Old IPAs that still taste good?

I had an Ithaca Flower Power that i forgot about for like over 2+ years that was still tolerable. But in reality age your cheese not your hops

 

Burton baton ages well for about two years than drops off quick, it's a dipa old ale hybrid so that's a little cheap.
I also like 90 minute with 6 months on it about the same as fresh.

 

What a coincidence- I recently received a beer from @jhartley that he said was better after the Best By date. It's Coppertail Brewing Free Dive, and my bottle's time was up in August.

I had it earlier this week, and really enjoyed it. No stale qualities at all, and in fact I would never have guessed it wasn't a fresh IPA. It was very bright- with lots of tangerine, guava, mango. Some slight pine in the background. I don't know how they do it, but this beer still had quite a bit of life in it yet.

 

Hopslam, Devil Dancer

 

As @TongoRad mentioned above I found that the Coppertail Free Dive IPA seemed to have a much more balanced and better flavor after it's BBD.

Also, I've had year old Hoptimum and it was still damn tasty! None of that stale dead hop, over-steeped tea bag taste that you can get sometimes.

 

Recently had a Mosaic Promise bottled in March & it was still pretty damn tasty.

 

I don't think a beer has ever been undrinkable because of age for me. In most cases I would rather drink an IPA with a couple months on it than have it a day or two old.

 

I wouldn't buy a beer (especially a pricier one) that was months old but if I found it's way to the back of my fridge by drunken accident I'd give it a shot. Surely fresh is best, but you have nothing to lose.

 

Agreed on Hopslam. I've also had Palate Wrecker with some age on it, and it wasn't terrible.

 

90 Minute is actually pretty incredible with about four years on it. Some vinous/grape and bubblegum notes develop and it becomes a really bright, complex barleywine. In general, I've found that big DIPAs on the maltier end of the spectrum can develop really interesting characteristics.

I've started an Old Ass IPA project in which I'm aging some more 90 Minute, Gubna, Double Dog and the like.

 

Why is this? The freshness throws off the balance? Too much hop bite?

 

Sometimes I feel like a beer right off the canning line is almost too fresh for my tastes. I feel like when a beer has a little more time to settle it melds together better. There are also times when I thought a beer was great on day one. I guess it depends on how fresh the beer is and how long it sits before the brewery cans it. Canning fresher and earlier lets people drink it super fresh and when it has time to sit, whereas letting it sit long would make it necessary to drink asap. I also think I'm just used to the taste of shelf beers that are 2+ months old. Maybe it is more of the west-coast style IPAs that tend to be more bitter and malty for me. The unfiltered New England styles are probably better with a couple weeks on them as opposed to a couple months of age.

 

Pearl Street Brewery in WI makes an IPA called Linalool that they claim on the packaging is made specifically to be aged due to special characteristics of the hops used. It was a wild foraged hop that was cultivated and given the name 'Northern Discovery.' When fresh it did indeed taste of the lilac and bruised pears described on the label making for an interesting and unique IPA that stood outside the usual bitter profile. We'll see how the bottle I have stashed has developed in a few months when it reaches 1 year of age. It wasn't mind blowing when I tried it, but had to buy a couple to try out their claims of having an 'ageable' hop.

Here's an article on it copied and pasted from someone else's review: http://isthmus.com/food-drink/beer/linalool-ipa-from-pearl-street-brewery/

 

Good to see Hopslam on here. Common wisdom says to not cellar Hopslam. I have one bottle left from a 2013 6 pack. The bottles I had in 2014 and 2015 still tasted great.

 

Sierra Nevada Celebration holds up in a way that many others don't. I've enjoyed it very much at 3-9 months and have even had one-off bottles that were years old and while they weren't representative of what I love most about the beer, still quite good.

 

120 Minute IPA basically turns into a barleywine after a year or two. I know the ABV has to do with it but it tastes incredible after 2 years.

 

I compared a fresh hopslam with a 3 year old hopslam earlier this year, very different after aging but enjoyable

 

forgot a squatters hop rising in the fridge that was a few days/weeks past the best by date (can't remember which), and by the end of the glass I realized I had enjoyed it as much as, if not more, than the last one I remembered having. more balanced; a touch sweeter

 

My buddies and I shared an experience similar to yours. We compared a one year old cellared bottle of Hopslam to a one year old refrigerated bottle of Hopslam and a fresh can of Hopslam back in January. We enjoyed all three but the cellared one year old bottle clearly was losing its hop profile with the malt overtaking the beer.

To our surprise, the one year old refrigerated bottle was closer in taste to the fresh can of Hopslam than the one year old cellared bottle. That lesson taught me to never just automatically drainpour a long lost refrigerated beer.