Pliny the Younger (Photo by Euge Lee)
It’s the season during which beer aficionados gather to celebrate a product so rare and refined, it inspires the kind of epic lines usually associated with the sale of Rolling Stones tickets. Pliny The Younger, a Triple IPA, is the most beloved of Russian River Brewing Co’s creations, earning a score of 100 from beeradvocate.com. But it only comes to town once a year in February, and supply is always extremely limited, and of course the fact that it can’t be had makes it completely irresistible.
There are a handful of spots where you can grab your taste, if you’re devoted enough. Our local, Tony’s Darts Away in Burbank, will be giving out tickets this Tuesday at noon, first-come first-served, and will offer specific time slots to try and prevent crazy lines.
Our correspondents who have made the journey earlier today at Blue Palms Brewhouse report it to be worth it. My own experience with Pliny the Elder – still rare but not unheard-of at the right pubs – suggests a brewmaster that knows what’s what, and an inherent advantage of such an in-demand product: freshness. Any time you’re lucky enough to find it, it just arrived that day and won’t last long, meaning almost every drop of it gets consumed less than a week after being made.
We won’t argue with anyone who thinks this is an awful lot of fooferaw over a god damned beer, but neither would we try to talk its advocates down. Some things are just better than others. For those about to rock, we salute you.
