Tasting Notes: Pliny the Elder and St. Rogue Red Ale

Hi folks. Sorry for the week-long hiatus, but that collegiate ritual known as Spring Break led me to the not-so-beer-friendly (well... not totally anti-beer -- there was that pay $20 and drink as much as you want for two hours, two nights deal -- but anti-real beer) confines of Daytona Beach.

I drank my fair share of cheap swill, but I also managed to sneak in a few tasty pints while my friends weren't looking. Sweetwater 420, a pale ale from Atlanta, was quite tasty: nicely balanced, good hop kick, very drinkable. This stuff was ubiquitous at even the lowest common denominator bars speckling St. Simons Island on the southern tip of Georgia, where I made a two day layover before heading south for a more revelrous environ. Also sipped a nice glass of Dale's Pale Ale at a pretty cool bar with a decent tap list. Damn it if the name doesn't escape me.

Anyway, I'm back with two new beers: Russian River's Pliny the Elder -- hailed throughout the blogosphere as one of the world's preeminent DIPAs -- and Rogue's St. Rogue Red Ale.

Pliny's hype had me salivating. A quick scan through its first page of BeerAdvocate reviews reads like a lesson in hyperbole: "lovely golden elixer", "orgasmic mouth watering experience", "the perfect IPA", and on and on ad infinitum. Is Pliny really an orgasm for the tastebuds, that much better than the rest of the pack? No, but it is a damn fine double IPA.

Pours a hazy orangish amber, bordering on gold, with a cloud-like two fingers of sticky white head. Retention is fantastic, with small clumps spiderwebbing the glass throughout. Smells intensely of hops: pine trees, oranges and pineapple with a slighly medicinal undertone. (Pick something with a faintly citrus scent and you could probably pull it out of this glass...) The first sip extinguishes that hop explosion only slightly. Citrusy sweet initially, then the hops kick back in -- not overwhelminly so, though. This is one balanced beer. Some malty richness tames the hops and helps hide the high alcohol content, 8.0. Finishes with a lingering bitterness expected from such a hopped-up DIPA. Pliny is definetely one of the standard bearers of the style, at least from my somewhat limited tastings, but like anything else, don't be a sucker for the hype. Taste it, enjoy it, but realize there is no end all-be all out there.

On to St. Rogue's Red. Pours an orangish red with 3/4 inch tan head. Smells faintly of burnt sugar and red fruits with a touch of hops creeping in at the end. First sip: pretty watery and understated. Subdued malty, fruity sweetness, followed by an almost roasted bitterness. Flavor is really mellow-- also flat and one dimensional. Sip after sip I'd hoped for more out of it, but it left me disappointed. Finishes with a little citric, piney bitterness that disappears quickly. Not a bad beer -- crisp, light and easy drinking -- but not one of my favorites from Rogue.