I am wondering if it might be possible to build a list of breweries/beers that generally need a week or two before opening. I have found Other Half to fall into this category for sure. Thoughts?
Those beers/breweries while vaild that you feel need a week or two to come into their own, or improve is simply your opinion. Others may feel like those beers/breweries are great as fresh as they can be. Good beer, art, music are all based on or influenced by personal feelings, tastes, or opinions and would be hard to build a list for as a group. You however feel free to build your own list and share your thoughts and maybe others will agree.
Yeah, quite subjective whether any given beer needs any time, and if they do, how long. I like Prairie Pirate Bomb and Pirate Noir no younger than 6 months, but BA Fidy stops smacking you in the face (in the nicest possible way) at about 6 months - IMHO. YMMV.
Metric , Industrial Arts ' pils. When fresh(<1week-2 weeks), I've gotten a vaguely fruity, saison-like element, that I'd rather not have in a pils. Later , even (especially?) 6* weeks out, I've not noticed that, & liked it better. * That was because it got buried, & I lost count. I don't think could put off drinking it that long, if I was aware of it. Even with that less-than-ideal element, I still really like it.
I'm trying to figure out if this is trolling or a series question. Most breweries brew many styles, only a few of which this question would be relevant. So I'll assume this is a serious question and that the OP is talking about styles verses breweries. I would suggest that IPAs are the only relevant styles. West Coast and British IPAs can clearly stand up well to two weeks or more of age. Myself I look at three month, assuming proper storage/refrigeration, as the point where they start to fall off significantly. Hazy IPAs, which I consider a completely different style, fall off faster. I give these one month, but it varies widely by the beer. Some do better than others, but the general rule is don't sit on them long. On the other end of the spectrum, I don't sweat my BA aged beers two weeks after a release.
Whenever I see a thread title like this nowadays, I always immediately know that it's going to be about NE IPAs.
I prefer my Chili beers at 1 week, Wheatwines at 4, Shati at 2 and a half, Cream Ales at 6, Kvass at 5, Braggots at 8 and find 3 weeks hits the spot as far as AALs go.
Somebody slap me if I've told this story too many times... A couple of years ago I bought a case of Heady Topper in the spring and stowed it on the bottom shelf up at my camp and, what with one thing and another, and despite Mr. Kimmich's admonition to Drink it Fresh, I was only drinking like one or two of them a week. What I found was that, after about about two, two and a half months, they were topping out at absolutely frigging awesome. Then on into September they started slide downhill. And that there's the conclusion of my accidentally-scientific experiment.
[QUOTE="papposilenus, post: 5861415, member: 810353"... ]and despite Mr. Kimmich's admonition to Drink it Fresh ... [/QUOTE] Actually, from what I can tell, Kimmich has always been very outspoken about having exactly the opposite viewpoint when it comes to this.
Actually, from what I can tell, Kimmich has always been very outspoken about having exactly the opposite viewpoint when it comes to this.[/QUOTE] Mr. Kimmich at one time said all his beer needs to be drank fresh from the keg in a glass. No exceptions. He also is famous for keeping secret all the techniques and ingredients in Heady. He puts on cans that we need to drink Heady from the can, only the Heady dude on the can is drinking from a glass, and Ouroboros cans don't say to drink from the can, so are some of his IPA better from the can, but others aren't?. Not saying we can't take what Mr. Kimmich says at face value...or maybe that is what I'm saying
Well, he must change his mind a lot because he sure is saying the opposite in the video above. I also distinctly remember reading an interview with him once where he stated that the whole obsession with freshness was crazy and that Heady tastes just as well with a few months on it, just different. He claimed that this is why there are no canning dates on Alchemist cans.
True, he has said different things at different times that contradict other things said at other times, which is why I disregard anything he says. Heady drops off seriously at about a month and a half, and drinking it from a glass is a much better experience since you can smell the beer aroma after it has been opened by the pour, and you don't smell can aluminum with every sip. YMMV.
Short answer - no Medium answer: For beers - very subjective, so nigh on impossible. For breweries - not possible. You’re taking that subjectivity across a full line up of beers and making an either/or decision at a brewery level. No way. You mention Other Half, presumably because they make 90% NEIPAs. But a) even within that spectrum of NEIPAs the opinions vary week on week about depending on the release regarding whether they need a few days/weeks or should be consumed there and then. And b) what if they change things up to produce lots of other styles
Many breweries will release beers a little "early" in an attempt to have them hit their peak (in the brewers'/tasting panels' judgement) when they reach the consumer. Gotta go through whatever distro channels apply in your area. We do this at Bierkeller...and we don't do NEIPAs fwiw
