Pliny The Elder

[wayek11]

hello again,
this was another one that was in the package I picked up and has probably been the whole reason why I ordered beer across the border in the first place so I've been eagerly waiting to try this....

pours a nice solid see through almost orange with a big fluffy head .. smells of hops malts and something else kindof fruity like nectarines or peaches .. tastes great! this isnt really all about the hops but the malt too which impresses me because i am more of hop guy but this malt and hop combination is playing on itself in a very good way.. a nice caramel like malt finish with a hoppy bite that lasts a looooonnnnng time..... I toke a sip before this review and havent had to take another one yet

but to be honest I would say that it isnt really worth the hype
it is a great brew don't get me wrong but there is beers out there with way more hops but all in all this was and is great

wouldnt mind trying the younger...

[ritzkiss]

Every time I've had Pliney it's been at least a couple months old, nature of being so far from its home. It might be worthy of the excitement uber fresh but otherwise it's just a good West Coast IPA among many others in the US.

[markaberrant]

A great IPA is a fresh IPA.

Brew your own.

Cheers!

[wayek11]

yeah, it was bottled in may.....
nice beer though

[iguenard]

A great IPA is a fresh IPA.

Brew your own.

Cheers!

Word!! But fresh Pliny > fresh home-brewed IPA usually

I agree with the hype letdown though. It's a REaLLY good IPA, but not THAt much better than easily obtainable ruination, flower power or even Hop wallop.

If it'd be available at the LCbo it'd be my only purchase, ever, but I wouldn't go out of my way for some if I can get ruination next door.

[markaberrant]

Word!! But fresh Pliny > fresh home-brewed IPA usually

It would be pretty tough to do that comparison unless you lived near the brewery.

I am not joking at all when I say that a good homebrewed IPA will almost always be better than a commercial IPA.

The cash people blow on trading for stale IPAs could go a long way towards purchasing some nice homebrewing equipment. Even IPAs sitting in liquor stores at room temp are not worth it in my opinion. Hops fade very quickly if the beer is not properly cared for.

I have developed a very strong aversion to highly hopped beers that have staled - the best description I can come up with is "muddy/muddled" hop character, whatever you want to call it, it is a result of the hop compounds breaking down, and it is not pleasant.

Once you taste an intensely hoppy, incredibly fresh IPA, you can't really go back.

[wayek11]

Word!! But fresh Pliny > fresh home-brewed IPA usually

It would be pretty tough to do that comparison unless you lived near the brewery.

I am not joking at all when I say that a good homebrewed IPA will almost always be better than a commercial IPA.

The cash people blow on trading for stale IPAs could go a long way towards purchasing some nice homebrewing equipment. Even IPAs sitting in liquor stores at room temp are not worth it in my opinion. Hops fade very quickly if the beer is not properly cared for.

I have developed a very strong aversion to highly hopped beers that have staled - the best description I can come up with is "muddy/muddled" hop character, whatever you want to call it, it is a result of the hop compounds breaking down, and it is not pleasant.

Once you taste an intensely hoppy, incredibly fresh IPA, you can't really go back.

cheers

[TheSevenDuffs]

I love Pliny but I am also of the opinion that there are better out there. I had Pliny back to back on tap with Alpine Duet a couple of days ago and preferred the Duet.

[wayek11]

UPDATE: had the second bottle tonight and it was MUCH better than the previous one.... it was like getting punched in the mouth with hops

I'm sure sprague11 would agree with me

[iguenard]

Dont get me wrong, I think that for IPAs, Pliny is King, but given the painstaking steps you have to go through to get it fresh, unless its at the LCBO, I'd rather have Ruination, which is available right next door.

And Mark, I'm all up for a blind tasting of stale Pliny versus your fresh IPA

Always willing to put my buds to the test.

[markaberrant]

Dont get me wrong, I think that for IPAs, Pliny is King, but given the painstaking steps you have to go through to get it fresh, unless its at the LCBO, I'd rather have Ruination, which is available right next door.

And Mark, I'm all up for a blind tasting of stale Pliny versus your fresh IPA

Always willing to put my buds to the test.

I'm actually attending an IPA tasting tonight with 9 commercial IPAs. I'm gonna bring some of mine along and see how it stacks up (even though it is not as fresh as I would like it to be, about 4 months old). I'll let report back tomorrow!

[markaberrant]

So I attended the IPA tasting last night, we ended up sampling 11 commercial examples:

Excellent
Baird Suruga Bay Imperial IPA
Hopworks Ace of Spades DIPA
Moylans Hopsickle Triple IPA
All three of these have a crushing bitterness, resinous hop flavour, and decent aroma

Ok
Some other Japanese imperial IPA (it also had a big Brett B character, pretty cool, but not a DIPA)
Phillips Amnesiac DIPA (tame, but good flavours)
Howe Sound Total Eclipse of the Hops DIPA (really good beer, but not a DIPA)

Lame
Minoh W-IPA (this beer has always been terrible to me)
Granville Island DIPA (lame, heavily filtered)
Deschutes Hop Henge Experimental IPA (past its prime)
Garrison Imperial Pale Ale (this beer has seriously gone downhill over the years)
Lagunitas Hop Stoopid (never been a fan of this beer, has a good aroma, that's about it)

And then there was my homebrewed IPA - the aroma absolutely destroyed anything else on the table. Comments were, "incredibly complex, huge hop character, smooth, easy to drink." One of the commercial brewers in attendance said, "when are you going to start doing this for a living?" Everyone loved it.

[iguenard]

Congrats!

Brewing in commercial systems is a different world, great to go in with success and experience, but best of luck duplicating that on a commercial system.

You should try top convince the commercial brewer to take up your recipe for a one-off. See how that converts to his system. Should be some valuable insight and experience there if youve never done it.

Be curious to see your recipe (including temp actuals), if your into sharing.

[markaberrant]

Congrats!

Brewing in commercial systems is a different world, great to go in with success and experience, but best of luck duplicating that on a commercial system.

You should try top convince the commercial brewer to take up your recipe for a one-off. See how that converts to his system. Should be some valuable insight and experience there if youve never done it.

Be curious to see your recipe (including temp actuals), if your into sharing.

I have already collaborated on a few commercially brewed beers, and a couple more of my recipes have been brewed on commercial systems, but for homebrew purposes (split the wort into carboys, take home and ferment).

I have no interest in turning pro, unless someone offered me complete autonomy and a sizable salary (in other words, not gonna happen).

I typically share my recipes, but this IPA is actually a blend of an agressive pale ale and a DIPA (I blended the last half of each keg), and then added more dry hops, so it is not exactly something that would be easy to replicate.

[Steve Beaumont]

Word!! But fresh Pliny > fresh home-brewed IPA usually

I am not joking at all when I say that a good homebrewed IPA will almost always be better than a commercial IPA.

That's a ridiculous thing to suggest, Mark, since the number of variables involved are stupidly high, beginning with the skill of the homebrewer, the reliability of his or her equipment, the kind of market the commercial brewery is going after, the recipe, etc.

The cash people blow on trading for stale IPAs could go a long way towards purchasing some nice homebrewing equipment. Even IPAs sitting in liquor stores at room temp are not worth it in my opinion. Hops fade very quickly if the beer is not properly cared for.

A good read, Mark, is Pete Brown's Hops and Glory. In it, he details how British IPAs improved through their transit via what was effectively ill-treatment, being stored below sea level in conditions that were hot rather than cool.

What it all come down to is the kind of flavours you're looking for. If you had qualified by saying you're talking about only IPAs seasoned with American hops, I'd be more inclined to agree with you, or if you had stated straight off "For a good dose of in-your-face hoppiness..." But I've had months-old, even years-old IPAs in the American and British styles, and some hybrids, that have fared very well for their maturation, and others -- again, on both (or all three) sides of the coin -- that have not. Depends on the beer, the brewer, the vision of the company, etc.

Oh, and I've tasted some great homebrewed IPAs, And some really crap ones, too.