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(Courtesy Russian River Brewing)
At a time when so many “event beers’’ have cooled off considerably, Russian River’s Piney the Younger release is still one of the most heralded beer events in the world.
Sold for only two weeks (or until it runs out) annually this ever-evolving India Pale Ale has enshrined Russian River Brewing as one of Americas’ most important craft beer destinations.
Russian River first brewed the Triple IPA in 2005 as a winter seasonal built upon the brewery’s much tamer Pliny the Elder recipe, pushing the malt, hops, and alcohol envelope to audacious levels that had never been seen before.
Pliny the Younger is only brewed once a year and traditionally released the first Friday in February, but thanks to a pandemic that refuses to go away its release event has been postponed this year.
This from Russian River co-Founder Natalie Cilurzo…
Not only is Sonoma County experiencing a record-shattering spike in COVID cases and increased hospitalizations, but we are in the midst of our own internal surge. Since the week before Christmas, 20 RRBC employees have tested positive for COVID with several more out sick or in quarantine due to exposure.
The first week of January 2022, we were forced to close both brewpubs for several days, and the following week offering limited menus and reduced hours due to lack of staffing.
This is unprecedented.
On January 12th, Sonoma County issued a new health order banning large gatherings and asking residents to stay at home for the next 30 days. This new health order takes us well into our upcoming Pliny the Younger release.
Given our own internal staffing struggles along with the latest health order from our County, Vinnie and I made the difficult decision to postpone this year’s Pliny the Younger release. For the safety of not only our employees but our community at large, this was the only responsible and logical choice to make given all of these contributing factors.
This year’s Pliny the Younger will be released at both our Santa Rosa and Windsor brewpubs on draft and in bottles March 25th-April 7th, 2022.
All the beer brewed the first week of January will be kegged in February for distribution to our wholesale accounts beginning the week of February 7th. So there is still a chance to drink Younger at many of our RRBC draft accounts in California, Oregon, Colorado and Philadelphia! Bottles will not be available for distribution.
We greatly apologize for any inconvenience to anyone who has already booked flights and made hotel reservations. So far, we have confirmed with most of the hotels with special Younger rates that they will honor the new dates. ###
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Part of Pliny the Younger’s allure is due to its very limited distribution. Up until 2020 it has never been bottled, so beer fans must travel to the brewery or to limited outlets, primarily in California to enjoy each year’s release…
Russian River’s hugely anticipated Pliny the Younger event drew almost 400,000 beer lovers to its humble Santa Rosa brewpub in 2017. And that number only continues to grow.
