Old IPAs - What to do about this problem?

As I just recently posted a way to avoid this systemic problem is homebrewing.

Another solution is purchasing beer from brewpubs; you know that beer is fresh.

Cheers!

 

I too have noticed that a number of hoppy beers suffer from the 'fall of the cliff' effect. I concur that Sculpin is one of those beers.

Cheers!

 

What to do about old IPAs:

1. Drink local.
2. Tear down the 3-tier system.
3. Get realistic: fresh-squeezed OJ is better, too; it's just not always practical.

 

Indeed. But, apparently, I need to conduct a side-by-side experiment because I'm basing my purchasing decisions on multiple assumptions...

 

a couple of counter-arguments here:

- If a beer is oxidized after 40 days - then it was not properly packaged. Packaged beer from a top tier brewery that has the money to spend on quality control and top of the line equipment is going to taste "fresh" much longer than a small brewery that is hand bottling, using a mobile canning service, etc. That's been my personal experience.

- Is it not the brewer's responsibility to brew a beer that stands up to the realities of the distribution system? If a brewer brews a beer that will have a quick drop off in flavor due to the hopping techniques used (all late additions, dry-hopping, etc), then only release that particular beer for draft only or for selling at the brewery. Only package beers that have longer shelf life for distribution.

-The variation of IPA that seems to currently be popular - all pale malt, dry, thin body, with a ton of aroma hops, inherently is going to have a shorter shelf life. Personally, I seek out hoppy beers that are actually balanced with some nice underlying darker malt flavors. So I have less to worry about - it's a consumer choice.

 

No snark there, whatsoever.

 

my personal experience,unless you're buying directly from the source, every IPA will be at least a month old before you can get it at a store. the only caveat to that is the small local breweries that self distribute where i live...however, since i work 8-5 during the week, i don't have a chance to get anything that's just a week old as it's always sold out. such is life.

 

Dude, I had a guy telling me that I'm just assuming that the beer isn't fresh. I've been buying IPAs for a decade, which has afforded me plenty of opportunities to experience them at every level of freshness, i.e., one-week-old, four-weeks-old, etc. I don't appreciate someone essentially insinuating that I don't know what I'm talking about.

 

Stone developed their beer brand of Stone Enjoy By to address your first two discussion topics.

Stone Enjoy by has a best by timeframe of 35 days and by making the best by date part of the beer name (e.g., Enjoy By 09.02.15) they ‘manage’ the distribution/retail aspect; both the distributors and retailers make specific effort to sell this beer by the best by date.

If only other hoppy beers could be so well managed.

Cheers!

 

That's a very good question and I've been frustrated with that myself. Up in Canada, we have a terrific IPA, Central City's Red Racer, that's produced on the west coast. I live in the east and one of the larger buyers probably in the world is the LCBO and they bring in tons of their cans constantly and it seems to sit on the shelves for a while as I'm seeing it past 2 months old.

I find it very disappointing that a micro wouldn't rather send in smaller quantities. What happens is that it dilutes the brand since the product isn't as good. I get the dollars and sense behind shipping larger quantities, but I wouldn't mind spending a bit more per can to have outstanding fresh IPA from them every time.

 

I'm sorry to say this but there are only three responses to why you think a 2 month old Sculpin is "Awful". Option 1 is that you simply don't like Sculpin which is a possibility but if you're an IPA fan, it's unlikely that you would think Sculpin is awful as there's nothing about it that would make it that much worse than other IPAs that you enjoy. Option 2 is that you have a world class, refined palate to the point where you should quit your job and with open up a brewery which would make you millions or get into some kind of industry that uses that magical palate for tasting, testing, judging, or critiquing beer, wine, and spirits. Every brewery would love to have the opinion of someone with a palate that refined to test their product before release. Option 2 is very unlikely. Option 3 is that you read some kind of article on the internet (where everything is true) that put the notion into your head that a 35 day old IPA is fine but on day 36 that shit starts growing mold and the bottle is infected. Option 3 is very, very likely. Don't believe everything you read. Just because a beer may be at it's best until day 35 does NOT mean that the taste falls off of a cliff soon after.

That would be like buying a few bottles of KBS and calling it awful fresh and rating it a 5/5 after a year. An IPA does not go from great to awful in 2 months. It just doesn't.

I would bet my cellar that if I had a bottle of 1 week old Sculpin and a bottle of 2 month old Sculpin and I lined up 12 tasters and poured out 6 2oz servings from each bottle that you would not be able to successfully pick out the 6 "awful" 2 month old pours. Now try to do that with a 1 week old bottle and a 36 day old bottle.

I love fresh IPAs too but it seems like the benchmark for IPA freshness just keeps getting earlier and earlier. I recently sent someone some SoS that was almost a month old and had the guy tell me that I should have told him the canned date before sending it because he had to quick drink all 4 while they were "somewhat fresh".

 

I know I'm starting to believe in canned IPAs. Purchased a refrigerated 6-pack of Hi-5 cans and was kicking myself for not looking at the date as it turned out they were 5 months old! Cracked one open and it tasted hoppy and fantastic! Between cans and refrigeration, that is the answer. Would like to see more breweries move to doing canned IPAs, which I realize may be more hassle than its worth to switch system. I think the product would suffer less in the long-term if more breweries did this.

 

You could have left out most of that entire first paragraph in order to make your point. This is why many threads on BA devolve into a total shit show.

 

In an ideal world I would like to see a bottling date on IPA's so I can make a choice about whether I feel it is too old. I am at the point where if I do not see a date, whether bottled on, or best by, I will not buy it. Fortunately there are now plenty of good local IPA options that I can buy relatively fresh.

 

Yup, the combination of canning (assuming a top of the line canning line with low Total Packaged Oxygen (TPO) levels) and continual storage at cold temperatures can result in a hoppy beer still being tasty after a period of several months.

One ‘challenge’ in the above scenario is that there is no way for a customer to know whether the beer was kept cold throughout the entire distribution chain.

Cheers!

 

Let's say that you expressed the opinion that a certain stout (let's say Rogue's Shakespeare Stout) loses its edge after about five months (totally hypothetical). Then someone replies that you really should do a side-by-side because you're just basing your purchasing decision on the assumption that this stout is kinda bleh after said amount of time sitting on the shelf. Your response would probably be "No, I've enjoyed this stout for years, and I've noticed this phenomenon through experience."

 

I would drink that just to see what it's like at this point. My guess is it's not all that bad.

 

I apologize if my supposed insinuation insulted you, that wasn't my intent. Allow me to be more direct with my question.

Why 40 days?

Feel free to mock me for assuming something myself, but I assume over the course of a decade you've had IPAs made with multiple hop varieties, stored in various conditions (room temp, out on a shelf, in the fridge), in different packaging (bottles, both brown and green, both in and out of the case, or in cans), from numerous breweries....how did you arrive at 40 days?

Personally, I don't buy beer past ~3 months old (much like @JackHorzempa). I haven't done extensive experimentation either, it's just what I feel is right after my 10+ years of drinking beer (I don't apply different rules to IPAs). I've had beers at 4+ months that tasted very good as well, the specific brewer and what they do to package a beer can make a huge difference. I imagine you arrived at 40 days in a similar fashion.

But, 40 days seems like a very tight and specific window. I imagine at 50 or *gasp* 60 days, the IPA will still be just fine. Allow me to be a bit skeptical when someone says a beer is an "oxidized hoppy mess" at 40 days. Maybe @sierranevadabill or @Sixpoint would like to comment on their extensive R & D work on hoppy beers, and what they've discovered. They have before, and it's some nice information on the variables at play here.

 

I think you're taking his comment more personally than it was intended. Taste/smell (and memory) are so variable and easily affected by external factors that it really is generally a good idea to do at least some sort of blind taste test whenever you think you've come to some sort of "gut" conclusion about something. Even "experts" have sometimes been made to look the fool when they can't bring their pre-existing assumptions and biases with them.

My friends and I do blind taste tests on wine, beer, and bourbon whenever possible and the results are often surprising. And as a consequence we're all very hesitant to make bold statements about our preferences until we've put them to the test. The best finding we've had so far in terms of our pocketbooks is that (good) boxed red wine is more often than not better than a random $10 bottle. I also had a friend who was pleased to know that he really did prefer Maker's Mark to Evan Williams and wasn't just wasting his money. And back to beer, all of us preferred Second Fiddle to Heady Topper which was not what we were expecting!

It's fun and informative - give it a go. Cheers!

 

Beers evolve constantly. IMO certain beers actually improve for a short period of time before beginning to lose quality/flavor profile. (I think Dirwolf at 6 weeks is better than Dirtwolf at 2 weeks). For most IPAs, I believe anything less than 75 days presents the beer as intended if stored properly.