Pliny the Younger cleverly sold as Miller High Life

I've been to several PtY releases where the place, which had advertised the release, was filled with people who had never been in the place and were likely to not come back again until the next PtY release.Why should any place cater to these one-timers, most of whom don't tip?

While I like what Beechwood and Belmont Station did, re money to charity, there's also something to be said about taking care of your regulars. As a previous poster adroitly pointed out, those are the people who keep you in business. In the end, there will never be enough PtY to please everyone. That's the nature of the hype surrounding limited releases, and the gist of the angst in many of the posts in this, errr, entertaining thread.

 

Proably is, but happens all the time. How many times you've been in a bar and the tap handle doesn't exactly match what is being poured? Bars loose them, they break, etc. You just use another handle from the same brewery. Yeah, that is a big diference than Miller-Pliny, but in the eyes of the law, no difference.

 

I don't particularly have a problem with places catering to regulars. Heck, as someone who is a regular at one place, I appreciate it. I got a small pour of Mamouche awhile back because I came in and the owner offered me a pour of a bottle they had opened off of their recent Shelton Bros. shipment. It wasn't on the list of beers to purchase, so it was only offered to people the owner and staff saw regularly.

But this bar's method of helping out their regulars seems strange at best. My main problem with it is that it could be too easy for a regular to miss out because they didn't make the connection.

The fact that there is a story about it does beg the question of the real motivation here. If it was about catering to regulars, then why would they need to share the story at all? The story just ensures that they won't be able to do it next year, because 1) it will be stopped because it's not legal, or 2) if they were able to do it, people would be wise to it next time around.

I applaud the fact that it's certainly a unique/outside-the-box idea, but as has been noted here, there are plenty of non-publicity generating ways to cater a special beer to your regulars that will ultimately benefit them all the more.

 

Exactly...I can understand bars not wanting to deal with the people who only show up for stuff like this, but for a huge number of people that's the only way we will ever get to try one of these beers. Should everyone really have to establish tenure with the right bar just to try a beer? It shouldn't be a secret club.

 

It's their fault someone wrote a story on it?

Having been to BeerMongers dozens of times I am pretty sure any regular who was in there at the time was told what was going on.
Stand up people people combatting the "Pliny Whores"

Cheers to them!

 

Would it be illegal if they left off the Miller, just high life on tap. Also, a regular would know something was up if a High Life just happened to be tapped along with an array of craft handles. Cheers to that bar!

 

I don't know whose "fault" it was, but the article is from a San Fransisco publication about a bar in Portland.

How do you think that became a story?

 

So guilt by association?
I guess it is unfathomable for someone in SF to be writing about all things Pliny, or to have heard about it from someone else, or to have even visited Portland...

I am pretty sure the last thing the beer enthusiast, soccer loving proprietors of BeerMongers are concerned about is calling SF and telling them about their PtY event.

 

Cant tell if this is satire or not haha

 

I can understand a SF writer covering all things Pliny. Still doesn't explain how the writer got a lead on this specific Pliny story. None of the things you suggested are impossible, but they are improbable. And no, I doubt the owner called up this publication and said "guess what we did!", but it's slightly more probable that a publication from 700 miles away got wind of this "secret" tapping because the bar wanted it to get out than it is that it randomly happened across this writer's desk.

Edit: it looks like the SF publication picked it up from an article in the Oregonian. That makes more sense. I thought the story originated with the SF pub.

 

Hahahah this is genius, the owner probably hid the name so he could drink more of it for himself!

 

Awesome

 

Put me in the "this is awesome" column.

 

in my opinion, Beer Mongers is the friendliest, least pretentious bottle shop in PDX. The owner goes above and beyond to make customers happy. He busts out a rare bottle every so often and gives regulars a taste; this is in addition to having extremely affordable pricing. If you're a Blazers fan, be sure to head there on game nights too -- it's a lot of fun watching with them. It's the only bar where I've actually felt at home -- and it's not even a bar, per say.

Now that I live in NYC, with price-gouging and overly curt bottle shops, I miss it so much. Beer Mongers made my time in PDX so great. props to Sean and co for running such a great bar.

I know this post reads like an ad, but they're just that good. A place that carries Russian River sours and other rarities, yet doesn't have even a hint of pretentiousness? I have yet to find another place exactly like it. Looking forward to visiting sometime soon.

 

also, on the subject of Pliny the Younger, there's a very similar beer - Boneyard Notorious - that often makes the rounds at Apex across the street, and sometimes Mongers as well.

of course, that lacks the hype, but it tastes just as good if not better, in my opinion.

 

Give your VIP regular patrons a token to hand in and charge $7 a pint. Any non-regulars charge $20 a pint. It still gives those people who are craft beer enthusiasts the ability to find out about something and drive long distances the opportunity to try a pint of a world famous beer but at a higher price. Everyone wins IMO. Now beer haulers/stockpilers are a whole different story. This is about drinking beer in an establishment.

 

I am not going to out them, because it is a well kept secret, but there is an old school LA county beer bar that has a ton of taps and there are always a few taps missing handles. Frequently, one or two of those have secret beers that only regulars are clued in to. I have had Younger during one of my trips in there. There isn't some underground email list or anything like that and there isn't always something like that happening. If the bartender recognizes you and knows what you are generally looking for, he will then say it low what they have and what the price is. One time, I was just sitting there with a few people on a slow night and suddenly we each had an 8 ounce pour in front of us of some rare beer (I forget which one) that wasn't listed and it was just on the house. I wish that I could remember what it was, because it was borderline whale or something nearly as sought after as PTY.

 

Hipster on hipster hate is one of my favorite comedic ironies.

 

The writer in SF basically copy/pasted from this article from a Portland beer writer:

http://www.oregonlive.com/beer/index.ssf/2014/02/just_one_more_plinyphilia_post.html

edit: I see you already realized that. I should have finished reading the thread. :/

 

Yeah, that's how us Vermonter's feel when flat-landers from Mass. Conn. RI, and NY come here to buy
our Alchemist Heady Topper. Making it hard for us to get any.