I would highly recommend the kit. Those guys have a great track record of great kits for me. The Irish heavy, brown ale, even the apricot blonde!




Sent from my iPhone using Home Brew
 
Just brewed the MoreBeer version, it's carbing in the bottles right now. Tasted great when I was checking FG.
I will report back next week when they are ready.
 
I've done the MB kit before & it was good, but due to faults of my own, it was no Pliny. Process is more important than ingredients - give the same ingredients to two different brewers & you'll end up with two different beers. So it's going to be hard to poll the community for a subjective answer to a question like this. If super hoppy IIPA's are your thing, what the hell, give them both a shot & see what turns out best.
 
Never actually had Pliny(live in NY), or tried the Morebeer kit, but I made the NB Plinian Legacy kit. It is so delicious!!! Anybody who loves hoppy beer should try one of them. I have a kit of the NB Plinian just waiting to be brewed, but after that, maybe I'll try the Morebeer kit to compare them. Life is so good when you can brew beer like this!!
 
jspain3 said:
I thought the NB kit seemed closest to the Bertus recipe which is why I ordered it. Can't wait to brew it. Any tips from those who've done it? I've never dryhopped before so that will be a first.
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Timing in those dry hop additions is important, don't let it set for too long.

You will loose a lot of beer to the hops too, so increase batch size a bit.

The most important thing is to not let any oxidation happen. Purge all lines/kegs/bottles.
 
jspain3 said:
I thought the NB kit seemed closest to the Bertus recipe which is why I ordered it. Can't wait to brew it. Any tips from those who've done it? I've never dryhopped before so that will be a first.
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I just chimed in on a similar thread which I'd link to if I had that magical skill but... I dry hopped in my primary bucket fermenter, total time before bottling was 3.5 weeks at the recommendation of a NB guy whom I emailed (I think I asked how long to ferment if no secondary). 1st dry hop at 10 days before bottling and 2nd at 4 days. Amazing beer and I definitely plan to brew it again.
 
jspain3 said:
I thought the NB kit seemed closest to the Bertus recipe which is why I ordered it. Can't wait to brew it. Any tips from those who've done it? I've never dryhopped before so that will be a first.
Click to expand...

Use pellets for dry hopping and I would only let each dry hop addition have 4 days contact time before pulling the dry hop bag out and adding the next dry hop addition. Also if you keg I would add the first dry hop addition to your primary fermenter as you near terminal gravity and after 4 days contact time transfer to a co2 purged keg and add the second dry hop addition. After four days in the keg (the beer should be at room temperature this whole time) throw the keg in the fridge, cold crash for a day or two and then jump to a fresh co2 purged keg.
 
I've made the NB Plinian Legacy twice now, and both batches were the excellent. The first batch was the best beer I've ever tasted, much less made. For the second batch I used mesh bags to dry hop, which really helps keep the hops contained and made bottling day much less problematic.

If it tells you anything I'm about to order the kit for the 3rd time.
 
I just finished off my first 5g batch of Morebeer's PTE and it was nothing short of stellar. I went directly to RR Brewery, waiting the requisite 30 minutes in line to gain entry, in order to obtain a twelve-pack of the real stuff. I then bottled 6 samples of mine from the keg, and distributed to friends for blind tasting. 4 reported back as "almost indistinguishable." One friend liked mine better - in the blind. The last, whose neighbor is a Seibel grad, shared with that neighbor, who gave mine a 3.5/5 and the RR 4.5/5 overall score. My friend, however, found that whole judging process is too elaborate and time consuming said: "I liked yours a lot and had finished my share and kept wanting to drink what i had given to the judge." Most of my point deficiencies were due to cosmetics, e.g. clarity, color and head. Flavor was very highly rated, very close to the real. All with no temp-controlled chamber, just sitting in the house.

Overall, I am extremely happy with the results, such that I am brewing 10g again tomorrow.

BTW, I did 10g all grain last time, but split the batch and put cherries in 5g. I haven't given ANY of that away and it is almost gone. Need I tell you how much I liked it?

Also, the kit prices are not bad. Unless you buy the hops in bulk (all 5 of them) you won't beat the price. :mug:
 
Per my email discussion with Vinnie, no FWH with Amarillo - the MoreBeer recipe is quite old. Still in the same ballpark but not what he brews today.
 
Here is [URL=" http://blt.loosecannon.info/wordpress/?p=1288" ]my research [/URL] on pliny. Going to try a direct comparison next week.
 
I was told at the brewery that they constantly tweak the recipe such that it is never exactly the same for long. I'm doing another 10g AG of Morebeer recipe today, using bulk supplies. What is FWH?
 
It may be an old recipe but it's a darn good one (Morebeer's) I recently brewed it again a couple months ago and went up to Russian river a few weeks ago. It's a very good kit alternative to the real deal.
 
juangrande said:
I was told at the brewery that they constantly tweak the recipe such that it is never exactly the same for long. I'm doing another 10g AG of Morebeer recipe today, using bulk supplies. What is FWH?
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First wort hops, adding the hops to the empty kettle then draining the mash tun into the pot.
 
No Amarillo in More beer recipe. 4 oz Cascade in mash. 4oz Magnum fwh for 90 min boil. Then Columbus at 46, Simcoe @30 and Simcoe and Centenial at flame out. Last 3 aga in as dry hop @7 days. La cervesa mas fina!
 
Brewing a batch of NB Pliny right now, it should be out of the primary in a couple of days. Should I use a hop bag for the dry hop pellets? That never occurred to me until I read this thread.
 
I don't think you need to use a bag, and I think that you'll get more out of the hop pellets if you don't. But you need some way of keeping the hops out of your bottling bucket...the first time I made this kit it really clogged up my bottling wand, so I am now putting a paint strainer bag over my auto-siphon (after reading all the helpful suggestions here) and it works great.
 
I used a paint bag for the hop additions and it definitely helps removing a big chunk of hop debris. I also double bagged my siphon wand. My bottle-conditioned beer was crystal clear, but after chilling them in the fridge there is a lot of chill haze. Next go round I'll do a better job of filtering the hot/cold break rather than dumping it all to the primary and trying to rack off it. I'm hoping if I leave the bottles in the fridge long enough the haze will precipitate out.
 
I made the northern brewer kit and its been in the keg for 9 days now. just got fully carbed. Smells and tastes great. I changed up the recipe a bit since I do a full boil. I entered NBs recipe into beer smith with top of water then entered mine in boiling 7 gallons and matched the IBUs for each hop addition. Saved a hop shot and cut down on the columbus 45 minute addition. Its still really bitter and mouth drying. A bit of a palate killer in a great way. Columbus strong but also some great fruit and pine flavors from the other hops.
 
So what's the difference between the two kits?
When I have brewed clones of this I've just bought the hop pack from farmhouse, or assembled myself the required hops and brewed the recipe Vinnie freely gives out and has been published several times in BYO and zymurgy.
I vaguely recall simcoe Amarillo and CTZ ?cascade maybe too though don't think so.

TD
 
I also brewed the MB kit and loved it. It was great after a few weeks but by the time I finished the second keg a month later it was fantastic! Definitely a brew over.
 
normonster said:
I also brewed the MB kit and loved it. It was great after a few weeks but by the time I finished the second keg a month later it was fantastic! Definitely a brew over.
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Oddly enough... That's my take also. I had one of these 2 days ago and I made my batch quite a while ago. I almost think it's better now but then again I'm almost out...lol
 
I recently brewed both NB's Plinian and MB's Pliny a day apart and both were bottle conditioned. After 2 week I sampled both and despite the numerous similarities in flavor, I think the Plinian had a cleaner finish as the Pliny had more of a peppery aftertaste. After a month of bottle conditioning, the Pliny has dramatically smoothed out where as the Plinian hasn't changed much. Not sure I'll have enough left of either to compare at 6 weeks, but my personal thought is that the Plinian is a better brew for people like me that don't want to wait more than a couple weeks to bottle condition but the Pliny is equally good, if not better, with age.
 
Thanks, I have a MB Pliny batch dry hopping at the moment. It's around 8.9% but super smooth, a lot better than some of the $8 bottles I buy.
 

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