Aged IPA?

I kinda like how age brings out the maltiness. some old IPAs are just gross though

 

Believe it or not, "balance" used to be something that was popular in beers. People age IPAs of any strength to restore some balance to an otherwise overloaded, palate wrecking beer. It can also reduce any alcohol bite that might be present in these abominations. Some like it. Some don't. Find out which way you like them and keep doing it.

 

Founders Doom comes to mind although I know there are more out there that I've tried.

 

120-minute is just "not horrible" fresh. Outfrigginstanding with a year+.

 

volatile hop compounds and what not. I don't want to bore you with the details, it's very scientific.

 

I have a bottle of stones dayman waiting for a while. Just wanted to see how much more coffee I get after sitting on it for a while. Maybe its will suck but its worth a shot

 

Drink this bitch now.

 

Was it Ascension? If so, that's a triple IPA @ 18% ABV. Morgan @ Beer Junction told me it's sort of their version of 120 Minute. In other words, could be suitable for aging. It has a waxed cap, indicating the brewery might also believe this is the case.

 

You might be overanalyzing it. The point of aging is to reduce volatility and build deep flavors while mellowing the harsher ones (like tannins in red wine). So the volatility that appeals to hopheads is not what you want to look for in aged products. Tannins in beer is generally bad, but tannins do help beer age (just like wine), which is why oak barrels are useful. But you know all this, being a biochemist. Losing hoppiness is not the worst thing that can happen to beer if it achieves balance in return. I'm going to play with wild grapevines in a strong ale for home brew and will report in a year or two--that should send tannins through the roof, so it might do well in the bottle without barrel aging.

 

I had Lagunitas Sucks from December yesterday and the hops were all but gone in it and there was not enough malt to support it in my opinion, it tasted like a very bitter pale ale without a lot of flavor to it

 

personally i thought doom was awesome it was really unique, still had the base IPA taste (which was more on the back end) but lots of smooth bourbon and sweet vanilla up front, seriously delicious. others that come to mind barrel aged head high and dfh burton baton, both great as well. come to think of it i never actually had just a regular IPA that was a year old vintage as the OP suggested, but i think BA IPA's are awesome

 

I've had a Celebration that was 2+ years old a couple months back. Tastes more like an old ale than an ipa at that point, but I was surprisingly happy.

 

I am currently drinking a bottle of Double Jack brewed on 6/21/13. The bitterness is greatly subdued, as is the citrus component. However, it has become a tropical fruit bomb. Lot of mango, papya and passion fruit. I had a bottle two nights ago that was only two weeks old and the citrus and bitterness just popped. Much fresher tasting and definitely more assertive. However, I think I like the six week UJ better. The tropical fruit hits on more notes, and the subdued bitterness makes it easier to taste. All personal preference, I suppose. Would I try a six month old Double Jack? Probably not at nine bucks a bomber, but it would be interesting to see how it evolves.

 

In my mind aged IPAs without anytime on wood are just old beers with wasted hop inputs.

I'll go ahead and give the obligatory plug for Burton Baton now.

 

If you're a biochemist looking for information on hop compound and oil deterioration, you're on the wrong forum. If you want a bunch of opinions on when to drink a single/double/triple IPA, you're in the right place, and the answer here is always Yesterday.

Somewhat relevant anecdote: I drank a 6 year old Snake Dog IPA last weekend. I noticed two things. First, that I've had more offensive tasting/smelling IPAs that have sat in my car for a single hot weekend (this bottle never really left its refrigerated environment in 6 years). And second, that it smelled way too much like some of my favorite aged barleywines (american; dry-hopped), but did not taste nearly as good, which I attribute to FG, abv, and malts used.

In conclusion, something about 120 minute, and something about empiricism being just the worst, but sometimes all we have.

 

The two beers, triple ipa in question is somewhere in the realms of 15 and 18% abv; big ass beers like that usually don't taste all that great fresh. So, their logic in calling it a vintage and annual release is justifiable.