Russian River Pliny the Elder

Brewed by Russian River Brewing
Style: Imperial/Double IPA
Santa Rosa, California USA

Pours out a hazy gold with lots of head. Smells sweet and piney. Taste is more of the same. Good balance. Lots of citrus and floral flavors with bitter hop finish. Very tasty DIPA.

Hop bomb! What a delight. Had it in Berkley and had it again at the brewpub even though there were so many other delicious beers I hadn’t yet had. Pours a dark copper-y color and the aroma had wafts of citrus (namely grapefruit), and some floral notes as well. Under those aromas were some pine and overall goodness. As mentioned in prior posts, despite the all hop aroma all the time and the BIG hop taste, it didnt have the bitterness that sometimes a hop-bomb can have. The flavor was everything the aroma was, yet slightly more balanced. A suprisingly soft finish topped of this near-perfection beer. Loved it!

This beer was world class. Poured a nice hazy golden colro with a bit of a rocky white head. Aroma was straight up hops, a prefect blend of citrus, pine, grapefruit, the nose on this was magnificent. I wa sa little worried the flavor would be overly bitter in the way super hoppy beers can get, but this was like drinking a big glass of fresh hop juice. The hops flavor just exploded and flooded your mouth. This beer was bliss.

500mL bottle: Appearance is amber brown with slow fading off white head, aroma is strong in hops with hints of pale malt, flavor has a very strong taste of floral hops with almost no citrus bite but still very hoppy good malt backbone. Was looking for more out of this top 100 beer but none the less was still damn good.

Bottle from Bottleworks. Hops...bang! The aroma hits with the force of a wrecking ball, and that’s just the tip of the iceberg. Pours an attractive gold, but with some yeast floaties. Nice white bubbly head with decent lacing.This is one incredibly hoppy beer that is balanced well with two incredibly unique tastes. First, you get a citrus sweetness on the tongue, but that quickly fades as the bitter hops linger on the palate. This has lived up to the hype and I’m glad I had the chance to try it. incredibly drinkable. Nice work, RR!

Easily the biggest hops ever. Very interesting. Bought at Whole Foods ... kinda pricey, but a lot of fun.

Wow! Very piney smell almost like evergreen mixed with hops. Very bitter hop presence followed by grapefuit citrus tartness. Not my favorite Double IPA but very high up there.

500mL bottle from Beerstore.co.nz , bottled on 23.01.09. Let him warm up for a couple of hours out of the fridge. Cheers beerstore!! Pours hazy dark golden with a filmy off white head.
Aroma is full of those beautiful piny American hops and citrus fruit. I get some orange peel, yet the malt gets through, caramel poking its nose in.
Wow, the beer is highly drinkable yet the flavours are very pronounced. Resinous hops coat the mouth with a medium to strong bitterness which brings the pine flavour. Behind this cloying hop is a somewhat robust malt, which sweetens the deal and makes for a very balanced beer. Hops turn citric on the finish, probably like orange rind – very bitter. The finish is very long, as one would expect with an uber hoppy beer.
All together a strong beer for sure, in its flavour. The 8% ABV doesn’t show itself, in fact I’d liken this strongly to its smaller brother ‘Blind Pig’, yet more balanced. Woooow, a dangerously delicious beer.