Regular Heady Consumer Tries Pliny The Elder

Pliny is crazy cheap... What price are you getting yours at? Locally PtE is $4.50-$5 for the Pints which is crazy cheap for it's awesomeness. The only HT I've gotten was $6 in a can and $7 on tap both times in Philly. Also have gotten PtE on tap in Philly at $6 and $5 in SF. Not sure if you're being sarcastic?

 

i finally had the chance to try them last night, both amazing !

this one really blew me away though, i'd love to get more of it

 

I had some Pliny on tap while on vacation in CO a few years back. I hadn't heard of it before; I was just getting into craft beers at that time and told the manager at the restaurant that I wanted to try a good IPA and he recommended the Pliny. I loved it; I'd tried a number of IPA's before and I've tried many since then, but Pliny is still the best I've had and I've been chasing an IPA that can live up to it since then. I think that the problem for many who are just trying it for the first time is that it's been so built up. It's like when everyone says "that was a GREAT movie, you have to watch it." You end up expecting to have your mind blown and your life forever altered. For anyone who is trying Pliny for the first time, here's what I recommend; pretend you'd just read a bunch of reviews, and the general consensus seems to be "meh, it's an all right IPA, but nothing special."

 

I had the same experience with Heady. I stopped at a pub on the way back from a trip to Vermont (completely unrelated to beer, didn't stop at any breweries) and ordered one since I thought I had remembered a friend of mine mentioning it in the past. Just like you Luke, the chase is on.

 

Heady Topper is 12 dollars per 4 pack at the cannery, which is the main place people buy it. As you mentioned, there are a handful of places that sell cans elsewhere, but they sell it by the can, and jack the price way up. I'm no expert on Pliny pricing, but the one time I was able to get it, it was 6 dollars per pint. If you can get it for 5.00, that reduces the difference a bit, but I still stand by what I said; not that Pliny is outrageous, just that it's priced towards the high end of production DIPA's. Heady Topper, despite it's incredible hype, remains one the cheapest world class DIPA's out there (and I have to believe that Heady has more ingrediants in it, and that it's produced on a much smaller scale). I think they deserve credit for that. I also think the "single-beer" cannery idea should be raising eyebrows out there.
Anyone from the bay area want to chime in and tell us what Pliny costs at its equivalent to Waterbury, VT? I'm prepared to be wrong here...

 

Oops, I guess maybe you are in the Bay area...

 

Glad someone pointed this out. Just looking at the reviews for each, their first reviews are only about 6 months apart.

 

The more I see this thread title on the home page feed, the more it looks like a headline from The Onion.

 

Pliny. Way more balanced. The Heady I had was nothing special. Sometimes I feel people are just trying to represent their side of the country with this battle.

Food for thought... What if Russian River stopped brewing all their beers, brewed only 1 double IPA and made it a brewery only release. Would Heady even stand a chance? Probably not.

 

Agreed with all of the above. Although I hope Russian River NEVER stops making their wild ales- I gotta have my Supplication and Sanctification.

 

do you even alpine bruh

 

Lol, yea I'm located in the Bay area and I think bottles rarely make it out of state so I've only really seen it on tap other places. $12 a 4 pack is fantastic, but I feel like the $$ difference between Santa Rosa ($4 or $4.50 at the brewery I can't remember exactly) and Waterbury is simply a matter of California being more expensive than Vermont and not a reflection of breweries up-charging simply because they can.

 

More threads like this = more Pliny for me. Thank you OP!

 

Yes it will still be better

 

Pliny VS Heady?
Ill just take an Ethos...

 

Let me guess... East coast? Yep.

 

Jealous west coasters. Just admit its better not to mention numerous west coast ipas better then Pliny. I could say the same thing ant. "Let me guess west coast ":-)

 

Location: California


Ohhhh the irony...

 

Isn't that more like hypocrisy?

 

Upon reading this thread, I must concur with Jeff Albertson (comic book guy). . .

"Oh, I've wasted my life."