Take note, beer lovers! There’s news Russian River’s cult fave, Pliny the Younger.
January is traditionally a slow month in the beer world. The holiday frenzy is past and the weather is chilly, making it a good time to sit by the fire with a tasty, strong beer — and ponder the newest developments on Northern California’s brewery scene:
BOTTLED PLINY THE YOUNGER >> Easily the biggest news of the holiday season was Russian River Brewing’s Christmas Eve announcement about this year’s Pliny the Younger. Owners Vinnie and Natalie Cilurzo say the 2020 edition of their cult-fave triple IPA will be available for just two weeks — Feb. 7-20 — and this time, you’ll be able to take two bottles home.
Visit either brewery, in Santa Rosa or Windsor, during those two weeks and you’ll be given a wristband to track your allocation of glasses of draft Younger at the pub. An extra tab on the wristband will allow you to buy two 510-millileter bottles of Pliny the Younger to take home. This is the first and possibly only time Younger will be bottled, and those bottles will not be distributed through the gift shop or retail stores. The only way to get them is to come and experience Pliny the Younger at the breweries. Find more details at russianriverbrewing.com.
SF BEER WEEK KICKS OFF >> The 10-day, Bay Area-wide SF Beer Week begins Feb. 7 with an opening gala at Pier 35 and tickets ($80-$125) are on sale now. Some 125 Northern California breweries were on hand at last year’s gala, pouring their beers. And hundreds of events will unfold over the following days at breweries, restaurants and other venues. Check out the lineup and find details at sfbeerweek.org.
BREWERY STATISTICS AND A CLOSING >> After years of unrestrained growth, brewery openings have started to slow. Between 2010 and 2016, growth was robust: For every 10 new breweries that opened, only one closed. But closings spiked slightly in 2017 — 195 breweries closed that year, up from 116 the year before. And openings slowed in 2018, with fewer new breweries opening than the year before. It’s not entirely unexpected; most business experts predicted that growth would slow as the industry matured.
Even so, the sheer numbers are staggering. At the end of 2018, the U.S. had a record 7,450 breweries — 3,300 more than in 1873, which was a pre-prohibition high. A relatively modest number of new breweries opened in 2019, but the new total should be close to 8,450, which represents 38% of the world’s 22,000-plus breweries.
One of last year’s closures, I’m sorry to say, was Santa Clara Valley Brewing, which opened in 2012 in San Jose and closed on Dec. 28. Founder and brewmaster Steve Donohue announced the closing in late December, but did not reveal any details.