The diabolical Pliny the Elder clone that Brian built is a fine example of what can happen to an DIPA.

This is the information from the side bar:

Pliny the Elder was a Roman naturalist, scholar, historian, traveler, officer, and writer. Although not considered his most important work, Pliny and his contemporaries created the botanical name for hops, “Lupus Salictarius”, meaning “wolf among scrubs.” Hops at that time grew wild among willows, much like a wolf in the forest. Later the current botanical name, Humulus Lupulus, was adopted. Pliny died in 79 AD while observing the eruption of Mount Vesuvius.

Tells you a lot about the beer huh?

Here is a brief history of the beer and why Brian made it

This beer is a clone of Russian River’s Pliny the Elder Double IPA. Why clone a random DIPA from CA? Well, here’s the story in brief. This beer has quite a cult follow and good reputation on BeerAdvocate.com. So after reading many reviews, hearing many stories, and seeing it creep its way up the Top 100 to number 28 I decided I NEEDED some. The problem is that this beer is only available on tap, so I needed a kind individual from CA to mail me a growler - great, like that’s going to happen. Anyway, I took a chance and posted asking for any kind souls to do just that. About two weeks later a very generous individual named wezil offered to set up a trade with me. Well back in April I posted this post about Pliny based from this trade. Also, remember if you may back in February I posted this post about winning in the B3 contest, and that one of the prizes happen to be two free B3 kits with yeast. And guess who B3 happens to be boys with? You guessed it, Vinnie Cilurzio of Russian River Brewing Company. So, one of the kits I chose, based off of the BeerAdvocate.com reviews, my personal experience trading and tasting the beer, and having a winning opportunity to make this beer for free, was the Pliny the Elder Double IPA kit.

Ok enough about that - what did it taste like!!

My Review

I opened the bottle expecting to be greeted by the magic genie of hops, and sure enough the djinn pop out and into my nose creating a smell of layers upon layers of hops, even suggestion of fresh cut grass. The pour resulted in a darker brew, light on the carbonation. I raised for another sniff in the pint glass and the smell had smoothed out. I guess the “genie” had out his “A-game” first. The taste: way smoother than I thought. I was expecting face twitching, sinus clearing, throat coating action. Instead I got a well-balanced DIPA. That still means A LOT of hops, but not “get me to the ER” level. It was very drinkable and yes big, so that took a while. Compared to a local “big hop” beer, this is smoother and silky, even suggesting sticky, compared to the Hop Wallop from Victory; it being more sweet, almost too much.

As for the Randall comparison, I am not so sure. I had randallized 90 minute IPA from DFH (thank you Brian!) and literally you could feel the oils coating your gums, so much so that your gums tingled with frustration.

Over all, a surprisingly drinkable beer verses my expectation.

BTW - Brian DID get some of the Pliny from Russian River. You can read about it on his site.