Overflow crowd of beer lovers awaits Pliny the Younger

You don't call this stuff brewski.

The hundreds of people who lined up in the rain in downtown Santa Rosa on Friday morning - some arriving the night before with umbrellas, North Face parkas and a good bit of facial hair - came to pay tribute to craft beer.

Specifically, they sought this year's batch of Pliny the Younger, a super-hoppy, high-alcohol "triple IPA" that has silenced the whiniest of beer snobs and put the small Russian River Brewing Co. on the map. Some call it the best beer on Earth.

With a limited supply available, the annual release on the first Friday of February has become an affair akin to the revealing of an Apple gadget or a cult sneaker, a testament to a craft-beer explosion in which imperial stouts and sour ales have nudged into a marketplace once dominated by the likes of Miller and Bud.

Sales of Russian River ales and other U.S. specialty brews have pushed craft-beer sales to 10.2 percent of the domestic beer market, in dollar terms, according to the Brewers Association, an industry group.

"Believe the hype," said 28-year-old Darin Yamashita, who flew in from Hawaii on Thursday with his brother just for a taste of the prized juice. "I love it. Bitter, but very, very smooth."

The doors of the taproom opened shortly before 11 a.m. to those who waited the longest - hardy souls who closed the bar the previous night, then headed outside with lawn chairs. As the day wore on, the line didn't let up, with enthusiasts reporting wait times of up to six hours.

Sarah Barnes keeps her 2-month-old son, Michael, warm and cozy as she waits outside Russian River Brewing Co. for hours to taste the much-anticipated annual release of Pliny the Younger triple IPA. Sarah Barnes keeps her 2-month-old son, Michael, warm and cozy as she waits outside Russian River Brewing Co. for hours to taste the much-anticipated annual release of Pliny the Younger triple IPA. Photo: Lacy Atkins, The Chronicle Photo: Lacy Atkins, The Chronicle Image 1 of / 12 Caption Close Overflow crowd of beer lovers awaits Pliny the Younger 1 / 12 Back to Gallery

"It's all about the experience," said Jon Houland, who came from Minnesota's Twin Cities for the storied release. "Where else besides church and comic book conventions are you going to find people interested in the same thing you are? Everyone is speaking beer."

The hubbub over Pliny the Younger, now in its 10th year, went beyond the swillers. Opportunistic merchants hawked herbal tea and pizza to out-of-towners. Two hotels offered special "Younger packages." Though one elderly woman who walked by the line was perplexed - "What's everyone waiting for, free coffee?" she asked - the local paper pronounced, "Let the Pliny Madness Begin."

Brewmaster Vinnie Cilurzo, who owns the pub with his wife, Natalie, has come to expect crowds for Pliny the Younger. But he said he's still humbled by the turnout.

Widely credited for introducing the double IPA (India pale ale) style, Cilurzo described his triple IPA as chock-full of hoppy bitterness and aromatics. Pliny the Younger pushes the upper limits on flavor for beer, but still achieves a flawless balance, or so say the critics.

"If there's anything that makes it a little different this year, and better, it's that we've become better as brewers at selecting the hops," Cilurzo said.

The line to taste Pliny the Younger at the San Francisco Beer Week Opening Gala on Friday night wasn't as long as the one in Santa Rosa, but it was close. More than 100 people lined up for the Younger when the doors opened at 6, but hundreds of others bypassed the fervor and sampled the pale ales, IPAs, stouts, sours and other styles from the 80 other breweries in attendance.

The craft beer spectacle at the South of Market event was part 24-course tasting menu and part high school kegger. Beer industry representatives from Sierra Nevada, Lagunitas, Anchor, Linden Street and other Northern California breweries showed off their finest craft beers, some of which, including Lagunitas' S.F. Beer Week Fusion, were brewed specially for this week.

S.F. Beer Week "has gotten bigger and bigger and bigger," said Bob Brewer, who has worked at Anchor Brewing for 29 years, attended the Opening Gala since its founding and swears that's his real surname. "It's an invitational now. It's a phenomenon."

Pliny the Younger is named after the storied lawyer and author from ancient Rome. It's available only on draft and rationed over a course of two weeks, through Feb. 20.

Bowman Chaney wasn't taking a chance, nabbing the first spot in line. "I always wanted the chance to try it," said the 24-year-old from Sacramento. "It's like Disney World here, but for adults."