Brookston Beer Bulletin

Jay R. Brooks on Beer

  • Home
  • About
  • Editorial
  • Birthdays
  • Art & Beer

Socialize

  • Dribbble
  • Email
  • Facebook
  • Flickr
  • GitHub
  • Instagram
  • LinkedIn
  • Pinterest
  • RSS
  • Twitter
  • YouTube
Powered by Head Quarters Built on WordPress

First Bottling Day of Pliny the Elder

July 10, 2008

 

On July 10, the highly anticipated first bottling run of the popular Pliny the Elder took place at Russian River Brewing‘s new production brewery in Santa Rosa, California. I was on hand to help out for the eight hours it took to do the run, emptying nearly three pallets of 16.9 oz. bottles onto the line and making hundreds of case boxes — my particular jobs — while Vinnie and team attended to the other details. Before we were even done with the bottling run, the first pallet was loaded in the van and whisking its way to area retail stores, but only accounts that agreed to store and display the beer cold. Suggested retail is $3.99, though you can also buy bottles at Russian River’s brewpub for $4.50, which is more in line with their pint pricing of $4.25. While we were still there bottling, both Vinnie and I got e-mails from friends saying they’d already bought bottles of Pliny at Ledger’s in Berkeley, which was fun. It was a long, hard day (I’m glad I don’t have to work that hard every day) but also very satisfying, too. The day before, Russian River also bottled several pallets of Blind Pig IPA.

Russian River Brewery in the early morning.

The bottling line, ready to run.

The labeller.

The very first bottle of Pliny the Elder coming off the bottling line.

The second, third, and so on, bottles on their way to the labeller, as Vinnie mans the control in the background.

A view from the other side, where I loaded bottles onto the line to insure a steady supply of bottles to be filled with Pliny.

Which I got from pallets of fresh bottles next to the bottling machine.

A look inside the filler.

As the day wore on, cases, and then pallets, were filled with freshly bottled Pliny. Guy (on the right) pulled bottled off the line and loaded the empty mother cartons, while Vinnie continued to work the controls for the bottler.

A close-up of those controls.

The first pallet, just before it left for Ledger’s and other destinations in the East Bay.

Which was next to the barrel room, where an increasing number of barrels are aging.

The last bottle of the day nears the labeller.

And finally, the last bottle is labeled.

A happy and tired Vinnie Cilurzo, after a day of bottling his Pliny the Elder Imperial IPA.

 

Find Something

Northern California Breweries

Please consider purchasing my latest book, California Breweries North, available from Amazon, or ask for it at your local bookstore.

Beer Bulletin Email

Enter your email address to receive daily digests:

Recent Comments

  • Susan Appel on Historic Beer Birthday: John Roehm
  • S. Pavelka on Beer Birthday: Rich Norgrove
  • Celebrating Texas History With Alamo Beer: An Iconic Taste Of The Lone Star State – SanctuaryBrewCo on Fictional Beer Brands
  • Neal Carey on Historic Beer Birthday: Anton Zahm
  • Experience The Taste Of Duff Beer: Limited-Edition Cans And Home Brewing Kits – SanctuaryBrewCo on Fictional Beer Brands

Recent Posts

  • Beer Birthday: Sean Turner January 30, 2023
  • Historic Beer Birthday: Christian Hess January 30, 2023
  • Historic Beer Birthday: Martin Stelzer January 30, 2023
  • Beer In Ads #4336: Miss Rheingold 1955 And A Creepy Jack-O-Lantern January 29, 2023
  • Historic Beer Birthday: W.C. Fields January 29, 2023

Tag Cloud

Advertising Anheuser-Busch Announcements Bay Area Belgium Brewers Association Brewing Equipment Budweiser Business California Christmas Europe France Germany Guinness Health & Beer History Holidays Hops Humor Infographics Kegs Law Mainstream Coverage Miller Brewing Northern California Pabst Packaging Patent Pennsylvania Press Release Prohibitionists Rheingold San Francisco Schlitz Science Science of Brewing Sports Statistics The Netherlands UK Uncategorized United States Video Washington

The Sessions

session_logo_all_text_1500

Next Session: Dec. 7, 2018
#142: One More for the Road
Previous Sessions
  • #141: Future of Beer Blogging
  • #140: Pivo
  • #139: Beer & the Good Life
  • #138: The Good in Wood
  • #137: German Wheat
Archive, History & Hosting

Typology Tuesday

Typology-png
Next Typology:
On or Before March 29, 2016
#3: Irish-Style Dry Stout
Previous Typologies
  • #2: Bock Feb. 2016
  • #1: Barley Wine Jan. 2016
Archive & History

This month’s posts

January 2023
S M T W T F S
1234567
891011121314
15161718192021
22232425262728
293031  
« Dec    

BBB Archives