Yes. The answer is yes, Russian River Brewing has changed the label of Pliny The Elder… but hasn’t changed it much.
There has only been subtle changes over the years. If you watch the video, I have four different (but not THAT different) Pliny labels.
I assume the first ever packaged Pliny The Elder has a different label than these…so that means there are at least five different labels (if you look real close).
(Check out my newsletter where I posted a version of this, first)
Cheers! Enjoy your Russian River beers and thanks for reading.
Many tallboys and beer bottles have little ridges at the bottom to make them stable.
The ridges that circle the bottom helps prevent them from floating around when the bottle has a bunch of condensation making the bottle wet and slippery. If they did not have the bumps or ridges, the bottle could slide of your table.
As an example, cans do not have ridges, bumps or grooves and are obviously very light when empty. And many times, I have experienced my empty and sweaty can begin “floating” around the table with no help. I am no Jedi with abilities some would consider to be…unnatural.
The music sounds different. Feels different. Tastes, smells, thoughts, attitude, creativity, all from…
A beer buzz. It’s fucking great.
I feel like it’s something we don’t talk about nearly enough.
There are lots of great things about beer and, for me, this may be the biggest: a nice buzz.
You see, I am a weird motherfucker. Not a normal person when it comes to communicating to other humans.
But when I have a beer. Or two. I feel like I bump up to the level of a regular person.
I can talk about things. Amplify my mood. And it’s all due to alcohol. Beer.
And, I am more creative. Some of my best writing ideas happen after a beer. Turns out, you actually aremore creative when drinking:
“Alcohol manipulates focus,” says Jennifer Wiley, Ph.D., and coauthor of the study. If you’re doing taxes—not such a good thing. But when it comes to puzzles or “out of the box” tasks, relaxation and flexibility—what you’re feeling after a few drinks—can spark creativity. You’re more likely to let your mind wander, she says.
Hells yeah, that’s science, my friend.
Sadly, it’s always a small window, the beer buzz. It’s like, maybe a couple hours. But it’s a good couple of hours. A really fucking good couple of hours.
Then it starts degrading into being tired or drunk or both, if you keep going.
Yes, there is a downside sometimes. If I am pissed about something, I am looser and sometimes say what I feel.
Hell, I called out Oakland A’s pitcher and broadcaster, Dave Stewart, on Twitter last night about being a company man during this whole Oakland A’s moving to Las Vegas deal:
That was after two beers. I turned up the volume on my third:
Dave Stewart is a hero of mine and I called him out publicly in front of the Oakland A’s community. There is no way I do that with no beers in me. A buzz can make a nerd do weird things.
Wait, I am getting off track…
I just wanted to tell you this because it never gets discussed: a beer buzz is awesome!
The time between having a couple beers and getting tired and passing out, is magical, creative, fun, and needs more respect.
Here are these thoughts in video form, if you’re interested:
Having Couch Beers is a great suburbs drinking pastime.
I don’t like to admit I live in the suburbs. While I am, in fact, in the middle of the city, it is still the suburbs. It’s much cooler to be in “the city” or whatever.
Main drawback: I don’t live downtown next to a cool brewery.
Hell, I don’t even live by an industrial park where new breweries seem to live.
Boring suburbs or not, that doesn’t mean you or I can’t have a good time with a nice beer in our neighborhoods. We just have to plan.
I have some initial thoughts that popped in my head to help you drink good beer while living in the suburbs:
Beer runs. Stop off at a brewery at some point in your week. Load up as much as your budget allows because who knows when you’ll make it back down here.
Ship it good. The Pandemic did at least one good thing and loosened up the beer shipping restrictions. Many states allow you to get beer shipped to your house directly from the brewery – as long as you’re still in the same state as the shipper.
A solid grocery store. If you are lucky enough, you have a grocery store with a decent Craft selection. This is the one thing I am lucky to have (although it is two blocks away [sighs in beer nerd]).
I will be honest with you, the main thing I do is get beer from a nearby grocery store. It is the most boring of ways for a beer geek to get their beer, and I do it often. My street cred fades day by day.
Today I went to my only nearby bottle shop/beer bar. That is something, anyway. At 3:30 in the afternoon, it was pretty packed with all sorts of people. grabbed my five overpriced cans and left without even so much as having a taster.
You see, if I have one, then I want more and I can’t do that again. People expect me to be at home most of the time, so I can’t trust myself to start up.
Tangent Warning! You have to be careful with your suburban drinking as a parent. Parents from your kid’s school are everywhere!
Yeah ‘cause, you think you’re safe at your neighborhood Mexican restaurant bar gettin’ stupid, but unknown to you little Tommy’s mom for the PTA was sittin’ in the corner the whole time watching you throw back Modelos (because it is the only drinkable beer this place has) and can’t wait to tell everyone at the next meeting how obnoxious you are and (worse) your taste in beer sticks!
[not that that has happened to me or anything]
There is a lot to unpack in this beer geek sub-genre. Definitely more to figure out on how to drink good beer while living in the suburbs. I’ll dig deeper in future post and on my newsletterfor sure.
