Pliny the Younger, beer tours and a good woman

[Kealia]

LOL. I'm really wondering if there is going to be any chance that we'll get to try PTY. Aside from it's normal cult following the local news channels have been doing segments on it's release and the lines, etc. Might be getting even more popular now which means longer lines.....

[Inkleg]

Is the wife going to feel a little uneasy knowing we're there too. Enjoy your trip Ron.

[Kealia]

OMG, so many beers...about to head off to Russian River for second time....will post morw in a few days when I detox...

[Inkleg]

OMG, so many beers...

I'm sure I'm not the only one picturing a kid in the candy store jumping up and down clapping his hands.

[Beer-lord]

OMG, so many beers...

I'm sure I'm not the only one picturing a kid in the candy store jumping up and down clapping his hands.

Well that's one thought but mine wasn't as clean as that.
Why can't enjoying great beers be a real job? There would be much less unemployed!

Hang in there Ron, you can do this. You're liver is still young.

[Kealia]

I am home now and hoping to at least do a partial write up later this evening after a friend comes and goes. I can tell you a few things now:

1) We tried Pliny the Younger
2) We tried some AWESOME IPAs, IIPAs and IIIPAs that were knock-your-socks-off good
3) We tried a sour that smelled like feet
4) I think I sprained my liver

[Beer-lord]

What a teast.
Pics or it didn't happen!

[Inkleg]

4) I think I sprained my liver

and I still love your wife for doing this for you. As I'm sure you do too.

[Kealia]

OK guys, bear with me as I go through this. This is going to be LONG and I'll likely break it up in parts to make both the writing and reading do-able. I'd really like to sit down with you all and talk about this over a beer, but since we can't this will have to do...

First, Jeff is right - I have to thank my wife and my buddy's wife for setting this up and being OK with us going over Valentine's weekend. They are simply the best and we're lucky to have them.

Without further ado, off we go:

Friday: We left home early to make sure we didn't get stuck in traffic which turned out to be non-existent. It was a warm, but foggy morning as we crossed over the Golden Gate Bridge:


After arriving a bit early the shuttle showed up and we loaded on. It's a typical small shuttle with folding doors, two-wide seats that face each other like a train does and seating for 14. We had 6 on board so there was plenty of room. Even packed full, it would have been comfortable. Oh, did I mention the keg in the back?


After a quick signature on a release form (Yes, I know that drinking beer can be hazardous to my health thank you), the driver asked us if we wanted a beer. Ummm, yes - that is after all why we were there, right? He poured us a glass of Lagunitas Little Sumpin' to get us started. He was a laid back guy, early 30's and clearly just enjoyed what he was doing. With beer in hand we headed out to Third Street AleWorks in Santa Rosa which was only about 10 minutes away. We walked in and took a seat at the bar. My buddy had found a Living Social deal for them earlier that included an appetizer, a full sampler and a new growler that would be filled upon leaving for $21. Good deal! Let's see, what's on the drink list:


The sampler included everything on the board except the barleywine which they were out of. No worries, there would be plenty of beer....so line them up please! The sampler paired with some beer-battered onion rings was a perfect start to the trip. In addition to what was on the board they had two beers on the cask taps so we had +2.


I won't review each beer, but I will call out the standouts at each place + anything special. The porter and stouts were 'ok'. Fine for a sample, but I couldn't drink any more of them (shocking, right?).The pale ale was 'meh'. Little aroma and just kind of bland with neither hops nor malts taking a prominent stance.
The IPAs were solid. Nothing great, but nothing bad. The Double Standard Double IPA however was good. Like this -->
This was only available on tap at the brewery because it was San Francisco Beer Week, and this was not the last special beer we would taste in the next 48 hours as a result.
The beer clocked in at 9.1% ABV and had a very aggressive hop-presence. We were going to have a full pint of it after the sampler but decided to see what the rest of the day held in store. Needless to say we were very excited to see what else we would be imbibing!

Stop #2: Bear Republic in Healdsburg. Again, about a 15-minute drive or so....nothing too long at all. Many people here have had the Racer 5 IPA and are fans and I've had a few of their beers so we were amped up to get there.
We arrived around 1:00 or 1:30 and were hungry so we ordered a full lunch here, too. A nice order of beer-battered (see a theme here?) fish n chips to go with a beer flight worked out perfectly. The place was crazy busy with only a single bartender working the bar where we sat plus the orders coming in from the tables so it was a bit of a wait. When asked about the flights we were told we could try either the 'normal flight' or the 'hoppy flight' so we went with the latter. Mind you, we could have tried both but started there since there were a number of stouts and porters on the regular flight that we were avoiding.
Once again, line them up please!


Because they were so busy, he provided us a card that gave us information about the beers, which was actually nice since we weren't going to get his full attention anyway:


These were outstanding beers! The top two were pale ales showcasing some experimental hops. The second was better than the first and I would have gladly had a pull pint of that one. The Racer 5 IPA is a damn good IPA. Period. The Hop Rod Rye was really good. I expected to not like it since it stated it was 18% rye and I like my rye in moderation and that is exactly how it came across - yummy! The Black Racer 5 IPA was OK in the taster size but even what they call low roasted flavor would be too much in a full pint for my taste. I'm thinking that those that like this style (ahem, Paul, Chris, Jeff) would really like this one. The Cafe Racer 15 IPA is listed as a Double but looking at the stats, I think it's approaching Triple numbers, isn't it? In any case, this beer rocks. Everything you want in a strong IPA and nothing you don't. A GREAT beer, for sure. Only available on tap, though....
Apex IPA, listed a a IPA but really a IIPA. WOW. Excuse me, I meant:
Winner, winner chicken dinner this beer is PHENOMENAL. It was just released at the brewery and will be showing up soon in other states: CO, FL, MA, NC, NY, TX, VA, WA. Find it and drink it. If you don't like it, I will give you your money back. My local store is going to start carrying this soon so I can arrange some traded for those interested. It's just that good and I'll be surprised if it doesn't pick up a good following. Yeah, I brought a few home....
No more pics from Bear Republic as I got lost in the beer goodness there.

Stop #3: Lagunitas in Petaluma. One more short ride and we arrived at Lagunitas which is by far the biggest brewery in the area. If I heard correctly, also the 6th largest craft brewery in the nation and #16 overall. The place was big and it was packed at 3:30 on a Friday. Good for them. We started off upstairs in the tasting room that's inside the brewery itself and overlooks the operations. The room feels like you are in somebody's funky basement and Wayne and Garth should be showing up at any moment (party on!). It was busy, but not so crowded that you felt like it was cramped.


They served 5 samples to us: Czech Pilsner, Censored Copper Ale, Dogtown Pale Ale, IPA and Couch Trippin' Fusion which has it's own story here. We tried the SF version which was dry hopped with Nelson Sauvin and aged in whiskey barrels. After the samples, the bartender told us the story about how the brewery started, his trouble with the law (lots of it, really), and each beer that we tasted. Honestly, the talk was a bit long and should have been WHILE serving the beer but beggars can't be choosers, right? We WERE drinking free beer so I guess I should just shut the hell up and enjoy it.

Lagunitas was one of the first breweries to really start aggressively hopping beers and they are known to be one of the early definers of the West Coast IPA style. Think hops, think Lagunitas. The Pilsner is very Saaz heavy. If that's your thing, you'll love this beer. If not, you won't. I don't. Now, the Censored on the other hand is an AWESOME amber ale (they call it Copper Ale). It has a great story behind it but we'll come back to that later since I knew we'd be back on Day 2 for a VIP tour here so I'll cover that later. The IPA rocks, and the DogTown Pale Ale which I never tried before might just be one of the best Pale Ales on the market. It has the aroma of an IPA and just enough bitterness to make it interesting and the Simcoe can be smelled from 5 feet away. Seriously.
The Fusion was whiskey heavy and probably very good if you like that sort of thing. I'm not a liquor drinker so I just prefer it to not be in my beer but others around us really like it a lot. YMMV.

When the tour started we ducked out into the public taproom since we knew we'd get more in-depth the next day. This allowed us to see the grounds and dining area which were really cool. The outside section has a white and clear tarp over it (about 25 feet high) and lighting like you might see at a wedding reception. Very pretty, and underneath were heaters and picnic tables to force you to sit with others and socialize. There were a few smaller tables as well for the non-social types or those just wanting to be in a smaller group.


We ordered a few more samples and then settled on their Nelson IPA, made with.....<drum roll>....yep, Nelson Sauvin hops which I'm a huge fan of. I don't know if it was bittered with them as well but they held true to their style and didn't skimp on the aroma nor late additions. Again, . They served them in custom mason jars with their name and logo on them. Nothing fancy in terms of glassworks but it certainly didn't hinder the taste nor the aroma. This was another "in the tap room only" beer and made the whole trip worthwhile. Meaning, that if that was the only good beer we had it would have been worth it - very similar to the Apex from Bear Republic in that sense (they taste nothing alike).


They served the beer with peanuts in the shell and pretzels like any good brewery should do IMO . We sat with a couple on the tour with us and just chatted. Since this was stop #3 everybody was chatty When the time came to leave, they picked up the tab for the drinks - very cool.

From here, it was back to where we were picked up. We decided to not stay at the hotel across the street and opted for something a few more miles up the road. By now, we were fine to drive, although we did have another taste of the Little Sumpin' on the shuttle again, of course. We had been drinking water all day long and they provided it on the shuttle in bottles, too. It was very important to keep the palate cleansed and keep hydrated. We drove for about 10 minutes to our hotel, checked in and then headed out for a 1.5 mile walk. Why? Because the temp was in the low 60's, we thought the exercise would be a good idea, and it would lead us to this..........



<more to come>

[Inkleg]

Thank you, Thank You, Thank You for taking the Borg on the trip with you (read taking time for such an in-depth play by play) . I'm so glad y'all had such a great time.
Funny that I read the picture you took before the review and said "that Apex sounds great". Oh, and The Three Stooges poster behind the Mason jar picture, coincidence, I think not.

[Beer-lord]

This is truly awesome. I especially like the Racer 5 talk as that was a life changer for me many years ago.
Looking forward to the rest of the story even though I no longer like you at all!

[Kealia]

Oh, and The Three Stooges poster behind the Mason jar picture, coincidence, I think not.

That's really funny. I had to go back and look to see that because I was so focused on the beer that I didn't notice the background. There could have been a nekkid woman in the background and I wouldn't have.....ok, that's a lie. Anyway, that's really coincidental and funny.

[Kealia]

[quote="Beer-lord"]Looking forward to the rest of the story even though I no longer like you at all! [/quote
Take a number

[Kealia]

Just a quick follow up this evening to wrap up Day 1's activities. I have no pictures at this point because between taking pics and uploading them to Facebook, talking and texting with my wife (it WAS Valentines Day), and sending pics and notes to friends my phone was dead when we arrived at Russian River.
As I said, it was about 1.5 miles from the hotel and we knew that the lines would be crazy but it was either sit at the hotel and stare at each other, or head over. We headed over.

When we arrived the line was about 100 yards long which didn't look TOO bad. I asked the guy at the door if we could get in if we weren't there for PTY but the answer was, "Sorry, no. The line is just to get in." So, in line we stood. The line went along the sidewalk in front of many other businesses, one of which was a Chinese food place. After an hour in line I couldn't take it any more so I went in and got an order of Mongolian beef and fried rice for us. But you don't care about the food, sorry.....

An hour later, we got in. Yep, "only" two hours waiting time. I have to note that if we were at home I wouldn't have waited, nor would I have done this trip just to wait in line but since we were here, we did. The guy at the front said that just a few days ago the line was 5 hours, and the first few days it was 12 hours - in the pouring rain. Two hours was nothing and we considered ourselves lucky to get in and try some.

While in line we saw a few people in the outside seating area with sampler flights and really wanted to get one. It was 20 beers! (I stole this pic from the interwebs just to show you what the sampler tray looked like):


But...we got to the bar (standing room only and shoulder-to-shoulder people) and ordered our two Pliny the Youngers. They were served in a 10-ounce glass that ribbed for our pleasure (another stolen image below):


Given the ABV on this, I couldn't see anybody drinking 3 of these, especially myself after a day of drinking and just downing an entire order of Mongolian beef in line. I'm guessing that at least a few people had 1-2 of these, if not 3, because there were some loud and glassy-eyed folks in the place. Lots of people with Pliny hats, t-shirts, etc. and there was a really cool, fun vibe that we were part of something special and unique.

It poured the same color as PTE, golden/orange-hued, bright and very inviting. It was a bit hazy due to all the dry hopping, but still very appealing. The aroma was.....disappointing given the hype of this beer. A couple of the beers that we had earlier in the day had this beer beat by a long shot in the aroma department (Nelson IPA & Apex). The taste was good, but just good. Honestly, it tasted just like PTE. Had I not seen the guy pour it from the appropriate tap I would have thought that is what it was. I'm not sure exactly what I expected, maybe my vision to get a bit fuzzy, outlined with rainbows with Dream Weaver playing softly in the background...?

Seriously though, I expected it to be significantly different than the Elder but it wasn't. I also expected it to be a bit 'hot' due to the alcohol but it wasn't at all - that's a good thing. Don't get me wrong, it's good - it just isn't any better than PTE in our opinion. I can say that it was sort of fun to be a part of the tasting, but had I had to wait any longer than we did I would have been really disappointed. Well actually, I wouldn't have waited longer so that is a moot point, I suppose.

Because there was so little room to move there wasn't going to be anywhere to put the large sampler tray and honestly we were both really full and ready to call it a night so we left after finishing our 10-ounce pours. This was a silver-lining because we both agreed that we want to go back to Russian River post-Younger craziness and so the 20-beer sampler and sit an enjoy it in peace. I understand from talking to people there that it is always busy, just not always crazy like it was. We're going to plan either a day trip or a quick overnight trip in the Spring. We also talked about making this trip an annual thing (not on Valentines Day, mind you) and doing different breweries each time. Next year it may be Oregon.

Anyway, we walked back to the hotel watched some Olympic coverage and called it a night. There was still Day 2 ahead of us to prepare for!

This is what the bar looked like:


And this is what the beer offerings look like - which is why we want to go back:

[Beer-lord]

A 20 beer sampler? That's crazy talk. And the place is much bigger than I thought it would be.
I can see now why my friends moved to California.