The 11th annual release of Russian River Brewing Company’s Pliny the Younger is less than three weeks away. This year’s two week release begins on February 6th and runs through February 19th. A limited amount will be allotted each day. After the day’s allotment runs out it won’t be sold again until the following day.

This highly anticipated release is known to draw people from all over the world. Natives of Santa Rosa have seen the lines grow in size each and every year. Last year the wait to get into the pub exceeded 10 hours at times.

Pliny the Younger isn’t bottled, and other than a handful of accounts that receive a keg, the only way to insure a taste of this beer is to get in line. Those accounts that receive a keg usually sell out within a couple of hours, so by the time you hear about the keg getting tapped chances are that they have already sold out.

Pliny the Younger is considered a ‘triple IPA’. The alcohol volume exceeds 10% and is made with huge amounts of hops, making it costly to brew. The following was pulled directly from the Russian River Brewing Company website “It is loaded with hop flavors, bitterness and aromatics. The hops used in this year’s recipe are of excellent quality from the 2014 harvest: Simcoe, Warrior, Chinook, Centennial, Amarillo, Northern Brewer, and Tomahawk. We brewed Younger for the first time 11 years ago as a winter seasonal, building upon the Pliny the Elder recipe while pushing the envelope with malt, hops, and alcohol just to see how far we could go! It is always brewed only once a year and released the first Friday in February, rain or shine”.

For more details about Russian River Brewing Company and the release of Pliny the Younger go to http://russianriverbrewing.com/pliny-the-younger-release/

-Peter Lopez Jr.