How long do IPAs stay "Fresh"?

Anywhere within 30 days is primo, I'll buy it up in a second. After 60 days, I'll find something else.

 

Some last longer than others. I drink IPAs up to about 3 months old, but they all seem to change at different rates after the 30 day mark.

 

Since the staling of beer is a chemical reaction (oxidation, in this case), temperature is everything. As a rough rule of thumb, reactions double in rate with every raise in temperature of 10 degrees Celsius. Therefore, an IPA that's kept cold can actually stay fresh for quite some time, but one that's at room temperature can fall off very quickly. The Bruery put up a very good post about this about a year ago, and there's a nice chart about halfway down the page that shows the relationship between the rate of staling and storage temperature.

http://www.thebruery.com/careful-cellaring-part-2-the-importance-of-temperature/

 

I'm always amazed that a beer designed to survive a long ocean voyage, and storage in a humid conditions , goes so bad so fast!

 

The Arrhenius equation is applied by breweries Breweries to do accelerated staling tests by subjecting a beer to 60C for a day and then cooling and tasting, according to Dr. Bamforth. Keep it refrigerated is the take away.

The article was very good.

 

The IPAs produced in Britain circa 1800 were hoppy in the sense of bitterness but were not specifically ‘designed’ for hop aroma/flavor per se.

Contemporary American style IPAs are ‘designed’ to show off vibrant hop aroma/flavor.

In other words a British IPA of circa 1800 is a very different beer from contemporary American style IPAs like Union Jack, Stone IPA, etc.

Cheers!

 

I prefer IPAs to be 30 days or less lean more to the less, so I buy fresh local stuff like HDR. Some hops fall faster than other such as Citra, some styles also fall faster, light fruity ipas fall faster than dank resinous ones in general IMO. Cans last longer than bottles. I've had 6-7 week old HT that you couldn't pick out from one right out of the cannery as an example. Different people like different things, palates vary, opinions vary, I'm not a malt guy so my palate picks this up quickly on older stock ipas, and I despise old tasting overly malty IPA's, you can smell the change sometimes. But as a general opinion I would think inside 2 months would still cover most IPA's and would be good, sooner is always better than later though.

 

1) storage,

2) maybe not from same batch,

3) your palate totally matters; what you've eaten or drank before/during drinking the beer,

4) bottle variation from breweries whose bottling line isn't as sophisticated as "big guys" like victory, sierra nevada, stone, etc

5) starting to suspect kegs fall off faster than bottles in virtue of storage. some bars are more diligent than others.

apologies if (5) is already backed up or refuted elsewhere in the thread. my attention span isn't what it used to be.

 

Also, they don't go bad, they just taste different.

 

that's close to true, depending on what you mean. 'bad' is of course subjective.

as much as people talk about hops as preservatives, beer is not going to go bad such that you get sick from drinking it, whether you hop it highly or not. alcohol is the poison that kills all the dangerous bugs.

 

[QtUOTE="tripsforjoe, post: 3156136, member: 756008"]Also, they don't go bad, they just taste different.[/QUOTE]
Ah, that may be technically true but....

For Christmas I received as a present a quart bottle of Lagunitas Sucks. It was very difficult to discern with the black ink on the brown bottle but I eventually did find the bottling code; this beer was bottled in August. So, this bottle was about 4 months old. This beer was a malt bomb! I split this beer with my wife (who is a HUGE hophead). She took one sip and quickly put the beer down on the counter and went to the fridge and opened one of my homebrewed beers to drink instead. I tried to finish my glass but after drinking about a third of the glass I had to cry 'uncle' and drain pour the remaining 2/3rds and I drain poured my wife's glass as well. That 4 month old bottle of Sucks sucked. It was technically not 'bad' but it was bad.

Cheers!

 

I didn't believe how quickly they could drop off till I tried a fresh bottle of lunch (week old) side by side with one two months old,,, noticeable difference,,, but I still drink the bottled IPA older than that and enjoy greatly,,, just know if I can find it on tap it will be much better as with most beers I try.

 

According to a lot of BA's, 10 minutes. After that you won't get any noticeable hop presence..haha. JK, I'll usually stay away from anything over 3 months old.

 

I bought a 4 pack of Two Hearted cans that were 6 months old and they still had plenty of hop aroma and flavor. Most IPAs don't hold up that well beyond 2-3 months. I don't typically buy an IPA older than 1-2 months.

 

double ipas i wont go over 90 days, fresh ipas like (heady, second fiddle,heyolka, gandhi) i like no longer than 30 days. Dosnt mean they go bad but the yeast crashes out and hops fade and more malt shines through the longer you wait. I had a surly furious as an extra one time that was 8 months old and it was aweful then i had one super fresh and it was like night and day. All in All, just drink your ipas fresh for better flavor

 

Have you ever had bottled Two Hearted that was 6 months old? If so, how was the hop presence in those bottled beers?

Cheers!

 

It's been quite a while since I had a six month old bottle of Two Hearted, but I certainly have before and did not mistake it for a fresh beer. I didn't look at the date when I bought the cans because they don't print the date on the box that wraps the cans. I drank one and was pleased with the freshness, then I looked at the date on the bottom of a can and was surprised it was 6 months old. I was tempted to compare it with a fresh bottle, but not adequately motivated to acquire a fresh bottle.

I'm sold on Two Hearted in cans!

 

Thank you for your reply.

IMO, your drinking experiences demonstrates that cans are a superior package for hoppy beers (or any beer for that matter).

Cheers!

 

Unless I can get it within a week of being bottled, I don't waste my time with it.

 

So you are able to buy beer maybe twice a year in Illinois then?