Pliny the Elder or Abrasive--which is better?

According to this PTE.

http://beeradvocate.com/lists/style/140

 

Abrasive by far is superior to Pliny. Pliny is way over hyped IMO. Also, the link is an unfair comparison... 2751 reviews to 661.

 

Seen how your from CA, how fresh have you had Abrasive? I assume your Pliny is very fresh. Here in MN you can sometimes find same day canning in stores, and I can taste/smell the difference between same day and one week, and a huge difference at one month. Still a very good beer at one month, but nothing like same day.

 

IMO Pliny is a really great beer, but I agree Abrasive is superior. Its just so unbelievably good, dont know how else to put it

 

abrasive followed by heady topper followed by lawsons double sunshine followed by pliny

 

Good question! I have Abrasive, someone send me some Pliny for comparison!

 

still need to try the double sunshine but agree with the abrasive>heady>pliny

 

I give the edge to Abrasive. Just so good.

 

I've had them fresh, blind, side by side, several times. I've chosen Abrasive every time. Of course, it's not truly blind because of how familiar I am with Abrasive. I'd imagine you'll get pretty straight-forward, regionally biased results. But it's Abrasive.

 

Pliny is awesome. Balanced, smooth and very tasty. Abrasive is overall a better brew. Far more hoppy, citrusy and carbonated, the unbalance is the balance. Abrasive is twice the brew Pliny is..

 

Abrasive

 

Yea, so the one time I've had abrasive I would have drain poured it but I instead poured it in a bag and tossed a steak in. Made an incredible marinade but I didn't like it at all. But I loved Pliny the first time I tried it.

However, I will end with I at the time was still a bit iffy on IPA or even DIPAs for that matter and that came to a screeching halt when I tasted Double Crooked Tree for the first time and I haven't tried Abrasive since, its been a couple years and I've been tempted to grab one and see if I still hate it...

 

I'm not qualified to say anything about IPA's, will sit this out.

 

Pliny by a mile. Abrasive has a greasy/oily hop profile and every batch over multiple years is littered with diacetyl. I'm not even that sensitive to diacetyl personally, so it takes a lot. Pliny is very clean, pretty much neutral beyond the hop profile which is exquisite. The first bit of bottles of Pliny certainly had problems and they've had some stinker batches, but nothing close to the problems that Abrasive has had with every batch. Big fan of Surly too, Bitter Brewer and fresh coffee bender/Furious are top notch.

I guess it's not surprising on a Midwest forum that area + freshness comes into play though.

 

Pliny is Abrasive's little bitch. Much like Eddie Murphy was that Big Barry White lookin Mofo during the jail scene in Trading Places.

 

You should add a poll to this thread. I too am curious what others think.

 

Gotta say that they're like my kids: very different, & I love them both, almost impossible to choose one over the other.