![]() ![]() But when you get a fresh taste, it begins to at least make some sense. This kind of diehard shadowing is normally reserved for club soccer or French wine auctions, not for a relatively small California brewery still typing in Comic Sans. And it’s barely the afternoon, for the record. There are six or seven other very good beers on tap but only one thing is being ordered. A small group has already assembled to enjoy the beer, some touting Pliny shirts and hats. “We still try to come up with a different name for it every year and ask that people don’t check-in on it until after the keg is gone,” he says.Īcross the river at John’s Marketplace, another lauded Portland bottle shop, Pliny has just been tapped. Years ago, BeerMongers played off of the social media craze and devout fanbase surrounding the Pliny beers and listed their draft allotment as “Miller High Life” to quell the demand and reward those in the know. Harmon says the state of Oregon gets anywhere from four-to-six 1/6 barrels shortly after the beer is released (in February for San Francisco Beer Week). The beer’s higher-octane sibling, Pliny the Younger, is also hugely sought-after. Russian River’s limited distribution and thirsty audience implies that it will do what any good IPA should: be consumed fresh. It’s named after the 1st-century natural philosopher who is believed to be one of the first to reference hops in his writings.Įlder is made with Amarillo, Centennial, CTZ, and Simcoe hops. The beer, technically a double IPA, flexes plenty piney hop muscle but is round and highly approachable. Debuting in 2000 at a local beer festival in California, Pliny set the bar for balanced West Coast IPAs. “I’m sure their marketing department has had so many critiques on that and probably only keeps it around for its tackiness.” “They’re also the only brewery ever that’s been able to get away with using Comic Sans MS on their labels for so long,” he says. It’s always reminded Harmon of the classic Lucky Strike branding. The label popped in a simple, timeless, and eye-catching sort of way. Harmon mentions Indiana’s Three Floyds and Heady Topper from beloved The Alchemist in Vermont.īefore the can craze, Russian River was delivering tiny lots of 16-ounce bottles to select markets. Just a small handful of other limited-distribution offerings come to mind that inspire cross-country road trips. “It was on top of national beer media’s best-of lists for so long, and still is, and as the craft beer industry really took off in the late 2000s, people started traveling across the country to finally get to try it.” “I do think to a certain extent Pliny was kind of the first big beer to come out of the check-in beer nerd culture,” Harmon says. On top of that, the beer is the product of California, a state that is awarded a healthy amount of skepticism (rational and irrational) from many Pacific Northwesterners. Keep in mind this is Portland, nicknamed Beervana, where good craft ales virtually grow on trees. “For a while, it was a running joke - and very real reality - that at least once a shift I would get a call asking if we had Pliny the Elder on tap,” he says. ![]()
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