Hey Tazio, What's in the Beer Meister (Single malt IPA, Slimy the Imposter, #homebrew)

Aah, yes....

The Meister be filled and we be whittlin' away at some fine homebrew for the past few weeks.

The Espresso Stout is about kicked, barely holding on 1/2 way out the back door of the Meister, but, no fear: we've got a new roomie lined up. More about that later. This stout was a good beer, a fine beer--don't get us wrong: chocolaty and faintly espresso flavored, with just a wee bit of hop flavor and taste. Beautiful color and a tempting chocolate-milk head. We were a tad disappointed by the espresso flavor--didn't use anything special for the espresso, just grocery store Espresso Napolitano. Will be brewing this again but will try some other espresso.

The second keg contains our first attempt at all-grain that started out as the Blackfoot River Brewing Co.'s single malt IPA clone. But sans the correct hops (Citra substituted), it turned quite good in its own right: a grapefruity vunderkind knockout which even S enjoys the hell out of. This one's a bit foamy and never calmed down much and it too's almost kicked.

But wait: there's more...

The third keg is an all-grain repeat of Slimy the Imposter, but this time with the correct hops, but the wrong yeast. (Sidebar: our starter never, um started, and in a masterstroke (not really, more like a desperate attempt to save brew day) pitched a outdated packet of Munton's ale yeast into the starter. It did the trick and this version turned very clear (the Munton's yeast perhaps?) unlike the previous ver. Fine and dry as tinder be. D loves it but T enjoyed the previous version which had Amarillo substitution and seemed truer to the real thing. Pliny the Elder really does live up to the hype.

So, if all goes according to plan, a sensational (?) little black CDA should be taking up residence in the Meister, two weeks hence. We're calling this Zeroth Degree CDA in honor of our first zero degree brew day yesterday. We hit pre-boil gravity right on a 1.06 and starting gravity of 1.07. It's percolating nicely now.

A chance to try Pliny the Elder. For real.

Well that sometime soon morphed to yesterday as we continued our west coast trek to parts known and unknown.

Santa Rosa streets were deserted and our gas tanks (car and belly,) empty as we made our last-gasp push to the finish line to make it to the Russian River Brewing Company brewpub yesterday to sample Pliny the Elder and compare it against the clone we brewed, the one we like to call Slimey the Imposter.

(No disrespect intended.)

Inside the bar it became clear where everyone was: transported to the loooooooong bar--every bar stool occupied and every beer drinker worshiping at the alter of hops and barley.

As it turns out, Slimey the Imposter truly has as it parent, Pliny the Elder and shares almost all the traits of that celebrity. The color, head-color and retention characteristics, superb lacing, and aroma of both are very close--what I would call the perfect beer in these aspects. The one difference between the two I could detect, was a touch more sweetness in the real thing. And the imposter tastes a bit dirtier in the finish, with a few more rough edges--maybe not quite as dry. I'd have to chalk these differences to Slimey's brewer mishandling the recipe. Still, the real thing is fantastic and everything about Pliny the Elder is excellent in every way.

Finished up with the Blind Pig IPA which, in it's own right, is also a good hop-forward beer at a sessionable--ok, barely sessionable, 6% ABV.

Deeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeelicicous!

Convenient metered off-street parking in the back, drinking alfresco outside in the front, a nice collection of dishes on the menu (the meatball sub is heavenly as is the Tuna Melt,) and a quieter dining area to the side. Everything you might want in a brewpub.

A little out of the way (about 50 miles north of San Francisco,) but worth every darn minute of 101 traffic--highly recommended!

Hey Tazio, What's in the Beer Meister?

Weeeeeeeeeeeeelllll, let's see....

Only the best beer we've ever brewed.

Not to be disrespectful to `ol Gaius Plinius Secundus but we're calling this beer Slimey the Imposter--a Pliny the Elder clone from Russian River Brewing Co., Santa Rosa, California.

The recipe is by none other than Vinnie Cilurzo, Russian River Brewing Co's brewer and co-owner. It was recently published in Volume 33 No. 4 of Zymurgy.

We pretty much followed his recipe except for a few hop substitutions--but we tried to keep the same bitterness by adjusting quantities for the different hops.

This beer is off the charts taste-wise. Beersmith was telling me a calculated 237.3 IBU! Wow!

This is a great beer and I can't wait to try the real thing sometime soon at the brewpub to see how it compares.

Deeeeeeeelicious and the best party of every day!

Slimey the Imposter

Zymurgy detailed a Russian River Brewing Company Pliny the Elder clone recipe this month.

Quite a complex hop bill for this one even before substitution.

Props to Vinnie Cilurzo for the recipe.

Will be firing up the brew house later today and in honor of Pliny, will be closely observing the new brew kettle for a Vesuvian eruption. If I'm found buried in malt, you'll know what happened.

Epic!