Beer Blog

7.0%ABV / 1.068 O.G / 25 BUs”


Tonight was good night. Crystal started working her night shift tonight and she doesn’t get off until midnight. This will be like this for six weeks. For the first night I enjoyed this amazing beer while watching Inglorious Basterds. I’ve been excited to see this for a while. I had it at or near the top of my Netflix queue for about 5 months now. Netflix is so popular I don’t see how they have a shortage of DVDs and it takes 5 months for a popular movie to be available to me. Anyways, I loved this movie. Not much more to say than that. Maybe I should start Movie & a Beer Blog and review both while I enjoy or not enjoy both. Onto the critique!


Russian River has a thing with naming their beers with words that end in ‘tion’. Just check out their site and look around. This would be my first taste of one of those and what a good one to start on. As you can tell from the photo above, this was a corked bottle. Maybe because it’s a Belgian Strong Pale Ale. Any beer with a cork makes me excited. It’s like the pop when it comes out is the exclamation point on my anticipation right before I’m about to drink it. Pouring it in the glass a very nice head formed and I could smell the goodness right away. Smelled a bit of citrus and some herb like notes. Also smelled a lot of what I think would be wort. I thought the color in the glass was very nice. Lots of bubbles and very clear. I let up on the pour a little bit so there was a little bit left in the bottle. I also held back because they leave a little yeast in the bottle so it can ferment longer than just at the brewery. I smelled the almost empty bottle and looked inside and felt I should pour the rest into the glass. This was after the photo was taken. After the last pour, it turned slightly cloudy. Upon drinking it, I am delighted. First thing I think is the flavor is very heavy, not like a golden ale that I am used to. Very malty, high carbonation (hence all the bubbles), crisp, lemon zest, and dry. I love dry, so this is great. Man what a great beer. I think lots of people would like this, but it’s probably hard to find outside of Northern California. I picked this one up at City Beer here in SF. If you see it, don’t miss it, no matter who you are.

“It’s a saison of sorts; hellaciously herbaceous and hopefully contagious. This was not a ready made ale. But it is a ready made collaboration. Meaning Stone & Victory are 2 breweries that are exactly like Dogfish in that they do/brew exactly what that love and do/brew it exactly like no other brewery out there. -Sam Calagione, Dogfish Head Founder and President”

“BUFF- Brewers United for Freedom of Flavor. A clandestine organization committed to liberating collective taste buds, citing the dastardly and/or oppressive reign of so-called ‘fizzy yellow beer.’ “

Ah, another collaboration brew helmed by Stone. This time Dogfish Head and Victory join in. Ever since I heard about this beer, back when it was announced and before it was even brewed, I wanted to try it. Brewed with parsley, sage, rosemary, and thyme, like the Simon and Garfunkel song, Scarborough Fair (then started listening to their live Concert in Central Park album). I was so anxious to try it. Such an interesting set of ingredients to brew a beer with. If I was going just off of flavor I would have given it an A-, but Dogfish and Stone are two of my favorite breweries. I love how they brew crazy beers and, like it says above, do/brew what they love and are like no other breweries out there. I have not had any beers from Victory, but if they team up with these two, then I love them already.

First off, I love these bottles with the ink printed on it. Stone does it with all their beers and these collaborations. Pouring it in the glass a minimum head formed. Color was a slightly hazy golden amber. Smell was very herb-y. I ran to the spice rack to get the bottles of parsley, rosemary, and thyme and compare it with the smell in the glass. I could barely single out each one. On top of the herbs was a little citrus and a bit sweet. The moment I’ve been waiting for, the taste. Did not disappoint at all, better than I expected. So smooth and flavorful. I can taste the herbs but can’t separate the tones. I can’t remember the last saison that I had, but I thought this brew was very similar to a hefeweizen. I’d like to clarify that while the herb taste comes through a lot, it still tastes like a good beer, not like drinking a marinade or something. I’m off to buy several more bottles as Stone just brewed the last batch. Don’t miss this one.

“Pliny the Elder was a Roman naturalist, scholar, historian, traveler, officer, and writer. Although not considered his most important work, Pliny and his contemporaries created the botanical name for hops, “Lupus salictarius”, meaning wolf among scrubs.” Hops at that time grew wild among willows, much like a wolf in the forest. Later the current botanical name, Humulus lupulus, was adopted. Pliny died in 79 AD while observing the eruption of Mount Vesuvius. He was immortalized by his nephew, Pliny the Younger, who continued his uncle’s legacy by documenting much of what he observed during the eruption of Mount Vesuvius.”

Bottle Description: “Does not improve with age! Hoppy beers are not meant to be aged! Kee away from heat! Respect your elder: keep cold, drink fresh, do not age! Pliny is a historical figure, don’t make the beer inside this bottle one! Not a barley wine, do not age! Age your cheese, not your Pliny! Respect hops, consume fresh! If you must sit, sit on eggs, not on Pliny! Do not save for a rainy day! Pliny is for savoring, not for saving! Consume Pliny fresh, or not at all!”

I can’t remember if I had ever heard of this beer before moving to San Francisco. This city has an awesome beer culture, one of the main reasons I started this blog. There are so many places to go here to get high quality beer and some of it pretty rare and unheard of. Enter Russian River who brews Pliny. They are based out of Santa Rosa, a little town just north of here. I’ve had a few of their other beers and they are very high quality. As of writing this review, Pliny the Elder is ranked at #7 in the world on Beer Advocates, “Best of Beer Advocate”. BA is the unofficial go to site for beer rankings and reviews.

I have had Pliny many times before since I moved to SF, all of them on tap. Since all of my reviews are of bottles, I wanted to keep it that way. Picked up this bottle at City Beer Store, the finest beer store I’ve ever been to. Pouring it in the glass a nice head formed that left lacing on the glass as I drank more. Smell is citrusy and hops. Taste is citrusy and hoppy like the smell with a tiny bit of malts mixed in there. The 8% alcohol is hidden. What a wonderful Double IPA. I will, in some part, judge all other beers byway of this beer. The only people who shouldn’t try this are people who don’t like beer at all.