Oh my god people
http://www.manbeerlove.com/2011/05/ayinger-celebrator/
you really need to visit beer countries.
Please read it , learn I will be happy totake you by the hand in this real beers travel around the world
Overall: This is easily a top ten kind of beer, the best example of the style I’ve ever had and one that I could easily drink a four-pack of. It goes down with the ease of a session beer, but packs a little extra punch with the 6.70% ABV (which is fairly mild for a doppelbock), and deserves to be savored. I will try to always keep some in the fridge in case a celebration calls for it!
Pandacracy.
http://beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/863/7971
THAT is a top beer. That is the best beer I've ever tried, and the best beer in the world.
This is why I can't be a beer snob. A review of Pliny the Elder:
wow! this beer is awesome!!! strong pine flavor with a strong bitterness.
"Strong pine flavor with a strong bitterness" just doesn't sound in any manner appealing to me. I'm sure it's fantastic, but when I think "pine flavor", I don't think of good things.
(cracks knuckles)
Okay, I've been where you are before. I know what you're feeling. You're thinking, "I don't want a grassy, piney, citrusy taste in my beer", and you're right.
People say 'Piney', 'hints of grapefruit', and crap like that when describing the hoppy goodness that is an American Style IPA because its the closest they can get. Kind of like when people try to describe the
terroir in wine as the minerals and nutrients in the dirt.
And while the taste is vaguely piney, or 'grapefruity' or 'citrusy', they're all very loose terms in reality here. The hops taste is overwhelming, but in a good way, and for me at least its indescribable. I've heard 'grassy' and 'piney' thrown around often to try to explain what a beer tastes like, but they all fall short. They taste like hops, and I never really understood that until I brewed a big IPA. Pliny the Elder is submersed in hops from the beginning to the end, and it is supposed to be (although I did not, still on my wish list) drank fresh (within 2 months of brewing), because unlike maltiness and the other flavors in beer, hops tend to dissipate over time.
Since you're in Maine, I'd keep an eye out for the Smuttynose Big A IPA. In terms of quality it won't compare to the Pliny, but its similar in terms of style, and I'm a huge, huge fan of the Smutty IPA.