8.4

Appearance - 9 | Aroma - 9 | Flavor - 8 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 8

What an adventure.
This has been one of my top wants since 2012, now 8 years ago. I've traveled for the us for the whole month of february to get to tick this back when it was tap only, since it needed to be fresh so was 'nver going to be bottled'. I missed it by 2 days. After a dozen people prommised me handbottles but all failed. After trading for the beer now that it's first bottled (2020) and DHL 'lost' the package for a month and a half... I finally received it! FINALY ! not as fresh as it should be (thnx DHL!) but at least I get to tick it... Hopefully I can get a more fresh version next year… or in 8 years, who'll know?

Pours unclear, darker blonde. Medium sized, very stable and creamy white head. Scent explodes, orange, stonefruit, pine, intense ! Taste is very intense ! powerfull, malty, bitter, pine, tropical, orange, tad grassy. mild stonefruit. medium thick body, medium carbonation ( towards medium low). Very resinous. Typical westcoast style indeed. It's indeed pretty damn good.But it's indeed not worth the hype. i prefer many other IPA's, even Tripel IPA's if we wanna go subgenre towards subgenre. But I guess preference at this point, comes down to personal taste, as this truly is quality.

7.8

Appearance - 10 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 7 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 8

Pours a clear, golden yellow, with smallish head that quickly dissipates. Aroma has some pine, citrus, bread, grass. Flavor is bitter, with pine, citrus, grass, bread/biscuit. Pine-spruce hop finish. Mouthfeel is a bit thin. It's good--I don't know about world-class--but good. Glad to be able to give it a try.

9

I thought elder was a gnarly West coast, but this was legit crazy, old school hard core.

8.9

Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 9 | Flavor - 9 | Texture - 10 | Overall - 8.5

510ml bottle. Crisp, massively hoppy and bitter with some grass, tropical fruits, pine, resin, citrus, floral and herbal notes. Tasty stuff for a hophead. It's been a while since I've had a properly bitter beer like this. Nomnom

9.5

Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 10 | Flavor - 10 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 10

Arguably the most sought-after IPA in the world, the almost mythical offspring of Russian River's legendary Pliny the Elder, created in 2005 as a superlative to the Elder in a sense - effectively creating 'triple IPA' as a genre, even if double IPA and triple IPA are obviously a continuum and both are regarded as one single category on this site. Hopped with Amarillo, Chinook, Citra, Mosaic, Simcoe and more - a complete line-up of famed New World hop varieties, in other words. Originally released as a winter seasonal and so far only made available from tap in the two tasting rooms of the brewery each year in February, but thank the beer gods that the Cilurzos decided to try and bottle it this year - enabling it to travel, with so far one single bottle having reached Belgium, a bottle I was very honoured to get a sample of. If, among all those famous and top class American masterpieces, there was one I never thought I could ever taste, it's this one - so I cannot thank Bart enough for inviting me to the tasting of this celebrity. Medium thick, snow white, mousy, opening head with a waferthin, disparate 'veil' of foam left in the middle; equally hazy bright yellow golden robe. Vibrant, colourful, zesty and slightly dank aroma of drying orange peel, green olives, lime zest, gin, orange water, freshly cut green onions, unripe mango, raw pineapple, dough, peanut oil, yellow grapefruit. Clean but bright and intense fruitiness hinting at unripe mango, green banana and hard pear, lively carbonated though nowhere harshly so; full, smooth-edged, oily body. A rounded, clean white-bready maltiness is soaked in aromatic, yet well-contained hoppiness, pineapple-ish and (green-) oniony, but most of all very zesty (lime, pomelo), providing long lingering 'green and yellow' aromas as well as a long-stretched, but refined peppery bitterness, highlighted by a gin-like alcohol warmth - and topped with an ever so subtle sweaty note (frying shallot). This is about as radiant, refined, wonderfully balanced and at the same time expressive and powerful IPA gets: a truly fantastic beer and a standard in IPA in general indeed, even if the hazy New England idiom has meanwhile taken over the larger part of it. I feel humbled by this kind of perfection - for me, having initially developed a taste for West Coast boldness, this masterpiece is very much worth the hype, though I also have to add that I would probably not wait for eight hours in line for two bottles, like many people in California apparently did a few weeks ago when this was released. That said, I have no idea how IPA can be made any more beguiling, beautiful, radiant, balanced and intelligent; I cannot immediately think of a better one I had and at this level of 'mythical status', scores seem rather petty - so heck, have a near perfect score as far as I'm concerned, you deserve it. Considering how bottles are already sold on the second hand market for hundreds of dollars, the very reason why the brewery never wanted to bottle this beer in the first place, it remains doubtful if this 'experiment' of bottling Pliny the Younger will be repeated next year - so for the time being, I'll consider this a once in a lifetime opportunity, which obviously adds to the experience and, I admit it, to my personal appreciation.

9

Great! Thanks Bart. Best Ipa in long time... Very well balanced. Alacohol well hidden. Once in a lifetime.

7.8

Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 8 | Flavor - 9 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 8

28/II/20 - 1Pt. bottle @ Blind Geuze Tasting, Struise Shop (Brugge), BB: n/a (2020-188) Huge thanks to Bart Van Poucke for offering this beer in a tasting, really awesome to finally be able to try this white whale!

Clear deep blond beer, small aery irregular off-white head, unstable, non adhesive. Aroma: piny, bit dank, sweaty feet, hint of tropical fruits, pineapple, malty, grains. MF: ok carbon, medium body. Taste: very resinous, piny notes, gentle tropical fruits, malty touch, very bitter. Aftertaste: some pineapple, very bitter, resinous, some tropical fruits, more of that harsh bitterness, very dry finish, decent very old school West Coast IPA. Nice!

7

Mad malty, really nothing special