Pliny the Younger

My Denver expiration date is rapidly approaching and I am finding myself panicked, trying to cross as many things off of my Colorado Bucket List as possible. One of those items was attending the tapping of Pliny the Younger, this super famous cult beer that Aaron is obsessed with.

Aaron got in line at Falling Rock Taphouse for tickets at 8:30am and was the second person. Doors didn’t even open until 11 and they didn’t tap the famous beer until 1:00pm, so clearly there is a lot of hype. Katie, Nicole and I did the bagel coffee run and then joined Matt, Bryan, and Aaron in line, eagerly awaiting our “golden tickets.”

According to Russian River Brewery

“Pliny the Younger, the man, was Pliny the Elder’s nephew and adopted son. They lived nearly 2,000 years ago! Pliny the Elder is our Double IPA, so we felt it was fitting to name our Triple IPA after his son. It is almost a true Triple IPA with triple the amount of hops as a regular I.P.A. That said, it is extremely difficult, time and space consuming, and very expensive to make. And that is why we don’t make it more often! This beer is very full-bodied with tons of hop character in the nose and throughout. It is also deceptively well-balanced and smooth. PTY is available on pub draft only, VERY limited distribution locally and to distributors on draft only, seasonal- released at our pub the first Friday of February and is available for just 2 weeks, available at select accounts during February.”

We had a BLAST that day. In order to kill the two hours between open doors and the Younger tapping, we sampled some of Falling Rock’s other 80+ beers on tap and munched on finger foods. Aaron encouraged all of us to try the other Pliny (the Elder) so we’d really appreciate the magic of its special relative. Nicole and Nina clearly took that advice very seriously.

Gross weather kept the crowd much smaller than usual and we were able to snag a booth and THREE rounds of the special brew (literally unheard of).