Pliny the Younger

After the great start to the evening, we had an idea to cap it off. Since we had full bellies, and were still close to Russian River Brewery, we decided to suck it up and wait in line for the release of Pliny The Younger. Pliny is a Triple IPA that is hopped three times more than their standard IPA, and dry hopped four different times, but only released once a year at the brewery, and for very limited distribution.What does all the hops mean? It is a BIG 10.25%ABV hoppy beer that is remarkably drinkable.

We had heard horror stories of people waiting several hours in line, but once we arrived we were happy to see the line was fairly short. We only waited for a half hour before we were let in. Unfortuanetly, we were "in" but only in the patio area, and still waiting for a table. I decided to head in and grab a couple brews to help pass the time before we were seated. After waiting at the packed bar, I soon walked away with two 10 ounce glasses of the legendary Pliny.(I also got a growler of Pliny The Elder). As I was walking away from the bar, Jamie came walking in; We finally got our table! As I follewed her over she informed me we were going to be sharing the table. What? Sharing a table? This should be fun for the anti-socials we are.

Luckily we were seated with a local couple close to our age. They had been there before, and were there for the release as well. We made our food order of a small Pazzo pizza (Mozzarella, bbq ranch sauce, chicken, carmelized onions), and to my suprise, Jamie order a secound round of PTY. We had a great time talking with our table-mates and ate and drank ourselves full. After the fun time of beer, food, and new friends, it was time to head back to the hotel.

We were lucky in the location of our hotel; it was only .8 miles from Russian River. We started the walk back with the full growler and sleepy heads. Jamie stopped for a quick picture with a giant hand sculpture in front of the Santa Rosa Plaza. We traded the growler back and forth because it tended to get a little heavy after a few minutes.

When we got back to the hotel we had to try and keep the growler cool somehow. We asked at the front desk, and they offered to keep it in their room service refrigerator, but we came up with a better plan. As you can see, it was simple. A hotel sink and several buckets of ice. For the ride home we grabbed a small stylofoam cooler from a local grocery store and once again packed the growler in ice for the long voyage home.