IPA Freshness Hype

If you can't detect a difference between a day old IPA and a 6 month old IPA, then what the hell are you doing drinking IPAs.

 

Huge difference in taste even 2-3 weeks out. 2-3 months out and DIPA's become barleywines. IPA's become well, ales.

 

Have you ever taken any chemistry courses? Just because something is in a sealed container does not mean that nothing is happening... On top of that, no bottles/cans are perfectly sealed. O2 will eventually get in there, in addition to the levels of oxygen already present in the bottles. It's not just about "where does it go", it's about "how does it change". Beer "skunking" for instance isn't about anything really "getting in or out". Photons give molecules (formed by hop oils) in the beer enough energy to break-bonds and form a new molecular compound: yes, that same molecular compound found in skunk spray.

Jumping in deeper: Hop flavor, aroma, and bitterness comes from the oils in the glands of the hop flower. Those oils break down, as do all oils over time. On the molecular level, there is a lot of activity going on the molecules are not stable. You've probably heard about hop oils being volatile. You certainly would if you brew at all. Molecules and atoms want to be stable (structurally, ultimately coming down to energy levels). By their nature, hop oils are not. Overtime, as with everything else in nature, they will stabilize. As mentioned before, late hop additions (flavor and aroma) are the least stable of all, in large part because the hop oils weren't given the time (during the boil) to be fully integrated into the wort (lot of chemistry going on here!).

The main process of the breakdown (stabilization) of hop oils is due to oxidation, BUT the process actually doesn't require oxygen. That's a common misconception. Oxygenation is a process of atoms, ions, and molecules losing electrons (essential stabilizing to a lower energy level). Electrons are swapped between atoms, ions, and molecules (redux occurs, the gaining of electrons). It's called 'oxygenation' simply because the oxygen is a very common molecule that contributes to the process. Direct quote: "Although oxidation reactions are commonly associated with the formation of oxides from oxygen molecules, these are only specific examples of a more general concept of reactions involving electron transfer."

So yes, oxidation actually occurs in the bottle/can even when there is no actual oxygen present. Moral of the story: there is a LOT going on in the molecular world and well smaller (the Quantum world is just crazy. take a vacuum for example. Nothing is in a vacuum right? Wrong. There's actual a quantum "soup" of particles popping in and out of existence (particles, antiparticle pairs annihilating each other). It's a dynamic world out there!

I've many times experienced the cliffs that IPAs like Pliny, Lunch, Zombie Dust, Kern Citra, etc fall off from 3-weeks to even just 5 or 6 weeks. It's immense.

 

Believe the hype.

 

I think the problem with this discussion, and the trend of super freshness as a whole, is that people seem to think that there is a universal truth involved.

Yes, some hoppy beers age extremely poorly. A prime example of this is Lagunitas Sucks! When fresh, this beer is world-class. But after even a month-and-a-half to two months, the hop character drops off sharply and leaves a (albeit still delicious) much maltier brew behind.

On the other hand, many hoppy beers age just fine (within reason). An example of this would be Sixpoint's Resin.

There is no universal truth about this topic, and therefore, the bandwagon is quite useless.

 

This is definitely something to consider and I have a good example related to this.

In the years that I have been interested in good beer, I have probably consumed more jai alai than any other IPA. I have family in Florida and whenever I visit I always bring a bunch back with me to Europe. For a couple of years (before a lot of breweries began to open in Northern Florida) it was really the only "local" thing that was available when I would visit FL.

I've had it on tap at the brewery, in cans that were less than 1 week old, a little over a week old, 2 weeks, 3 weeks, 2 months, etc. It's a beer that I always enjoy but without a doubt, to me, it tastes it's absolute best at +-1day of 3 weeks from canning date. Anytime I go, wow, that tastes perfect, it's about exactly 3 weeks old...

 

Hoppy brews are meant to be consumed fresh, no way the same beer tastes as good 6 weeks out as it would have 6 days old. You can even smell the difference in some cases depending on the beer. I don't care for stale overly malty brews where the hops have faded, no one is saying it's disgustingly bad and undrinkable, it's just not what it was or should be when compared to being fresh, it certainly isn't what the Brewer had in mind either.. If you like ipa's with age on them, it's ok by me, I would assume you'd also be a big Barleywine guy which is where some of the bigger DIPA's seem to track.

 

I'm pretty sure this whole debate largely depends on what IPA you're drinking. DFH 90min proudly boasts it 'ages with the best of them' and I think it does; I've had old-ass bottles of 90min that still taste quite awesome. On the other side, I had a bottle of Knee Deep Simtra what was a little over 4 weeks old and it tasted like musty furniture varnish.

 

Its why I never buy Sculpin or a host of other Ca IPA's here, the turnover is so slow they're always old and stale and expensive. I love fresh Modus, and fresh Caldera, and Avery, but with HDR being so popular, and guys looking at dates on beers it compounds the problem. If I can buy 3 day old HDR why do I want to buy a $17 sixer of Sculpin? So it sits, till some guy buys it, takes it home and decides it sucks, might not even know it's just flat out old, but it will forever suck in his mind. I've had this one tap and it doesn't suck when fresh, quite the opposite, Sculpin is only an easy example but theres dozens of IPAs dying on the shelf like this.

 

^^^ This
I think they are all different. Some fade rapidly, some slowly. John Kimmich says that HT peaks at 10 weeks. I've had it around then and it was spectacular, as good or better than when 3-4 days old. Some beers need to calm down a bit, others have a short ledge. Old Titan from Great Divide is dishwater. I'm no brewer, but my rough experience has been that certain hops change differently. Some become just straight bitter and astringent with no flavors. Others may move from citrusy to floral before fading out.

Also recall seeing something from one brewer saying that the canning/bottling process is critical. If the brewer makes to effort to purge CO2 (not completely, but mostly) the beer will hold much longer. Some are lazy or don't have the equipment, and those beers might fade rapidly.

 

^^^ agree, HT lasts forever, fruity IPA's that display hops like Citra and such seem to suffer the most from age, maybe Chinook hops, piney and resinous brews might stand up better. I've had 2 month old HT and it tasted as good as the day I bought it, not intentionally but I was in Vt in May, Beach week was in July, and it was great, but I kept it cold and dark too.

 

Its true! Within two weeks it is amazing... after about a month it is still good but a shadow of what it was.

 

Every time this silly debate comes up, your post should be the first one to debunk the IPAs being shipped to India nonsense.

 

That's a major part of why I've decided to gear my beer habits toward all local beers. Rules of thumb regarding freshness and seasonality make the ease of getting west coast IPA's over here in New York a bit perverse.

 

I'm going through this right now with my local kickass IPA: NoDa Hop Drop n Roll. I first had it on draft and then in the old labelled cans with no freshness date and in the new labelled cans that have freshness dates (I think it was actually 3 weeks to a month old with that batch) and it was always outstanding. After that though, they stopped being able to produce it for a while because they couldn't source the citra hops they use in the recipe. They just came back out with a fresh batch last week and I had a 6-day old can...still very good and it tasted like it's supposed to taste but it just didn't have the dankness and "wow" factor that I remember. Drank two other cans in the past five days, same deal. It actually tastes and smells kind of hot and it is a higher ABV IPA at 7.2%. I'm gonna save the last can until it's three weeks old and see if I notice a difference one way or the other.

 

I have my homebrew experience to go by. I made an IPA with a huge amount of dry hopping. I started drinking it at 10 days in the bottle. When you poured this the hop aroma was tremendous and the beer rivaled some of the great IPA's I have tried. At about 1 month in the bottle the aroma had lessened considerably. Not gone but not that great overwhelming beautiful smell. It was still very good, but now did not rival the greats. At two months you had to actually shove your nose into the glass to get much hop aroma. Now the beer was ok. Nothing special at all. From that point to the 3 month mark when the last was consumed I saw very little difference. This is not side by side but the change was huge. The 3 month old IPA was not bad and I could even see how some would like it better. The malt now comes through much more. Also with this being homebrew the beer was bottle conditioned. The yeast and other possible grain bits may have accelerated the breakdown.

 

My problem is the malt taste that develops over time. I live in Cali and our IPAs tend to be hop bombs, exactly how I like em. I hate malt, and I won't buy an outdated IPA. In other regions, IPAs tend to have more malt, so perhaps some people are open to that taste in their IPA.

 

You can't hate malt, even the hoppiest CA IPAs have malt. I've learned over the years that I love hops, but I also love malt in that it helps provide that deep complex flavor that makes a great IPA. Pliny, Sculpin, Ruination, WCIPA, you name them, they all have a nice malt flavor that mixes with the hops. The CA beer that is all hops with very little malt is Go To IPA from Stone. Now that's all hops.

Embrace the malt, it helps make a great IPA.

 

OP - if you can't taste the difference from a fresh "insert IPA here" from a 6 month old specimen, I'd assume you have not been drinking IPAs very long.

 

No..I truly hate malt. If it takes a distant back seat to hops, that's fine. Any more than that, and I don't like it. Of the beers you listed that are balanced, I only like Sculpin. Pliney is boring and the most overrated beer I've ever tried....Stone GoTo tastes great.