Snag Bottles of Pliny the Younger for the First Time Ever

It’s that time of year again: Northern California’s favorite cult beer, Pliny the Younger, is back for the 16th year in a row. And for the first time ever, there will be a limited release in bottles. That’s right, you’ll be able to take home bottles of Russian River Brewing Company’s most sought-after beer—if you can get your hands on them, that is.

This year’s release starts today, February 7, and goes through February 20. for a full fourteen days of hoppy madness. The yearly event draws huge lines of beer nerds from all over the world, many of whom camp out for hours (the brewery estimates you’ll wait from one to six) to get a taste of the elusive offering. To take home a bottle, you’ll still have to brave the line at one of the brewery’s two brewpubs in Santa Rosa or Windsor, with a maximum purchase of two bottles per person, per day; they won’t be available at the gift shop. (Make sure you read all the details in full at the brewery’s website.

Once inside the brewpub, drinkers can hang out for up to three hours and consume up to three 10-ounce pours of Pliny the Younger in addition to the 20 other beers on tap. But word to the wise: Take a Lyft to the line, Pliny the Younger is a hefty 10.25 percent alcohol.

It’s a “triple” IPA, which indicates a higher abv than most IPAs (which usually clock in somewhere around 6-8 percent), with a boatload of hops. The brewery classifies it as a winter seasonal, which is a heady version of their Pliny the Elder beer, with more hops, more malt, and more alcohol.

Head over to the brewery’s Santa Rosa location at 725 Fourth St. or the Windsor location is at 700 Mitchell Lane. They both open at 11 a.m., which likely means folks have been waiting there since before the sunrise.