How long do IPAs stay "Fresh"?

I have had Zombie Dust with 3 or 4 months on it and it is still excellent.
I wouldn't let it go longer than that.

 

Some do better than others and "fresh" is certainly subjective but I would say 2 to 3 months is my limit. After that the hops begin to step aside to let the malts move in.

 

I pretty much agree with this. Some fall off fast. Two Hearted Ale, Endeavour, 90 Minute, and Sculpin all come to mind.

I find that Abrasive has great stamina.

 

Indeed. And to the OP, it really depends on who you ask. A hop head will say drink that IPA within a month or less or it is no good. Others may be ok with a 6 month IPA. Its all a matter of personal taste. I DO think that most American IPAs try to showcase hops and should be consumed sooner than later.

 

I will have to disagree with Two Hearted, holds up like a beast IMO... Although I buy all my hoppy beer refridgerated and keep them that way when I get home in my full size hoppy beer fridge... With that in context I have not noticed a difference between months one and three on Two Hearted... Yes a week old I can tell a difference but after that it is just a trivial matter...

Also IPA freshness gets blow way out of wak here on this site... As a homebrewer I can tell you some of the people who say "as soon as it hits the bottle you have a week" could not be fuller of crap if they tried.

In my opinion I will buy most IPAs up to two months old, and more likely pushing three... I will drink them up to 6 months old for singles and a year for doubles, are they more malty when they are that old? Yes. Are there still a ton of hops? You bet ya!... Have a 2013 Bigfoot and tell me hops fade that quickly.... Had one the other day, almost 10 months old at this point and hoppy as hell.

But alas... ZD is a "APA".... I have had it two months old and it is just fine, just plan on drinking it in the next month.

 

My personal spot for drinking IPAs is under two months old. I've had some older ones that are still great though.

 

I find its more specific to the particular beer with SN Torpedo and Celebration I'm not worried about freshness at all really but in my experience single hopped beers tend not to hold up nearly as long.

Mind you we are discussing when the beer is at its peak not it going bad. Its still perfectly viable even past its prime the question is how much does that matter to you.

 

And Zombie Dust isn't an IPA

It is an APA

 

Citra hops fall hard and fast

 

I agree with the 2-3 months

 

90 days

 

It depends on the beer. When I had Zombie Dust, it fell off VERY quickly. Other IPAs hold up better than others.

As a general rule, I don't pick up IPAs more than 3 months old if I can see the date on the bottle/package.

 

Glad to read that more people are being reasonable than unreasonable with this thread.

As several have stated, it's all a matter of opinion. When I'm buying hoppy beer, rule of thumb is to try and buy it as fresh as possible, when readily available. Like when I'm in FL and can get Jai Alai that was bottled/canned a week prior. From there, I can decide how to treat the beer (like nickapalooza) stated. Buy it fresh, put it in the fridge, enjoy at my leisure.

To the OP, sounds like you don't have the convenience of buying said beer as fresh as possible, but 2 months is still acceptable for me. If you like that beer enough to buy a case, buy it and get it in the fridge and odds are it will be more than just "good".

 

If I had Zombie Dust purchased in August of 2009 I'd still go for it. But that's because it doesn't exist around here.
There aren't many IPAs I have the luxury of caring about freshness with; DirtWolf being a long overdue and welcome exception.

 

Let's see what John Kimmich has to say about fresh vs aged Heady Topper? He talks about it at the 3:40 mark.

 

At least at the end he gave the real reason you drink heady from the can.
They don't want people seeing the sediment.
You drink with your eyes and nose first.

 

This.

I generally go with the 2-3 month rule on hoppy beers, but in my experience with Citracentric beers, they completely transform in a matter of weeks. KRBC Citra, Aroma Coma, Simtra, and Citra Extra Pale are all beers that are best enjoyed within a month of the bottling date.

 

One of the big differences between brewers is the amount of Dissolved Oxygen (DO) in the package, good bottling lines get down to 10 ppb DO.

 

90-120 days is what breweries generally recommend. After that, the beer is generally not what they want the consumer to judge the beer by.