Most connoisseurs of beer are familiar with Russian River’s Pliny the Elder. As indicated on the Russian River WWW site, Pliny is made in limited supply. It also is limited to the Santa Rosa, CA region which means that it doesn’t make its way to the Midwest.
Question: What is one to do?
Answer: Have Mark read a 13 year old issue of Zymurgy magazine and find a clone recipe provided by Vinnie Cilurzo himself.
Mark’s son, Jack, was in town from IN and was given the privilege to name this beer. Below is the condensed version of Jack’s research into this important task. I’m sure he spent more than 2 minutes to come up with this.
According to Wikipedia, Gaius Plinius Secundus – AKA Pliny the Elder – died in AD 79 attempting to rescue a friend from the then erupting Mount Vesuvius.
The board of directors at Fieldpointe approved the name suggestion in record time as to not hinder the immediate production of Vesuvius.
With the hard work out of the way, came the much easier task of Mark figuring out how to spend his time at the grill. He decided on a brisket (7 lb) which he procured at Danny’s for the occasion.
Bright and early on brew day Mark was firing up his charcoal unit. I’m so glad he uses charcoal. The charcoal, smoking wood chips and cooking meat present a wonderful aroma to enjoy while engaging in a few pints from the infamous basement brew fridge. (A keg of Paddle Pusher was on hand for the event.)
The day was glorious so the Dorothy Doors were in full open status. All attendees had easy access the Basement Man Cave to keep the bottoms of their pint glasses from drying out. (There hasn’t been much rain in this area as of late so this is a concern.)
While putting in the time to accomplish the two tasks of the day: Brew beer & Grill the brisket – we were entertained by Jack’s two dogs: Elton and Dolly P. Elton “chews” water coming out of the lawn sprinkler and Dolly P stares and paws at small patches of sunlight created by the small drainage holes in Mark’s gazebo canopy. When not doing those things, the two will “zoom.” This entails racing each other back and forth across the rear of the property. They also keep the local wildlife in check as I did not see a single chipmunk or rabbit the entire time.
Having so much down time, Mark once again put together some homemade pretzels using some of the spent grain from the mash. As per usual, they turned out fantastic – especially with some Mark-B-Q sauce.
Preceding the pretzels was the anticipated and expected Bloody Mary Bar. Mark has expanded the ingredient offerings to include many of the usual BM candidates. This time he had shrimp and a horseradish sauce that Jack brought from IN.
This is some good sinus clearing stuff and a great companion to the BMB.
The brisket turned out to be very good. It was enjoyed with corn on the cob and a cucumber salad. Brisket pizza was originally on the day’s menu but did not make an appearance. It was decided to give the time to the grill and not so much to the oven. This had nothing to do with the Great Pizza Debacle of 2023!
Brisket pizza along with brisket tacos and everything else brisket made appearances in following days – so I’ve been told. I have been informed that it all was, as Doreen would say, “Fabulous!” I have to take the word for it.
As previously indicated, Vesuvius is a clone recipe. I don’t think a brewer ever divulges the exact recipe design but gives something close to the original. Either way, this IPA should turn out well.
The brew day went well and as planned. Other than that, there isn’t much else to report. Nothing smoldered or had to be thrown out. Guess it is good that the process is more or less routine at this point. Here is the Fieldpointe version of Vesuvius:
Grain
- 13 lb – 2 Row
- 0.5 lb – Crystal 40°
- 0.5 lb – Cara-Pils
Adjunct
- 1 lb – Corn Sugar
Hops
- 2.5 oz – Columbus @ 90 minutes
- 0.5 oz – Columbus @ 45 minutes
- 1 oz – Simcoe @ 30 minutes
- 1 oz – Centennial @ flameout
- 1 oz – Simcoe @ flameout
- 1 oz – Columbus in secondary
- 1 oz – Centennial in secondary
- 1 oz – Simcoe in secondary
- 1 oz – Columbus in keg
- 1 oz – Centennial in keg
- 1 oz – Simcoe in keg
Yeast
- US-05 Fermentis Safale
Projected Analysis (not measured)
- Style – Double IPA
- OG – 1.081
- FG – 1.018 (@ 75% efficiency / attenuation)
- ABV – 8%
- Color – 8.8 SRM
- Bitterness – 199 IBU
