Beer Lovers Cross Continents To California For A Sip Of This Sonoma County Brewery's Deliciously Rare IPA

A brewmaster walks into a Sonoma County champagne maker's fledgling brewery and sets stratospheric standards in producing beers of highly hoppy, Belgian, and barrel-aged styles. Already legendary for inventing the first American double IPA, Vinnie Cilurzo is now mythical for siring the deliciously rare Pliny the Younger, the first ever triple IPA. When it's available, beer lovers worldwide — 14 countries and 47 states at last count — must sip it, or miss it.

So, what's a beer like the supremely aromatic, marvelously malted Pliny the Younger, emanating crispy notes of orange candies, pine, stone fruit, and lychee, doing in a venerated wine mecca like Sonoma? To beat the wintry drudgery of 2005, Cilurzo fantasized about boosting the already-powerful flavor profile of the iconic double IPA Pliny the Elder, a flagship of his Russian River Brewing Company. Surging the Elder recipe with a wallop of hop and malt varieties, what started as a fun seasonal experiment is now the second-highest-ranked Imperial IPA and ninth-highest-rated beer on BeerAdvocate, the top online gathering of connoisseurs and trade insiders.

Also third on BeerAdvocate's Beers of Fame, Younger draws upwards of 25,000 fans to Russian River's Windsor brewery and Santa Rosa brewpub every March to savor this unicorn. It helps that the latter location is easily reached via a Sonoma County train network from San Francisco. Each vintage is a once-in-a-lifetime tasting, because Cilurzo tinkers with its hop combinations yearly; in 2025, a novel and exciting varietal named Tangier was added to the mix. Details remain a secret until kegs softly touch down in February, pre-official release, at select bars in California and a handful of cities, and reviews start drafting. Raves one BeerAdvocate reviewer, "This beer lives up to the hype. 2025 version does not disappoint. ... Must have if you can get to it."

And here's how you can get to it: Arrive at 5 a.m. when the line sprouts, knowing that the bar opens only at 11 a.m. and pours a daily quota of Younger. Each pilgrim can order a maximum of three 10-ounce servings and buy up to three bottles while stocks last. On weekends and busy days, expect to queue more than six hours in temperamental Northern California weather. Once in, you have 2.5 hours to sate the thirst you've been nursing for nearly 365 days, and revel in the collective ahhh of compliments and contentment over the ale's superlatively smooth and balanced mouthfeel capping its bombastic taste. 

If you can't make it to Sonoma County or wait to taste Younger on home ground, watch social media for limited tap locations as soon as the upcoming release is announced in early February. But you'd be missing the p(o)int. Beer super fans embrace the extreme in-person effort to whet their palates, passing time indulgently geeking out with fellow members of the craft beer community. For many, the new friends and beer knowledge blossoming from this highly spirited fellowship makes that long-awaited taste of Younger much sweeter. Denver might be America's craft beer capital, but being completely dunked into the camaraderie of ecstatic families, friends, and strangers with the holy grail of ale, helmed by generous and gregarious hosts, is an exceptional experience. And now that you've attained beer nirvana, take time off to enjoy other libations and sights in this top wine region, especially since winter is when it explodes with color and waterfalls.