Russian River Brewing's Pliny the Elder is no longer tops among the beer aficionados and homebrew cultists who vote in the annual Zymurgy Magazine poll on the Best Beers in America. As SFGate notes today, Pliny has lost the number-one spot on the list that it has held for the past eight years, and that spot now belongs to an IPA called Two Hearted Ale from Kalamazoo, Michigan-based Bell's Brewery. Pliny the Elder remains the number-two favorite among the 4,000+ members of the American Homebrewers Association, and among California members it is still number one.

All members are asked each year to list 20 beers available commercially that they consider the best in the country, and for years the list has been dominated by IPAs and double IPAs, including the Pliny-like Heady Topper from Vermont brewery The Alchemist which has in recent years been crowned the Best Beer In the World by other publications like RateBeer and Beer Advocate, earning a perfect score of 100 from both.

Coming in third this year on Zymurgy's list is another Michigan beer, Founders Brewing Co's Breakfast Stout, with Zombie Dust from Indiana's 3 Floyds Brewing and another Bell's brew, Hopslam, rounding out the top five.

Previously available more locally, Bell's has been gaining wider distribution over the past two years, as SFGate notes, arriving in stores in California, Texas, Nebraska, and elsewhere, thereby raising its national profile among the beer cognoscenti.

Meanwhile, the humble Sierra Nevada Pale Ale still clocks in at 11th place (in a tie) on Zymurgy's list, with Sierra Nevada's Celebration Ale landing in 8th, and one other California beer makes the top 10: Ballast Point's Sculpin IPA.

Pliny the Elder, which remains a small-production brew available by the bottle throughout the year, should not be confused with Russian River's other cult favorite, Pliny the Younger, an even smaller-batch triple IPA that the brewery only releases locally once a year, typically coinciding with Beer Week here in Northern California in February. As attendees at the annual Beer Week opening gala are familiar by now, the Russian River booth always attracts the longest line at the event because of the rarity of tasting Pliny the Younger, which also gets dropped off in "surprise" keg deliveries at bars around SF, and is served at the brewery's Santa Rosa brewpub, where it also attracts ridiculous lines.

Related: Russian River Brewing Reveals Expansion Designs, Readies Pliny The Younger For Beer Week