What is the new "FRESH"?

For the most part, BA discussions on fresh relate to hoppy beers. A hoppy beer like an IPA, particularly an IPA that relies on dry hop aroma as part of its flavor profile, will suffer from hop fade in a relatively short period of time; something like 1-2 months from bottling. A hoppy beer is still ‘drinkable’ with several months of age in the bottle but the beer will taste different vs. being fresh (like a month or less in the bottle). Every drinker will have a different take on how long a hoppy beer is fresh based upon their individual palate and their desires in what they like in a given beer. IMHO, for a brewery to suggest that a hoppy beer is ‘good’ for up to 6 months is less than responsible.

There are also non-hoppy beers that are best consumed fresh (like 1-2 months from bottling); a few styles that I can think of off the top of my head: Hefeweizen, Kolsch, Munich Helles, Pilsner, …

Cheers!

 

Beer is like bread, not like wine. (With a very few exceptions) drink as fresh as possible whenever possible.

 

In this community, I'd say 3 weeks.

To take it a step further:

2 weeks if Local & within a month if out of state or receiving in a trade.

 

One week is an absurd freshness standard.

My benchmark is ideally 1 month, but I think the fade is probably pretty negligible on *most* hoppy beers up to three months. Granted, some fade more significantly than others.

 

Most beers aren’t fully developed yet 1 week after bottling.

 

The reason I buy Pliny when I see is it usually has a bottled on date no more than ten days from when I buy it, but there is more reasons to buy Pliny,but I like my hoppy beers to be around one month.

 

Another big factor in "freshness" is refrigeration. I had a can of Heady that probably didn't get above 60F from the time it left the brewery until 8 months later, when I drank it. It really hadn't fallen off all that much (compared to a fresh can enjoyed a few days after that). I think John Kimmich says as much in a video that's floating around online. That said, I've also heard from someone who kept a can at room temperature that it had really changed for the worse after a few months.

To your original point, I know that Sixpoint are adamant about having their product refrigerated. I don't know if they base the 6 months expiry off of that, but I'm sure that it would be little difference in their offering if their wishes were respected. That said, I've seen Sixpoint sitting on a shelf in more than one store. Even a bigger beer, like Firestone Walker's Sucaba has an ideal aging temp of 45F.

Personally speaking, I won't buy a hoppy or certain lighter styles of beer if they're > 90 days old.

 

Ill drink a 3 month old IPA but anything past that Im very reluctant.

 

It depends on the beer. If sixpoint puts a six month expiration date on their IPA, then that should mean they are confident their beer will hold up. Not every beer ages the same. A ton of factors in the brewing and packaging of a beer affect it's stability. If a brewer claims their beer will stay fresh for longer than it really does, then they are hurting their own reputation.

 

I had a DFH 90 on draft about a month ago and it tasted wonderful. Had a 2 month old bottle (bottled on 3/4/14) just the other night and it didn't taste nearly as good.

 

I usually don't buy IPAs older than ~6wks or so, and generally only buy IPAs that have been cold since the store received them. If I'm at a different bottle shop, I'll buy <2wk old IPAs at room temp.

If I see <1wk old IPA I usually buy at least a bottle/pack. If it's one I've already enjoyed, I might buy a case. Last case was Two Hearted bottled March 4, purchased March 9. It was still drinking great on Easter when the brother-in-law and myself finished it off.

 

It's easier to list the styles in which freshness ISN'T a factor.

 

For me, within a month is reasonably fresh. But in order for me to say "wow. that's fresh." it'd have to be <2 weeks.

 

Freshness is a luxury which those of us who don't live in a good distribution don't have.
I know it's just a case of sour grapes, but I can't help feeling a little annoyed when I hear people complaining about how "this store had this beer on the shelf, and it was 2 weeks old! can you believe how ridiculous that is?! whoever is in charge of stocking should be drawn and quartered!" especially when it's a beer that I'm lucky if I can find at all, let alone find it "fresh."

 

IMO DFH 90 > than any bottle of the same that is one of several brews i prefer tap only

 

Depends on the beer. IMO for the most part, a month. Theres a handful of beers that I shoot for under a month because they fall off fast, and theres also a few beers I worry less about, because I know they will hold up.

 

I had to deal with this problem for a while. For the most part, I just bought whatever IPA was freshest. Every month or two, at least one new batch would show up. Then again, out of the many different hop flavors/profiles, I haven't found any fresh IPA offensive, which I could see being an issue if someone only likes centennial and simcoe, or citra and ctz, etc.

 

For me it depends if the IPA is very dependant on aroma or dry hopping for effect, aroma is part of taste after all and the hops in the nose are the first to go. IPAs like Sculpin, Odell and Pliny need to be fresh for max effect while others like Racer 5, Torpedo and Hop Devil are still really damn good 2-3 months after packaging.