Russian River Score....

I totally agree that Flower Power falls off steeply. I had one fresh and then about 6-8 weeks old and I couldn't believe how much the flavor had fallen off. Tasted like tea with honey and lemon. Hops had fallen off drastically leaving an herbal malty mess.

 

Cool, thank you for the advice. I want to drink them all! Just hard to decide because I don't know when ill get another RR haul. Definitely holding onto Beatification

 

There were too many people talking about it to respond to just one in particular, so, for the doubters of the PtE "myth": If any of you have had PtE from the bottle within 2 weeks of its bottling date, and also have tried PtE after a month, and don't notice a remarkable difference, your palate is not very subtle. There is something about this beer in particular (it is true that most other IPAs last much longer) that drops off at an incredible rate. It simply becomes a different, and for most people less enjoyable beer after a month. A buddy of mine learned this the hard way when he thought I just wanted to drink all his Pliny. He too was a doubter until he opened a bottle a week and a half later.

 

White Rajah is another that is great in the first 3 weeks then just falls off of a cliff.

 

I wait til agter hour 24 myself

 

And here it is, tomorrow today! I just got home, and poured myself two Pliny. Yesterday I put the tape over the two bottles, mixed them up, and put them in the fridge (really my terrible memory was my best defense against unblinding, I immediately forgot which was which even irrespective of mixing them up). Today I have absolutely no idea.



I'll call them left and right. Left I pour first, hop fragrance obvious after opening, but it's kinda muted. I can smell it while pouring too. I'm thinking that either the 2/13 is hoppier than I remember or the 3/19 is more faded than I expect. We'll see!

Pour right and I'm already expecting this to be 2/13. Basically no hop smell at all.

Right tastes nice and dry, but is actually not as hoppy as I'd expect. That said, you can definitely taste them. No bitterness.

Left is all malt, and there's not even much of that. There's a mild sweetness on the initial sip and a weird, bitter finish (not sure how to describe it). Seriously, if this isn't 2/13 I'll eat my hat (I don't have a hat).

The appearances are identical, so are mouthfeels. As I've said, I'm really expecting the right one to be 2/13.

Reveal:



I got it wrong! (I tried to take a picture but it didn't come out great). Now, a few "to be fair"s:

1) There was an obvious difference here. The 2/13 smelled/tasted mostly like I remembered, but the 3/19 was just worse.
2) Because of this I think the 3/19 is a bad bottle of Pliny. It really doesn't right, Pliny usually doesn't finish bitter like that and there's NO smell. I wonder if bottle variation made me look foolish. I did predict that could be a problem above.
3) These were among the worst bottles of Pliny I've ever had, and I've probably had around 50.
4) I just got back from eating Indian food.
5) YOU SUCK AND I HATE YOU.

Well, whatever, I still think Pliny is best fresh, even though this wasn't as clean as I expected.

 

I think that the Indian food could really have done a number on your palate. That is my guess.

 

I actually prefer Pliny before it's bottled, after that, forget it.

 

lmao Mike.

I had a half case of 3/1 Plinys in the FT forum that people were scoffing at as rotten. 45 days seems to be the number for me. Regardless three traders will be happy for their shipment.

Since you didn't have a 3/1 in your test.

 

This is why I love this site! This is a truly great display of the spirit of BeerAdvocate. Where else can you find people sharing a passion for something to the point of selflessly sending others stuff they will enjoy? I have a few 3/1 Plinys set to arrive tomorrow and I can't wait to taste them. Cheers!

 

They want to think they can, if stored properly(cold in an IPA's case) there will not be any difference between a month and 2 weeks. Testing has showed that to be true for much longer periods of time actually, even at room temp storage. In the meantime I will enjoy great beer without getting a predisposition due to a week or so on the date code. Now to get liquor stores to store all their hop based beers cold.

 

I can very clearly taste a difference between 1 week old Pliny and 40 day old Pliny. I've done numerous blind taste tests with many different people and a vast majority of the time people can taste a difference when it's 4 weeks+.

Most of my friends even tasted a tremendous difference in the four or five samples of Younger we tried this year across about 3 weeks.

That's not to say older Pliny tastes worse. Many people I know like it better because the intense hop flavor and astringency is mellowed a bit. But there very clearly is a difference.

 

I had a 95 day old Blind Pig not to long ago and STILL thought it was better than a lot of I.PA.'s out there.Yeah,not the same as a fresh one of course,but still damn tasty.

 

2 month old Pliny is fine. You MIGHT notice the nose falling off after 1 month or so, but that's it.