"Built to Last" IPAs

Sierra Nevada Bigfoot. That IIPA ages like non other.

 

Schlafly T-IPA holds up pretty well IMO. Had it past the 90 day "unwritten rule to enjoy a hoppy beer" suggestion. It was still tasting good.

 

Double dose for me was as delicious at 3 months as it was at 10 months. Can't wait for the new batch next month!

 

canned torpedo is even more resilient to age and light. If only sn would can hoptimum.

 

DFH has a monopoly on the thing. They also do it well.

 

I Agree with the numerous mentions of Sierra Nevada (Torpedo, Celebration, Hoptimum) and Resin, and to a lesser extent Two Hearted.

Definitely do not agree with HopDevil or DFH 60 & 90 Minute. They are too skewed toward the malt side to begin with, and much more so as they get older.

Green Flash Imperial IPA also holds up well.

 

Victory's Hop Ranch still tastes fantastic after a few months on it, and this is coming from someone who's palate is VERY turned off by old IPAs. Victory does this sorta thing well it seems.

I wish beer stores would make it mandatory that IPAs should be in the fridge, like how it's mandatory for certain foods to be refrigerated at stores. that would be nice! hoppy beers keep quite well if they're refrigerated, but if I see an IPA at the store and it's a month old AND has been sitting out at room temperature, I'm going to pass 99% of the time.

 

Ok buddy... It is in my opinion. Get over it.

I deciphered your drunken code. Gotcha.

Disagreed. Respectfully, of course.

 

Avery Maharaja for sure!!

 

Sierra Nevada is another brewer (see my previous post about Victory) that can afford to have the best bottling equipment, and QA/QC money can buy. I also forgot to mention before that the bigger brewers like SN, Victory, Stone, Goose Island, Sam Adams etc. have more control over their distribution and ensure that trucks transporting their beer is refridgerated. That's going to have a huge effect on hop degradation. Goose Island is even using Anheuser-Busch's proprietary bottle caps with oxygen scavenging liners. The quality of the bottling from these companies is even better than many cans produced, which turns the conventional wisdom of cans > bottles on it's head. Personally I trust the best-buy dates from these companies way more than any obscure little micro brewery.

I know I'm throwing a lot of information around without supporting evidence, but it's all from an incredibly eye-opening discussion from a few months ago where several professional brewers chimed in with inside technical information on this exact subject. I would strongly encourage everyone to read it and pay particular attention to posts from @Peter_Wolfe, @Starkbier, and @JackHorzempa. http://www.beeradvocate.com/community/threads/old-ipas.177842/

 

"Built to Last" would be a solid Dead Head DIPA

 

Definitely Celebration.

 

According to John Kimmich himself, Heady Topper holds up quite well, and 120 minute IPA is another obvious choice.

 

i just drank 1.5 yr old heady last week...rather good came off as a torpedo on steroids..but the fresh local IPA growler after was better

 

I would agree with Two Hearted. I also think Hop Drop'n Roll holds up decent. Did a side by side of 2 day old and 1-1/2 month old and there was a difference but not to much that I noticed.

 

We just opened some four year old Big A at the brewery for our 20th Anniversary party and it was amazingly, surprisingly hoppy. No one quite understood how that happened, but we certainly weren't complaining.

JT
Smuttynose

 

As previously mentioned, Heady is extremely resilient. I find that it slightly falls off after a couple months, even though Kimmich says he likes it at 10 weeks.

After 4 months, the aroma has hugely dropped. The flavor however still holds very well with that grapefruit and dank character on the back. Not remotely close to some oxidized malt bombs that I've had after an IPA has been aged a few months.

 

Yes - at about a year old after being refrigerated for 6 mos. or so and it was still strong and tasty as hell. I have two more that I'm aging warm before I chill them; the first one gets chilled after a year, the second gets chilled after 2 years. Whenever they're opened, they will be opened together with a few friends [if I still have friends by then].

 

Whether an IPA is "built to last" depends on the beholder, i.e. what kind of hops the beholder likes, what kind of hops are in the beer and of course, the order in which beers are consumed make a difference with taste. Just like the same beer can have a different taste for two people since everybody's taste buds are different and everybody doesn't pick up different taste characteristics at the same level. And sometimes it depends on the first one of a certain beer you had. First impressions are important. If the first [insert name] IPA you had was super fresh and the next one isn't or the first one wasn't too fresh and the next one was super fresh, it changes your perspective. Yes, the consensus is that IPAs need to be fresh, each person needs to find a personal comfort zone with each beer. Besides, finding a comfort zone with each beer is a good excuse to keep trying your favorite IPAs [quality control] and try new ones [market research].

 

Heady Topper holds up very well, especially if kept cold. I had one last week that was nearly six months old and it was still bright and flavorful. And even though the hop aroma had dropped off a bit, it still had a quite hoppy nose