BoozeReviews.net

Once a year Russian River releases a beer that is now so famous that El Guapo himself may elevate this to the category of in-famous. Beer heathens from all over the U.S. and abroad travel great lengths for the chance to taste and fill growlers of Pliny the Younger, a triple IPA that packs a serious wallop at 10% plus and “gobs” of IBU’s. What took a week last year to finish off was gone in less than 8 hours. Insanity. This is one man’s point of view of the experience. All photos courtesy of Chad, aka cpferris on BeerAdvocate.

The day started as I arrived at the Travelodge Downtown Santa Rosa around 10:30 after flying into Oakland and renting a pretty spiffy little car for the drive up. The Travelodge is a good place to puke and pass out, but certainly the holes in the walls, piss-stained carpet and the fact that they were doing construction throughout the day trying to keep this hotel from falling down told me that I was certainly not in Kansas anymore. I wouldn’t be spending much time there anyway with all the good beer soon to come.

Walked to Russian River at 10:45 and met Jeff, ColonelForbin and Chad in the back parking lot. The line was already crazy to get in the front door, but when you meet up with the locals, there is no time for busy lines or shenanigans. We went in the back door with the employees to the side room that Vinnie had reserved for us. Took a look at the beer offerings for the day. Good stuff. Of course, we toted in a giant cooler of beer that Jeff had slowly been compiling over the course of the past couple of weeks; beer generously donated by other BeerAdvocate attendees. You may ask what kind of sick assholes bring rare, high abv brew to the Younger release? Well we certainly did. Here is a picture of the cooler.

Soon after, people came piling in through the doors and the bar filled up until people were sardines in a can, immovable objects lost amid a sea of drooling cretins waiting for a chance to savor the flavor of a pint or to fill up a maximum of 4 growlers. At 11:00 some people waited at the bar for over an hour to get a pint, and that was once they were inside. Those left outside, sadly looking in, waited up to three hours just to get in as the line wrapped up the block. Of course, for the sake of entertainment, I pressed my ball sack against the window and waved pint after pint of Younger at them to provoke their ire. Schadenfreude. Our room had bartenders rushing in and out bringing us tray after tray of Younger. After a while, they got so sick of us plowing through beer, that they started bringing pitchers of Younger. This is where things start to get a little hazy.

After my third pint of Younger, I thought it would be a good idea to dive into the cooler as most of the BA attendees had arrived and were on the verge of being unable to distinguish some of the more subtle nuances of the bottles that were in store. All of the members in the room were experienced drunks and it was great to finally put some names to faces and online pseudonyms. First up, Kuhnhenn Bourbon Barrel Barleywine vintage 2005. This was a bottle that was re-released after a keg was discovered at the brewery and it’s contents were then put into bottles and reconditioned. Amazing. The label got destroyed from the ice in the cooler. The labels looked like they were printed off someone’s home computer, so no big loss there.

Next we sampled more Younger, then it was on to a growler of Bells Bourbon Barrel Aged Double Cream Stout. Eyebrews (pictured with Jeff aka ipa247) on BA was turning 50 today and he graciously shipped out a ton of rare beer to celebrate the moment with friends. This particular beer was amazing and really well balanced for a big BA Stout. I had a few of the sample glasses and a couple good laughs with berkey and mjl21.

After this, I felt the need to pace myself, so I had a glass of water and a couple pieces of pizza. After not eating anything all day, the pizza was excellent. Something with vegetables on it if I vaguely remember correctly. To wash down the pizza, we thought it wise to open not one but two bottles of Barrel Aged Old Dipsea Barleywine. One was barreled in Heaven Hill barrels while the other in Old Fitzgerald Barrels. I preferred the Old Fitz, but both were tributes to the excellence that sometimes occurs when brewers stick a decent barleywine in a bourbon barrel. Good stuff. Next up was Canadian Breakfast Stout, another growler sent out from the bar “HopCat” by the BA eyebrews. Currently ranked in the top ten on BeerAdvocate, this Founders creation is a tough brew to get out here on the West Coast. Delicious stuff and really reminiscent of Founders Breakfast Stout with a little maple added to it. MMMMM.

By then it was time to get a little wild. Popped Ithaca’s new blueberry wild ale aptly named LeBleu. And it sure did! Gusher! This beer was way too carbonated, but still pretty tasty. Nothing like the vinegary funk of Cantillon’s Blabaer, but still fun. After that, Arbitrator cracked his bottle of “Dave,” followed by the Bruery’s Oude Tart and Cantillon’s 50 degrees North 40 degrees East. All were excellent, except Dave, which was just a bad joke gone really bad. More Younger, more Younger, more Younger. Then someone cracked a 1.5L Anchor Our Barrel Ale. A fucking fantastic old ale that is pretty hard to come by. At this point I was getting more than a little fired up for beer! As were others who had been there since 11:00 am.

By this time RR was a madhouse. Hundreds of beer junkies stoned out of their brains on Younger were breaking glasses, spilling on strangers, vomiting in the general vicinity of the toilet. Night of the living drunks. Scary beer zombies with a penchant for buggery and, of course, more Younger.

And I was proudly one of them. A few hours later the announcement. RR had run out of growlers. Chaos ensued. Pandemonium. Three hours later, Younger was gone. People still waiting in line cried. People that showed up Saturday cried harder. Vinnie escaped to the confines to a bunker at his home built specially for this occasion to keep from being strung up by the angry lynch mob that demanded more Younger! We were still in the room at this point opening bottles of Odonata’s Rorie’s Ale, Bourbon and Rye Papier, Midnight Sun’s Sloth, 07 BA Decadence, an infected Short’s Brew and others I can’t even remember, but must have been delicious.

What I do remember vaguely is trying to walk home. I can’t tell you what time it was, how I found my way back to the hotel in the dark while being unable to read street signs, or how I woke up the next morning with little to no hangover even after not eating anything all day but two pieces of pizza. I was ready for more. And yes, the Travelodge was still a dump. I headed over to Flavor where I had three Moonlight beers on tap: Reality Czeck, Toast, and Lunatic Lager. What a treat! These rival anything that Russian River does, albeit these are much lower, more sessionable abv beers. Just what the doctor ordered. I had a burger and fries to go with it. Good food and great beer! Met up with some other BA’s that told me about the other happenings from the night before. Tales of broken bottles, stolen growlers, missing money, and man on man love. Shortly after, I drove up a couple exits on the 101 to Bottle Barn and perused their selection. Eh. So-so. Nothing really notable that I can’t get back home. From there, went back to the hotel and boxed up some brews to ship out to people that I’ve been trading with for a couple years. Then on to UPS to ship. Back to Flavor for Dinner and another three Moonlight beers: Death and Taxes Amber Lager, Bombay by Boat IPA and Twist of Fate, an English bitter. I missed out on Young Pale Ale from Moonlight, a beer that I was hoping I’d find, but no luck there. I’ll live.

After dinner, back to Russian River for a nightcap of Benediction, Rejection, and more Supplication. Good shit. Talked with an Orange County Beechwood regular and a table of guys from Washington D.C. Stumbled back to the hotel again, woke up, checked out, and off to the airport for the hour plus drive to Oakland. Good thing I got the GPS for 10 extra bucks a day. Those freeways near the city are confusing. Managed to not get lost once with it.

Overall, I’m going to call this trip silly-stupid-fabulous. And only my liver would disagree.

Hopefully the crew can make this an annual event!

(4 votes, average: 5.00 out of 5)

 Loading ...