Sierra Nevada Hoptimum falling off a cliff?

Barleywines are barleywines (and what they are, exactly, is another story). I don't think old (aged/cellard) DIPAs, even 11% ones with a malty backbone, hold up for that long. Stick with the fresh Hoptimum!

 

Storage conditions can play an impactful role here.

Do you think this beer was exposed to warm/high heat over the past 3 months?

Cheers!

P.S. In the past Sierra Nevada would 'advertise' that their beers were good for a certain duration (e.g., 150 days from packaging) but the caveat here was cool/cold storage.

 

Cold storage slows oxidation rates down significantly. 11% imperial ipas are susceptible to oxidation just like 7% IPAs. If it was on a warm shelf for 10 or 12 weeks, customer should expect the beer to be less than (h)optimal

 

Could be a situation where it was exposed to high(er) temperatures further up the supply chain (e.g., at the Wholesale Distributors warehouse).

One of the things I personally appreciate about Celebration IPA is that it is released during the non-hot time of the year (i.e., fall - winter) and for the supply chain (e.g., Wholesalers) this beer is not likely to get abused by hot temperatures.

Cheers!

 

A Hoptimum bottled in late March should taste pretty similar to a fresh Hoptimum, with a little loss of hop bitterness and aroma. If it tasted slightly sour and the malt body was leaned out, I'd speculate there was some problem with packaging with that individual bottle. Shelf temps shouldn't change it that much in 3 months, unless it was in direct sun or something extreme like that.

 

I coincidentally just had a Hoptimum last night, probably my first one in 8 years, and I can say I was somewhat surprised by how much malt presence it had. Of course, it's an 11% ABV brew, and hops don't contribute to that number — it takes malt to produce that much alcohol. I'd also say my brew most certainly was not sour in any way.

But to the OP's point: I was expecting a hop salad, and I got a malt-and-hop salad with less perceived hop presence than I remember getting from this beer.

 

I bet it would have been fine if it were kept cold that whole time, a store should know better than to leave it unrefrigerated.

 

In my experience these big ipas are the most sensitive to time/ heat. And Hoptimum has always been dangerously malty to begin with for my tastes so I'm not surprised that it would come off as outright gross with some warm shelf time

 

Hoppy beer starts to degrade 4 days at room temp, regardless of how little o2 there is in the package. Even with Sierra Nevada’s insane level of QA/QC you can only do so much when it comes to hopped beer and warm storage. 4 days at room temp equals 30 days stored cold.

The level of alcohol has virtually no impact on the stability of the hop flavor and aroma. The maltier the beer or I should say the more crystal malt that’s used in the beer the faster it will degrade. SN might be the best on the planet when it comes to extending the shelf life of hop forward beer but they can only do so much.

 

Celebration is bottle conditioned. Hoptimum is not bottle conditioned .

 

I don’t mean to offend, but if I were a betting man, I’d argue there’s a greater chance of your taste buds just being off one day than of SN selling you a poorly packaged bottle.

Who knows!? Glad you got to enjoy the final 4 bottles

 

I pretty much will never buy an IPA or lager that's not refridgerated. Exceptions would be super fresh German beers (Oktoberfest) because most stores, around here at least, just don't refridgerate them. I agree that 11% should be ok (Bigfoot does fine at store temp and it's "only" 9%), but it's always a big risk with hoppy beers

 

Just to point out: if a beer is in a refrigerator at a retailer you really do not know how long it was stored at cold temperatures. The beer you take out of the refrigerator could have been 'in the back' at warm temperatures for a period of time and the beer was placed in the refrigerator the day before you purchased it.

If the beer has a packaged on date that is the only thing we consumers know for certain.

Cheers!

 

...which is why I only buy IPAs at the source except for SN Celebration, Hoptimum, and Waldo's Special Ale.

Celebration is consistently amazing year after year. Whether tastes buds, changes in recipe, or other, Hoptimum and Waldo's have been hit and miss.

 

Good strategy but for the case of buying canned products I would still encourage you to check the canning dates. I have read more than one 'horror story' about a beer consumer thinking they were buying fresh beers since they bought them at the taproom only to find out later those beers were non-fresh. How this happens!?! Maybe those cans were returns from retailers?

Cheers!