a store owners interesting thoughts about ipas

Hey this is better than the opposite. I know of a beer guy who purchased close out cases of Sierra Nevada Harvest ales that were at least a year old and he said "Well they have a ton of hops in them, the hops will preserve them for a long time"

 

As someone who stocks over 2000 SKU's, i was gunna say something, but Kzoobrew, as always, said everything i was gunna.

 

If it comes in past its best by date I simply refuse it at the dock. If I don't catch it right away it gets picked up on the next delivery.

 

The problem is most stores (around here at least) are more than happy to let IPAs linger well past 3 months. 6 months is very common, and I've seen plenty of 1-2 year old dusty bottles.

As a "freshness fighter", I'd be downright thrilled if 3 months could become a gold standard.

 

Cause they sell the holy f-ck out of them.

 

Yeah, I know the hops are different today when compared to back then, but I can't speak to the point that you make about the preservative qualities of the older varieties of hops. But it's a point well taken. Maybe a student of the historical brewing process will chime in to give us a firm answer.

 

What I find ironic - and maybe you were getting at this too - is that hops (which were originally used to preserve beer so it could last longer) are now the exact reason we want to drink IPAs as fresh as possible today.

 

i'd be surprised if anyone had trouble picking between 1 month and 2 month of the hoppier IPAs around. the freshness thing is not a myth.

don't be overinfluenced by the mocking "i need to drink it right out of the fermenter, hurrr!" posts. yes, some people go too far, but freshness is still paramount. the hop oils don't disappear by magic, and it's not placebo.

 

Not exactly a "student of the historical brewing process" here but basically the difference is not in the hops, it is in us.

Back in the days before modern sanitation, refrigeration, steam powered engines... it was important to rely on the anti-microbial properties of hops to prevent spoilage of room temperature beer, stuffed in a barrel, being shipped for a month or more at sea.

Nowadays, the anti-microbial properties are less important because we have star-san and refrigerators, so hops are used primarily for bitterness, flavor and aroma. We still get the anti-microbial properties, it just is less relevant. If anything they are actually more anti-microbial due to the breeding of higher alpha acid hops, the isomerized version of such acids being the anti-microbial component of hops.

 

Harry Carey...RIP! (Love the avatar.)

 

I was avatar-less before the new board, but that big gray block was too much. And I figured an Old Style logo isn't quite BA enough, so I went with a Bud Man. I can only assume he'd be knocking back BCBS now that it's under the A-B umbrella.

 

But sometimes it's the brewery that makes an account buy certain beers to carry others. I dropped Boulevard from my shelves because of this.

 

Umm, weren't IPAs originally made for a journey from Britain to India?? Yes, I know those were the English IPAs, but still.

 

I brew a lot of very hoppy beers. When bottled the taste of them actually improves for three weeks after they are carbed, and then falls off, slower if kept refrigerated, but the more delicate flavors of the hops start to fall off, and the bittering hop gets a different taste after three weeks, progressively moreso. Hoppy beers are always better fresh, but there is nothing wrong with a three month old IPA, it just won't be all that it was.

 

sounds like a myth to be busted.

and it's an easy test to do provided you are working with a beer that absolutely nails it every time (i.e. not pliny). maybe torpedo?

 

Go with canned IPA's. 8 month old Daisy Cutter I had the other night still tasted pretty damn good. Cant say the same for Ruination.
I imagine you city boys dont have to worry too much about about year old IPA's. Out in the burbs its a different story.

 

Yes but thats not how we drink them today.
I imagine they didnt have refrigeration back then. Should we drink our beer warm too?

 

Fair enough. Although beer is best somewhere between warm and chilled. But I would think the best IPAs can last for more than a mere 90 days.