Mono Monday : : Middleman

The fellow who delivers the Russian River beer from the brewery in Windsor to the Trail House so looks the part that I had to snap his picture through the window as he went by pushing his third or fourth load...including Pliny the Elder, a rare commodity because the Russian River brewmaster keeps it that way, only making a limited amount. Apparently the only reason they have it at Trail House is because the owner fixes the brewmaster's bike! 

There is much lore surrounding this brewery,  founded in 1997 by Korbel Champagne Cellars,  which is on the banks of the Russian River. Every year on the first Friday in February, Russian River Brewing releases an even more limited amount of Pliny the Younger. People camp on the streets in the rain for a single ten ounce glass of the intensely hoppy triple IPA. Even though they have built a fancy new facility in Windsor, the queue at the old place in downtown Santa Rosa is still the place to be for beer aficionados in the first week of February.

I don't really like beer but I was surprised that OilMan didn't turn in his decaf Americano for some Pliny. I guess he's learned a few things since his days of drinking a beer at 9am....What I  learned is that Pliny the Elder is named for the ancient Roman philosopher, believed to have created the botanical name for hops, Lupus Salictarius, now known as Humulus Lupulus. The 'younger' was his nephew, who wrote about the 'elder' and made him famous.

The fellow with the beard, a Russian River Brewing Tee shirt,  a San Francisco Giants hat and skull  tattoos strikes me as a perfect middleman between the ancient philosopher and the much lauded brewery.  He looks like he might be more at home in Orkney delivering Skull Splitter ale, but he's actually a very mild mannered fellow....