Fresh beer?

I believe that after a very long period of time alcohol does deteriorate. But I know very little on this topic, I'll watch this thread.

 

Hops in hop-forward or dry-hopped beers can definitely deteriorate over time. On the other hand, some types (typically strong styles like old ales and imperial stouts) actually benefit from aging in the bottle, like wine. So, it's all heavily style dependent.

 

Hoppy beers flavours fade very quickly, within the span of 5-6 months or even less.

 

With few exceptions, you want to drink your beer as fresh as possible. Beer freshness is paramount and I for one am glad that it's getting so much attention these days.

 

Of course freshness counts with hop forward beers, IPAs, Pale Ales, Pils, all are tremendously better the fresher they are to your glass. Stouts, porters, sours take age. I would consider Hoppy beers best under 30 days and would call them fresh, 6 days old even better. Not so over two months.

 

like others have said before me, most beer is better fresher, but some get better with age. But finding the aging sweet spot can change the way it tastes. As in, a beer that is meant for age can be fantastic at 4 years, but cam go south at 6+ years. But, it is all also based on personal taste.

 

This has been covered before. Below is a link to an older discussion that covered pretty much everything about beer freshness and several professional brewers from Victory, Sierra Nevada, Firestone Walker, and AB-InBev weighed in. It's a good read with a lot of technical details of beer freshness, packaging, storage, and chemistry of staling.

http://www.beeradvocate.com/community/threads/old-ipas.177842/

 

I also stick by the idea that even many/most dark beers, wilds, sours, all should be consumed fresh. I think many breweries release their product to distribution as how they want you to taste it. If they wanted you to age it, they would've aged it themselves to the desired flavor before releasing. Why would a vintner release a young vintage of his wine before it hits its stride? I know this isn't the case for every brew, but I think in most cases the intention is to have the brew as fresh as possible.

 

No this is an absolute real thing.. see Pliny's label. Most west coast style hoppy beers are made to drink only fresh. If you ever have Born yesterday from Lagunitas, for example, you would taste that fresh hop flavor. If you set one aside for a few months you would see a significant difference with hop flavor and bitterness deterioration. That being a commonly known fact in california where I live some breweries like El Segundo Brewery have "day one" releases with the beer being bottled that morning and self distributed to your local bottle shop for your consumption as fresh as possible. So yeah its a very real thing so much so that your average west coast hoppy beer drinker can tell if the beer is brewed a month ago upon first sip.

 

Drink a Tree House IPA fresh off the canning line.. Drink a can from the same batch 2 weeks later. The difference will shock the hell out of you.

I use Tree House as an example because I've noticed the biggest drop-off with their stuff.

 

Not long ago I had some Great Lakes Elliot Ness that was past date by about 2 weeks and was also not in their cooler (It was discounted heavily in my defense). It was MUCH more bitter (in a bad way) than a nice fresh bottle. Also worth noting that this particular store is notorious for moving beers in and out of refrigeration and generally not taking good care of their stock. I try to avoid it, but its so close to my house I end up there at times.

Quite a shame cause if someone wasn't paying attention they could buy an otherwise great beer and think its crap. On the flip side I got some wayyy past date Nooner from a gas station that was pretty good still, however Im fairly certain it had sat in that same spot in their cooler the whole time.

So yeah I think it's worth paying attention to dates. But storage conditions can play a big role too I think.

 

I agree with your point that dark beers (let's say malty beers because there is such a thing as a black IPA that doesn't adhere to this opinion) can have their best taste when fresh, although I'm not experienced on the wilds/sours to know if I agree with you for those beers. But some breweries do hold some beers for short periods in conditioning tanks before releasing them into distribution because that's the taste point that the brewer intends you to experience.

I'll disagree with your point about the brewery 'aging' the beer before selling it because it's rare that breweries will do that (even though they know they could sell an improved product) because the brewery wants to sell the beer for the cash flow.

But beer geeks who purchase a malty beer can choose to cellar it if they choose with the expectation of having an improved flavor. (I think there is a rough rule of thumb that cellaring works best if the ABV is 8% or higher.) But anyone who makes the choice to cellar a beer takes a chance that the taste will improve. Fortunately certain beers have that proven reputation. However, I think any beer can be aged too long and the taste begins to deteriorate, or in the case of barrel-aged beers which tend to have a higher incidence of infection, there is extra time for the little critters to ruin a beer. So aging is a bit of a gamble.

 

IPAs are a prime example. Hop goodness and fruit and pine flavors deteriorate after a certain amount of time and if U R drinking an IPA after approx. 60 days U R missing out on what the beer should taste like, IMHO

 

Freshness is important. Just don't obsess over it too much. Some on here would leave you to believe that an IPA should be drained poured a week after bottling/canning.

 

i have definitely noticed a difference in beers over time. especially beers with a major hop presence. dIPAs and IPAs are better when they're closer to the canned/bottled date.

i've tested/tasted barleywines and stouts over time and they certainly mellow out over time. barleywines can go from big/hoppy/bold to mellow/mild/sweet.

i won't buy IPAs/dIPAs that are bottled/canned over ~35 days. i'm not fussy but i have noticed a difference. cheap beer like Genny won't bother me but i'd still rather my beer fresh.

moral of the story: beer is not like milk. it won't be sour/chunky after a certain date; it just won't be as clean and as delicious as it was intended.

 

I hardly ever drink a brett beer fresh. This is just me though. I love an obscene amount of brett flavor when I'm in the mood for a brett beer. I usually age them for close to a year before drinking them to let the brettanomyces bacteria to do its thing and take over the beer a little. The answer to your question is different for nearly every style and preferable taste is all subjective anyway. But yeah the general consensus shows hop heads prefer their beers fresh. Lots of stout drinkers like to throw some age on them, but then some stouts have coffee that will fade and fall off with age. So it depends on the style of beer you're talking about.

 

This is a complicated topic which often depends on your personal taste. Generally speaking, hop forward beers taste best fresh as others have said. Although many hop forward beers still taste quite good longer than you would think based on what hear here. But that also varies considerably beer to beer.

In other cases, like a BA imperial stout, a barley wine or other big beers it could develop over a few years if stored properly. Some sours can go a decade or more and still become more interesting.

Many other beers can hold there own, not improving or declining, for a year or so. In other cases, they may improve or decline depending on your preference. Such as the fading of an adjunct, which you prefer dominant, balanced or subtle.

But generally speaking, when a brewery releases a beer, its ready to be drank fresh.

 

Freshness is not only key for hop forward beers. Ever had a Helles or Kölsch that sat there for too long? Not a pretty thing.
I'll say nearly all standard-strength styles below <6% abv need to be fresh, hop forwardd or not. Sours being an exception there...
And:

Not all wine benefits from aging....some varietals age pretty badly and are also best enjoyed fresh

 

OK so since this has come up. For most breweries when they use "Best By" dating. Ive heard they use 6 months. What do most brewers do?