Short/Long Pours – Jeff’s Trip to California for Pliny the Younger [Part 1]
[Note: So you’ve all heard me talking on the show about the interview and experience of my trip to California for Pliny the Younger, and at first I wanted to take a little time to digest it and get some distance to make sure I wasn’t still riding off adrenaline and excitement. Then life got in the way. So at long last, here’s the story of my trip to Cali, one of my favorite beer fan moments of all time.]
Picture this: you’re working along on a regular day, and you get a message from your friend. Scott has started to catch wind of the upcoming Pliny the Younger (PTY) release, and he’s really interested in going. He’s always wanted to go. He’s always loved Pliny the Elder. But at this point, you were fortunate enough to have a sample of Younger at a previous Whales for Wishes, and so as far as a “white whale” beer goes, you don’t NEED to go…but…bucket list beer trip? Waiting in line for the annual release? Actually, that sounds pretty great.
We make the arrangements, we’re getting excited, and then on a whim, I shoot a note over to the Russian River team, just seeing if maybe we could sit down and talk. My expectations were zero, as I have NO doubt that the RR team would be imminently busy during the 20th anniversary of PTY. But then I saw a reply from Vinnie Cilurzo. I stopped and just stared at it for a bit to even process that it was real. Yes, he’s available, and YES, he’s willing to take some time and talk to us that week. He has a lot of other commitments in those days leading up to the PTY release, but we find a time to work in an interview.
So I was definitely interested in doing some beer tourism while there, but we really didn’t have the time to do much. Our original plan was thuto go Cellarmaker for pizza and beer after my flight arrived, but unfortunately on Wednesdays they don’t open till 3pm. Ok, no big deal, let’s go to Toronado, a well-loved beer spot in San Francisco.
Toronado is one of those legendary names I’ve heard for years. It’s a dive bar with an incredible tap list. We walk in, and everything that I have been told was 100pct accurate. It’s a little more rectangular shaped than I expected, but there’s room for us, and WOW do they have an extensive beer list!
Researching from the airport, I found at least a half dozen beers I want to try. We walk in and I immediately notice that the draft board has already changed and there’s new beers on tap. No big deal, it’s not like they don’t still have amazing options. I’m struggling through some post-flight dry mouth, and I’m super thirsty, so let’s start with…hm. How about that ESB?
It’s delicious. It’s fantastic. It has that perfect balance of being easily chuggable while also being interesting enough to….wait, it’s gone. Crap. I spy a beer that Toronado made with Firestone Walker specifically made for Toronado’s barleywine festival. <https://untappd.com/b/firestone-walker-brewing-company-keene-instincts/5593508> Bourbon barreled AND cognac? It’s stellar. Speaking of special beers, Scott’s over there with a pour of the special Toranado 30th anniversary wild ale from Russian River, so I give that a try. It’s peachy, it’s great. I want to stay. I want to try 60% of what’s on the menu. But we need to hit the road because tomorrow is RR day…so ok, ONE MORE. I choose the Dark Mild from Monkish. I can’t tell you the last dark mild I’ve had, but I would absolutely buy this in bulk.
We wrap up and walk back to the car. It’s a perfect day, and I’m on cloud nine. Since Scott acquired an AirBnB in Santa Rosa, we knew we were in good shape because it was about a 20min walk to the original RR brewpub, and maybe 10-15min drive to the new Windsor Facility. Rich wants to beat traffic on the Golden Gate bridge, so we head out.
This being my first time outside of the SFO airport, I was soaking in all of the sights and just trying to remember everything I could. Driving from SF to Santa Rosa, you can’t help but gawk at the rolling hills, the vineyards, the agriculture, it’s all so fantastic and I’m not even sure if this is real life.
(One does not merely pass up their first experience with In-N-Out)
Suddenly, the back window of Rich’s van explodes. We quickly take the next highway exit to figure out what’s happened and try to determine a plan of attack. HEY HOW ABOUT WE FIGURE SOME OF THIS OUT IN THE PARKING LOT OF THAT IN-N-OUT SINCE I’M HUNGRY?! Yes, I’m being touristy. Shut up, I don’t care. As best we can tell, the security cable for the bike rack wasn’t tied down and it flipped up and punched out the window. Rich is on the phone with insurance, I’m having my first ever In-N-Out, and we start talking about game plans for the following days.
Rich is done with insurance, they’re going to come out “tomorrow” to the AirBnB, so we hit the road. We end up closing out the evening with a couple of pints of beer from Ghost Town that Scott/Rich had picked up on their way in to pick me up. It’s everything I want from a West Coast IPA. Hoppy, dank, clean, clear. I’m overjoyed, definitely overstimulated, but it’s also getting “late” for me, and we have a big day tomorrow.
The next day we arrive to the Windsor brewery, and start looking around the gift shop while we’re waiting for Vinnie (we were early), and I realize how expensive this trip is going to be. Cases of Pliny the Elder, Blind Pig, bottles of all of the “-tions”, including Intiction, I was a kid in a candy store. Heck, they even had a new iteration of Pliny for President! I’m stoked. I see Vinnie walk in, and go introduce myself. He says “let’s go over to the tasting room and I’ll grab a couple of cans of Pliny for President.”
I’m beside myself. This still isn’t real. I’m about to sit down with one of the most influential brewery personalities of the last 20 years, and he’s offering to share a beer with us.
I brought beer from Charlotte to offer as a way of saying thank you to Vinnie for taking his time. He’s asking me about it, and I start sputtering about our previous beercations and why they mean so much to us, the interviews we’ve done, and why this one is one of the biggest opportunities I’ve had, and I know I’m rambling. It’s all stream-of-consciousness, as I’m looking at my local Charlotte/NC beer sitting next to Pliny the President 2024. I’m not worthy. We’re not worthy. But he’s excited to try beer from another market as part of their “fun beer Friday” team building. He’s genuinely excited for this conversation? It all feels surreal.
[Part 2 coming soon]
(I can’t believe that Michael Bay spent a billion dollars…of his own money to build that for The Rock)
