Fresh beer. How fresh is fresh?

Any IPAs I buy are all new/monthly drops. When I've had an off-tasting IPA and checked the date, I've never been able to attribute the suckness to age. If hop bitterness falls off, that's fine with me.

 

I agree with you on this Terry…Ive enjoyed enough “old” beer that others on here would turn their head to I’m sure.

Most recently this was a czech dark pils that was canned back in August, delicious; enjoyed in April.

Try an older” beer sometime, you may be surprise by the fact that it is still good…I believe in freshness but I think it’s taken too far in a lot of cases. But also, to each their own.

 

Here they don't even tell when it's bottled/canned, so I go with the best before date

If there's a bit less hop, that's an experience too...I think I'm not a super taster.

 

I almost never drink IPAs anymore, but when I did I preferred under one month but would settle for under two months. Obviously the fresher the better.

Ironically, now I drink almost exclusively cellared beers and often the exact opposite is true.

 

For me the sweet spot for most IPAs is between 3-6 weeks. Enough time to clear any vegetal notes and potential hop burn, but not enough time for the flavor depth to fall off. For that matter, I guess that's kinda the case for any style that isn't an aged sour or a barleywine. Still, some everyday styles age better than others. My typical rule is that I won't buy a "normal" beer that's more than 5 months old.

 

Freshness is not just an age thing but it is indeed a large factor.

How the beer was stored, how it was handled during transport, specific beer style, etc. are factors as well.

For the interested student:

https://www.morebeer.com/articles/Beer_Freshness

Cheers!

 

IPAs and their ilk: If they're > 2 months old on a shelf, I usually avoid. They get thrown in beer fridge when I get home, and I try to go through them in < 4 months.

Most everything else I drink that's not hoppy/darker, age isn't really a factor for me. If they sit outside of a fridge for a while, OK with me. I am not much of a hyper-ager though (save hi test stouts), and like to drink stuff in 6ish months. Stuff with coffee gets moved to front of line.

 

It seems like you are using "fresh" to describe newly tapped kegs regardless of the actual age of the keg. That's fine, but it's not in sync with your use of "fresh" to describe bottled and canned beer. If the cans are sealed then they "should be fine" too by that logic.

This isn't to say that you aren't experiencing what you claim, but other factors could be that the glasses with beer from the bottom of the keg might have more particulate in them and a muted taste as a result.

The following isn't aimed at you Reidrover, but just a general comment. Last night I had two different beers of the same style. I drank half of the first canned beer, and then switched to the second. When I went back to the first beer, it provided an extremely different flavor experience compared to earlier. Could this be an indication of how poor my abilities to taste are? Sure. But I wonder how much people consider how pliable our sense of taste is.

Well... that skips over a lot of history that prized the flavors that age provided to beer.

 

Chris, an opportunity for you to write an article!?!

Cheers!

 

Wait, you mean put my money where my mouth is? I think I'll see myself out.

 

It seems like most of the discussion is centered on IPAs. Weren't the original IPA's intended to stay in good condition for a long time, as they were being sent by sea to India?

 

Freshness, or the lack of it, is the main reason that I don't do kegged beer. I actually have a tap that I inherited from a friend but I never bothered to set up the system in my beer fridge.

As many above have already stated, hoppy beers fall off fast. I refuse to buy hoppy beers that don't have obvious date codes or codes that I need the Rosetta Stone to decipher. 60 days from canning/bottling is my absolute max for hoppy beers unless I am getting a deep discount.

I tolerate even less time with some beers that I'm familiar with. For example, I buy a 12 pack (sometimes a case) of Troegs Nugget Nectar every year as soon as I see it's out. I then put them down relatively quickly because I find that it falls of fast!

After that, I won't touch an NN until the following January.

 

From the article I linked in post #26:

"For business reasons most commercially brewed IPAs have advertised best by durations longer than the 35 days reserved for Enjoy By. For example, Stone Brewing uses a suggested best by duration for Stone IPA of 90 days after packaging.

In the 1800’s, the beers brewed in Great Britain which were later be called IPAs were intended to be consumed much later after packaging. But it is important to remember those beers were very different from contemporary IPAs. Those beers of old were principally hoppy from a bittering perspective and were not intended to have prominent hop aroma aspects. In contrast today’s IPA is all about the hop aroma and flavor. And for the current popular substyle of New England IPA also the juicy/hazy quality as well."

Cheers!

 

Pretty sure this is largely a myth, and IPA, even back then, was a "marketing" term...

But then again, what I wrote immediately above could be its own myth too.

 

The hoppy beers that were sent to India circa 1800 were not called "India Pale Ale". That term did not come into use until a number of decades later.

Cheers!

 

All depends on storage and type of beer. Assuming cold storage we're talking IPAs most NEIPAs will stand up to 3 months. If DDH, can be closer to half that. An AIPA like Two-Hearted can last 6 months. I've noticed some brewery variation and how the beers stand up to age as well. The DDH NEIPAs can hit their peak 3-8 weeks out in my opinion. Sometimes fresh can be too fresh. Ultimately, the cold storage is one factor that must be held constant and is key. Without it there is no telling how fresh is fresh.

 

The comparison here is basically prime taste of today's IPAs vs. spoiled beer in India. This is modern times now.

 

Depends on who brews it and how I feel. I never paint myself into a corner.
Heady at over 90 days still is stellar IMO. And many of these beers come out green. And personally, I've been drinking beers and IPAs for at least 30 years I think more than a few get better with some time so the hops mellow. That said Im not buying local thats been a long time on the shelves.
Believe me I check dates but at the same time I'm not crazy on seeking out 2 week beers. I can go to Treehouse, Tilted Barn, Longlive, Trillium plus many more all within an hours drive or less. So no shortage of freshness. We have to help our local stores by gently reminding them that many don't want year old IPAs- Not only do I not purchase them I frequent the stores that listen.
2 week old IPAs can be overrated but at the same time can be dynamite.
Don't paint with such a broad brush.

 

This is a side bar conversion but since it seems like much of the talk is about ipas.

How can you tell it’s an old even if you’ve never had the beer? For me personally I get this very generic dull citrus hop flavor and more blah malt character. Neither pop in flavor. I was just with a friend and he handed me a beer to taste. As soon as I took I sip I could tell it was old. Sure enough on the bottom of the can it was a few months old. An ipa can have all the new trendy tropical fruit hops but when it’s old they all taste the same. It’s a very distinct flavor and they all taste the same.