One Iconic Beer

What makes a beer “iconic?”

Join me as I interview brewers, brewery founders, historians, and writers to discover the stories behind the world's most influential beers. Each episode explores the history, personalities, and unexpected moments that have transformed one brew into a legend.

Iconic beers are more than just best-sellers; they are those landmark achievements that have defined a beer style. Whether we’re talking about an ancient European beer, or a relatively new American craft beer, it’s impossible to think of a style of beer without referencing the one standard that exemplifies it. One Iconic Beer is released on the third Monday of every month in the All About Beer podcast feed. You can find a playlist of recent episodes here, or listen to them on your favorite podcast service:

• Apple podcasts

• Spotify

• YouTube

Episode 7: Pliny the Elder

American IPAs have been brewed up and down the West Coast for over 45 years. In that time, they changed a lot. One of the most important moments for the style’s evolution came in 1999, when Russian River released an early example of a double IPA.

Pliny the Elder used techniques we now consider completely standard, but which were uncommon and even controversial then. On this episode of One Iconic Beer, we hear from the beer’s creator, Russian River co-founder Vinnie Cilurzo, and another West Coast legend, former Stone brewmaster and author of the book IPA, Mitch Steele.

They tell the story of Pliny the Elder and the development of IPAs in the United States.