One more week left of Pliny the Younger

When Marcus Mays surveyed the line stretching away in front of him up Fourth Street toward Russian River Brewing Co. on Friday, he felt a twinge of professional envy.

"I see ka-ching; I see dollar signs," said Mays, co-owner of a small brewpub near Riverside, who described his trip to the brewery as professional research. "How do I duplicate this?"

Mays and hundreds of others were queued up on Friday to experience a taste of the legendary beer known as Pliny the Younger, a powerful, hoppy brew that Russian River releases once a year just for two weeks in February.

The brewery released the beer Feb. 7 and promises to turn off the tap when the last drop is gone on Feb. 20, leaving beer lovers just one week left to get their fixes.

"We've just fallen victim to the hoopla," said Mike Selfridge, who had come with a buddy to wait in line for the third straight year. "It's great fresh beer and they do a great job. It's one of those things you can check off and say you did."

Russian River co-owner Natalie Cilurzo said about 1,000 people have come through the doors daily, a frantic pace for a restaurant with a capacity of just 134 customers at a time. Brewer Vinnie Cilurzo has carefully rationed the release to make sure some will be available every day for two weeks, and so far the beer has not run out before 7 p.m. on any day.

Wait times have been anywhere from four hours to 12 hours at the height of the opening weekend.

"We have had a far bigger turnout than ever this year," Natalie Cilurzo said, "and the bad weather was apparently not a deterrent."

Despite torrential rain on the opening weekend, lines wound around the block every day. Even a week into the release, lines reached the corner of Fourth and D streets and even curled around onto the smaller street.

Santa Rosa Junior College instructor Lindsay Padilla took advantage of a day off and came prepared to wait. She came equipped with a chair, a bag of yarn, and a crochet hook to finish a colorful yoga blanket she had been working on. The wait, however long it may be, will be worth it, she said.

"Every time I have a Pliny the Elder, I just smile because it's so good," she said, referring to Russian River's best selling beer, a year-round cousin to Pliny the Younger. "So I am hoping it's an even bigger smile. I am expecting (The Younger) to be hoppy and yummy."

Neighboring businesses reported that the crowds have been orderly, if loud at times.

"We have had guitar players, banjo players, loud music" out front, said Megan Erlendson, manager of HMS Travel. "But they are very nice if we ask them to be quiet. It's a little distracting, that's all."

Closer to the brewpub, at Punch Clothing, clerk Lindsey Patrick said the line has brought extra customers in the door.

"We haven't had any problems," she said. "People are really cheerful and nice .

.

. and we definitely appreciate the business it brings downtown." Workers at restaurants in the area reported a bump in business from the waiting crowds, as parties of beer fans went off in search of food to keep them happy in line."Better business, you know," said Jesus Arballo, a worker at El Palomar Mexican restaurant a block down from the brewpub.Although the clock is winding down for Pliny the Younger at the brewpub, the frenzy over the beer is preparing to spread to other parts of the country. About half the annual production is sent off to select bars and distributors in California, Oregon, Colorado, and Pennsylvania, and the first kegs were sent out late this week.Wherever the beer appears, it generates enormous publicity and long lines of fans demanding a sip.The Falling Rock Taphouse, a nationally known bar in Denver, usually gets three of the coveted kegs annually and taps them on consecutive weekends. They sell tasting tickets to about 200 customers every day, charging $8 for an 8 oz beer, roughly double the cost of comparable beers that are more widely available."It sells out immediately," bartender Dan O'Malley said. "We turn on the tap and don't turn it off until it's empty."The bar expects to get its annual shipment Tuesday.Fans from all over the world have been calling to ask about the beer for months."We get calls starting around January, if not earlier, all day, every day," O'Malley said. "It's crazy. I've had 10 calls just this morning."Locally, a few bars will get some of the beer, including Willie Bird Restaurant on Santa Rosa Avenue, the two Hopmonk Tavern locations in Sonoma County, Barley & Hops Tavern in Occidental, The Lodge of Sonoma, and Caf?Citti in Kenwood, Cilurzo said. Many of the bars in the Bay Area will be offering the beer as part of events for San Francisco Beer Week, which wraps up Sunday."We do not know when our accounts are pouring it, but we kindly ask that they serve it as soon as possible since this beer is quite perishable and best enjoyed when very fresh," Cilurzo said.Although the beer is available in some other places, many beer drinkers went out of their way to experience the release at the brewpub itself. A survey by the Sonoma County Economic Development Board last year found that the Pliny the Younger release generates about $2.4 million for the county economy, both in direct sales and the money spent by tourists arriving to taste.Andy Bilodeau was among that tourist flock this year. He left his San Diego contracting business behind to make his second pilgrimage to the Santa Rosa restaurant, despite the fact that wife Rachel is heavily pregnant and can't join him in the tasting."I just like the whole experience .