Friday, February 25, 2011

Pliny the Younger in Portland

[Update (2011/03/08):  From Belmont Station: At 3PM Thursday March 17 we start selling tickets for the Russian River IPA event to take place Saturday. Tickets for the taster flight of Pliny the Younger, Pliny the Elder, and Blind Pig will be $12 (cash only). Tickets can be redeemed any time from Noon - 6PM on Saturday. You may buy multiple tickets for friends but we will only serve one taster flight per person. This will enable us to provide as many people as possible a taste of the Younger, yet keep the atmosphere relaxed. $6 from each taster flight sold will be donated to the Don Younger Foundation (currently being established)." (5-ounce samples)

Whoa -- Roscoe's quietly put on a small keg today. 10-ounce pours for $6. Way to go, guys!]

[Update (2011/03/02): Saraveza will be pouring Pliny the Younger Monday, March 7.  They will sell 80 tickets Saturday, March 5th at 2 PM. 8-ounce pours this time.  They also are going to do flights of bottled Russian River beers in the *-tion series: click the link above for details.  By the way, County Cork served 10-ounce pours for $8.50 yesterday (March 1st).]

Original article:

I can't believe Twitter isn't aflame with the news that John Foyston printed in the paper this morning:  tonight (Friday, February 25, 2011), Higgins Restaurant will be pouring Russian River Pliny the Younger (and its little big brother Pliny the Elder).

It's either because the Oregonian's pitiful website has not published John's print column to the information superhighway yet, or because Ezra decreed that Pliny the Younger is a joke.  I wouldn't say that it's a joke, but I'm not sure yet if I'm going to brave the crowds tonight to get a taste, even though I said two years ago that one shouldn't hesitate to get some of the Younger whenever it's being served.  It is a delicious, intensely flowery, rich and strong "triple IPA".

You should probably expect to pay $7-$8 a snifter for this at Higgins.  They're pretty proud of their beer.  [Update:  Commenter John M. reports it was $8.50 for a 10-ounce glass.  I guess my new algorithm for guessing Higgins prices is { guess the most I would pay; add 50 cents; }.  From the Higgins/Pliny thread on beeradvocate.com: they had a sixth-barrel keg, which is at most 66 servings.  Someone posting on a related BA thread said they were sitting at the bar and watched the keg arrive at 4:20 and blow at 5:26.  Hmm... 66 servings, 66 minutes.  Higgins should have sold it for $11.10, so that 6 ounces would cost $6.66.]

If you have it this year, let us know what you thought of it.

3 comments:

  1. Good call on the price. It was actually $8.50 for a 10 ounce glass (almost double what RR charged at the brewpub), but that didn't seem to slow anyone down.

    I had younger during release week down in Santa Rosa as well, and it didn't seem to have lost anything over the past few weeks. Still delightfully hoppy and delicious.... as it is pretty much every year. Good stuff....

    ReplyDelete
  2. Dang, I don't know how I missed hearing about this (other than being so busy lately). I still have yet to try the Younger, maybe some day.

    ReplyDelete
  3. We were lucky enough to get a keg in Bend Oregon at The Abbey Pub. And luckier still to get a glass. Here is the video blog of the happy occasion...
    http://www.barbonbeer.com/2011/03/pliny-younger-beer-review-barb-on-beer.html

    ReplyDelete