Old Beer

Yes it can in a different sort of way than a fresh one.

 

Don't look to Dale's to find a dividing line between "pale ale" and IPA - it won't get you anywhere, in fact, SNPA has had some debate on this front as well... ultimately, it's not worth viewing them as two distinct things without overlap - they will never be that.

 

I have had old Dales also and think it tastes great also 420 does well with age.

 

Personally, I think that a lot of this comes down to eye of the beholder... so experiment if you're curious (or look for a store that puts old stock on sale). There are some "rules" that people use about aging - such as higher ABV, darker color, etc, and you could apply those here... but I also think that rules like this are generalities rather than guarantees. Also keep in mind that while there may be differences between those beers, there also may be differences in how well they are packaged. Hope that helps.

 

Actually, OB considers it an IPA. They named it the way they did because the thyme, adding "India" woulda ruined the flow.

 

I've done a few lowly experiments comparing months old (I tried 3 months and 6 months) to new, using local IPA's that I know for a fact are only weeks old in the bottle/can. I found that in all cases the hop flavours do seem to lose a little bit of "vibrancy" shall I say, but they don't really taste better or worse, just slightly different.

Obviously, taste is a pretty subjective matter so your mileage may vary, but that is my experience.

 

At 6.5% ABV and 65 IBUs there is nothing only the letters i, n, d, i, and a separates Dale's Pale Ale from IPA. There was a time when a beer's sales where negatively impacted by having "india" or "IPA" in the name, so there some classic beers that would likely be IPAs by today's standards, Dale's Pale is one. See also Stone Arrogant Bastard, Troegs Nugget Nectar, 3 Floyds Gumballhead, and some others.

 

I agree, although I've never claimed to have a sophisticated palate. Don't even check the bottle date anymore because I've found that if beers are old, they don't taste bad, just different.

I also find it slightly amusing that in beer geekdom some beers are just okey for aging while others are never to be aged under any circumstances.

 

Look at my post yesterday on WBAYDN. Had a really old DIPA, no date visible, but I could tell. I am not going to name the brewery because its not their fault its the restaurant's fault. I have had this beer many times and this was a bad example of it.

 

If you are actually looking for a pale or an IPA then an old one isn't going to hit the spot. If somehow you aren't put off by the taste of stale faded hops and the maltiness of a certain brew is your thing... Go for it.

 

Excuse my ignorance, but weren't IPAs invented for the purpose of preserving beer for months in non-ideal conditions?

 

I'm not sure how true that is (the resident beer historians will chime in I'm sure), but in any case, today's IPAs have very little to do with those beers.

 

The industry standard "Dalgliesh" graph shows both "Sweet aroma - Honey Sherry-like" and "Sweet taste, toffee-like aroma and flavor" increasing as a beer sits on the shelf for months.

 

JK, you might be interested in knowing in that the 1977 paper (Flavor Stability) that Dagliesh wrote there were no dates on the x-axis:



Chart Of Flavor Changes Occurring In Beer Over Time (C.E. Dalgliesh 1977)

 

That's a bit a myth. Beer historian Martyn Cornell covers it in this summary: http://zythophile.co.uk/false-ale-q...vented-ipa-to-survive-the-long-trip-to-india/

...and provides more Pale Ale/IPA historical facts here: http://zythophile.co.uk/2010/03/31/ipa-the-executive-summary/