Russian River Pliny the Elder

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

On tap at Stone. Pours cloudy golden/orange with lots of rising bubbles. Has a strong sweet/juicy citurs hop nose with wonderful grapefruit. Flavor has much more pine and again strong citrus punch with a clean finish. Simply Excellent.

Its loaded with hops and yet very easy to drink. Its very piney and grassy, not too bitter though, or harsh on the palate. It achieves a great balance of hoppiness and smooth easy drinking flavor. Exactly what I want from an IPA, full of explosive hop presence, yet sustaining with the ability to enjoy a lot of.

Hazy darker orange with good, creamy white head / Nose of fresh pine, orange and cream / Medium body, with good malts and biting hops, and with fine finish / Flavors of cut pine, caramel, orange, grapefruit, and resin / Doesn’t eclipse Dogfish 90 or Dreadnaught, but a very fine beer.

First off, a big thanks to my cousin for bringing this beer with him to OH on a x-country trip from CA. I’ve had this beer at festivals on draft, and thought it was amazing. However, I usually don’t rate from samples, so I haven’t rated it until I got my own bottle. And while the bottle was very good, I don’t think it was as fresh as the samples I’ve had on draft. Because while the bottle I got was certainly very good, it wasn’t the hop ecstasy I experienced in the draft form. So, in this review, I’ll likely split the difference. Color is far lighter than I would’ve expected. It looks like a golden ale - not too thick, a very light blond/golden color, with a nice amount of head piled on top - a nice picture. Aroma was very hoppy (but hoppier on draft) and was very pine-y and resin-y. Beer was balanced with a nice malt framework...even though this beer is packed with hops, it didn’t unbalanced. Mouthfeel is light and pleasant. I swear I could drink a gallon of this stuff without feeling stuffed and like my mouth was coated with cotton candy (the way I would feel with other very hoppy, sticky IPAs). This beer deserves its accolades. It really is one of the best!

Great Beer! I could drink this all the time, very smooth. The aroma and the flavor are something to cherish and for others to aspire to. I only wish I could find a more reliable source, as it is hard to come by around here.

I love everything about this beer except for the completely over the top hopping. It’s true that they did it right by balancing things with a hefty malt backbone to support and offset the hops, and at least being advertised as an imperial IPA forewarns, but I don’t think getting cottonmouth from a beer is necessarily pleasant. I love hops, but there’s such a thing as "too much"

500 ml bottle, bottled on 8/19/2009. Pours a beautiful yellow-gold. The medium head is thick, creamy and laces well on the glass. The aroma alone is reason enough to buy this beer. Huge, fresh pine is the first note, followed by layers of citrus. Just when I think it can’t get any better … I take a sip and am rewarded with a wonderful balance of citrus and resiny, piney hops. So many bold tastes and sensations going on that it could easily overwhelm and miss the mark, but instead it takes me to the zenith and holds me there. I’ve had the great fortune of enjoying this beer a number of times before, and every time I do it’s like falling in love all over again. Russian River has brewed an epic masterpiece in every way.

500-mL bottle. Pours yellow-golden with a large, lasting white head and plenty of lacing. Nice, strong pine-hop aroma. Flavor is a well-blended mix of woody bitterness, hop resin, and slightly sweet malt backing. Bit of tropical fruit and grass mixed in there. Excellent DIPA.