Pliny the Elder Named America's Best Beer for 7th Year in a Row by American Homebrewers Association

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Beer Lovers may want to take note if they haven’t already: In the July/August edition of the American Homebrewer’s Association journal Zymurgy, Russian River’s Pliny the Elder Beer was named “America’s Best Beer.” This marks the seventh year the ale has been named top beer in this journal. Huffington Post reported that The American Homebrewer’s association “received 19,000 votes [from readers] for 6,000 different beers.”

According to the Russian River Brewing Company, who also won the title of Best American Brewery in the journal, Pliny the Elder is a double/imperial India pale ale that is “slightly bitter with a fresh hop aroma of floral, citrus, and pine.” The company states that it got the idea for the beer’s unusual name from reading about botanist from the first century named Pliny the Elder. Pliny supposedly created the botanical name for, or at the least studied, the plant Lupus Salictarius, known today as hops.

The other beers on Zymurgy’s top five included Bell’s Two Hearted Ale, Ballast Point Sculpin IPA, Stone Enjoy By IPA and Founders Breakfast Stout. Clearly, readers weren’t big on variation in their ranking of “best” beers.

Pliny the Elder Named America’s Best Beer for 7th Year in a Row by American Homebrewers Association