Forgive me if this is an age-old question, but I didn't seem to really find anything. I get the impression that Pliny the Elder is indeed sold in bottles in Seattle. If that's the case, are there any places in the downtown area that I'd be most likely to find it at? I've wanted to try it for years, and now that I've got a few hours on the west coast to go wander around, I'd like to at least take a look for it. Thanks!
Russian River pulled out of Washington State late last year. You won't find any bottles of Pliny in Seattle, and if you do, you probably won't want them. Sorry about that.
As draheim points out, we no longer get RR in this state. Oregon still gets it, though. While you might not get any Pliny, there's probably other delicious RR beers on the shelves. Portland's only a 5 or so hour round trip.
Glad I asked before walking all over! Not a huge deal. I'll be in CA in a week or so, and although I probably won't have time myself, I'm traveling with other beer geeks who live out that way. I'm sure a small favor could be called in... Thanks for the info!
You'll have much better luck finding bottles of elder in California than here in the NW (even when it was available in Seattle). Even here in Oregon, bottles of elder fly off the shelf as soon as they arrive, and many stores set purchase limits. There's only one RR shipment each month, so unless you just happen to be in a store that got some elder right after their delivery came in, you likely won't find any around PDX. My recollection is that the situation was pretty much the same in Seattle, WHEN RR still distributed in Washington. All the more reason to try to find it in California, rather than here in the NW (you can find PtE fairly readily on tap in PDX, but then as you know, it's not all that difficult to find draft elder in SEPA/Philly as well). Good luck.
