How long do IPAs stay "Fresh"?

Honestly it depends on the beer. I've had stuff from Lagunitas that tasted good after 4-5 months. Jai Alai starts fading quickly after a couple weeks and is a completely different beer after a month. At this point, I won't buy a 6-pack unless its under a week old because I may not drink them all before they've faded.

 

I also got to try Ballantine Burton last year. A real privilege.

 

Yup, Jai Alai seems to really have a problem with staling which is a bit surprising since they can their beers. All that I can guess is they have a bad canning line which introduces a lot of air/oxygen during packaging. A damn shame.

Cheers!

 

I have a different experience with Jai Alai... When we go to Florida (usually twice a year) I bring back a sixer or two of Jai Alai and even after two or three months, it still is drinking really nice. Took my last can to a share yesterday and everyone commented on how nice it was.

The worst in my experience is anything Three Floyd's. I hope their new bottling line improves their shelf life... They all die off so quickly.

 

The question was how long would you consider an IPA to be fresh. Not how long a particular Ipa would still be good to drink. Two different questions. Hard to consider a 60-90 day IPA to be FRESH, it's certainly ok to drink even if 3 months may be pushing it, but it's certainly not fresh. The brewer wants you to get their product fresh which is easier said than done, and I doubt they'd consider a 3 month old beer to be fresh.

 

Actually, the OP asked both questions...

 

Centennial is quite durable; Citra is terrible in this regard. The New Zealand and Australian varieties seem to hold up decently, including Galaxy - I have found that Wicked Weed Pernicious, while light bodied and light-malted, holds up with no drop off for up to 2 months.

 

You know what, thinking about Galaxy in particular I'm inclined to agree with you. I've had good experiences with them lasting longer. For whatever reason, I find that saisons or white IPAs help preserve the hops better than regular ipas, i.e. Anchorage Galaxy lasts far better than Noble Ale Works Galaxy Showers. But anyway, maybe it's other factors influencing the result or my palate.

 

It think it depends on the beer/ hops. I use this example : my bro brought me a 4 pk of Epiphany ( happens to be one of my favorite ,if not top DIPAs) in October. Canning date was 8/9/15. I so wanted this to be good but wound up drain pouring almost all of it due to it diminishing to a syrupy sweet malty mess. Not sure how it was stored though....

 

if ur not sucking on the bottling line its too old. feel free to send me all of your worthless zombie dust for disposal

 

My preference is to purchase within 1 month of bottling and consume within 2, some I'll buy at 2 months and consume within 3 (ie Sierra Nevada IPAs). No point in buying an IPA older than 3 months, there are plenty of fresh ones on the shelf next to it.

 

It seems the general consensus is drink hoppy beer fast. I thought "India pale ale" Was created by the Brits to last long enough to get to the sub-continent of India by adding additional hops-hence bitter.

 

Even if that story is true (there is some doubt...), today we drink it for the hops flavor (which fade quickly), not for the hops preservative qualities.

 

Bottle conditioning is a factor, since live yeast in the bottle will consume dissolved oxygen. Anchorage Galaxy is bottle conditioned with brett, which to my understanding is particularly aggressive and tenacious in this regard.

Another possible difference is kettle hopping versus dry hopping. Anything added to the beer during the boil has already been exposed to extreme heat, so those compounds tend to be pretty stable at normal temperatures. Hops added AFTER the boil are much more delicate, which is why so many of today's heavily dry hopped IPAs has some sort of huge "KEEP COLD!" label on the packaging.

 

Just had a New Belgium Ranger - a beer I find very good, not fantastic - dated 12 Feb 2017, and it was flat. I bought a sixer, so not sure about the others yet.

 

Ordered a Fresh Squeezed at a bar, best by date was the previous month so I assume this beer was over 6 months old. I was pissed, poured into glass, beautiful head, tasted fantastic.

 

My brother brought over a sixer of Ballast Grapefruit from 6 months ago....it totally lost the grapefruit kick I remember from my past experiences with the beer....

 

Depends on the beer. DFH 90 is still great years later but in a different way. Akari shogun loses a lot of flavor after a few months, spring house grapefruit lexicon loses the GF after a few months too. I have had many good IPA/pale ale that are 4+ months old and still taste good

Enjoy

 

I'm about to get my hands on some canned IPA's: Sculpin, Molotov Lite and Coronado North Island NEIPA...3 to 5 months old...should I worry? Is it a case by case depending on ABV and hop power?

 

Don’t bother with Sculpin if it’s 3-5 months old. Especially if it hasn’t been refrigerated the whole time.

Ballast Point recommends enjoying within 120 days for their hoppy beers....but it’s a beer that falls off quickly. In my experience, 6 weeks is about the limit.