Pliny the Younger 2017 in PDX

Yes, it's that time of the year again. According to the RR blog, today is the last day of Younger week at the brewpub in Santa Rosa, which typically means the beer should shortly start showing up around the metro area here in PDX. More than likely Bier Stein in Eugene and Beerworks in Medford will also get a keg (as they have in the past), but everything else will likely be distributed in PDX (I think it's been some years since a keg made it's way up to Bend).

I realize it's become fashionable in the NW to "dis" the beer ("many better examples of locally produced DIPA's and TIPA's"), but for many us (myself included), Younger continues to be the benchmark by which all other DIPA/TIPA's are judged. Anyway, if anyone hears about any upcoming tappings over the next week or two, I would ask that you post that information here. Thanks!

Cheers!

 

Higgins was the first place I ever had it in PDX as well. If memory serves, I think the Willamette Weekly had an article about the beer, and mentioned that it would soon be available in town, and that Higgins would be the first place to have it. I was living back East at the time, but just happened to be in town at the time of the release. So I made arrangements to head over for the tapping. The morning of the release, I had more chores to take care of than I had anticipated, and so got to Higgins "only" 40 minutes prior to the scheduled tap time. In the SEPA area, getting to a Younger event that short a time before tapping would be asking for disappointment (people line up for younger events hours in advance). Yet much to my surprise, there was no line whatsoever, and just 3 or 4 folks at a table in the pub section who looked like they might also be there for the tapping. I thought perhaps I had misread the start time in the WW article, and in fact the bartender wasn't entirely positive about the release date or time (but thought they were still expecting it to take place that day). Sure enough, 5 or 10 minutes prior to tap time a staff member wheeled in the keg, and the event started nearly on time.

I ordered two glasses right off the bat, assuming that the keg would have blown by the time I finished my first glass (on the East Coast, unless you're at a ticketed event, this is a given). Yet sales remained relatively slow (there was an initial rush, but then orders really slowed down), and so I was able to order a 3rd glass without problem. After three glasses of younger, I was really starting to feel it, but was still tempted to order a 4th glass (the bartender asked me if I wanted another, but I regretfully declined).

Yeah, I think those days are long gone.

 

Yeah, it's been $8 for quite some time now. In fact, I keep on expecting them to raise the price any time now, as the price for elder at other places around town has been steadily going up. I think the price at the Horse Brass is now very close to $7 for an imperial pint, and I know the Apex takes pride in the fact that they charge the highest price in town for Elder.

As someone mentioned some time back... pro tip number one whenever visiting Apex. Don't order any pliny!

As for the younger release, do you really need to ask? It goes without saying that Apex is pretty much the last place on earth where anyone should go to get a glass of Younger. IMHO.

 

They weren't on the list of places in Oregon that received a keg last year. Could just have been an oversight, but I guess I just assumed that they were no longer among the chosen. :-)

 

I think Notorious is always part of the conversation, and even better batches of Safe Word from Breakside.

A couple years ago, Bier Stein was doing a flight if you had a younger ticket, where you could try elder, younger, notorious and safe word together. What I thought was interesting, was just how similar the beers were when tasted side by side. Still very distinguishable, but all were very high quality and flat out excellent. The safe word was a bit sweeter than the others, which set it apart from the others a bit, but otherwise... it was truly amazing how little difference there seemed to be with those beer. At least on that particular night...

I agree that the pfriem should be part of the conversation as well. This year's version is quite excellent.

 

You probably should try younger then, if you have a chance. I was able to try Saint Humulus at the Cowiche Canyon pub in Yakima, and it was pretty impressive. However, IMHO, it was not in the same league as younger. Frankly, it was not nearly as good as notorious either.