Do IPAs turn into pale ales over time?

Thanks Jack and that actually explains something that I read that I did not really understand. When I was reading about the origins of the pale ale, the author ( and I do not remember the article , sorry) said that the difference between those english style bitters, begins with the starting gravity and then the lines between them blur and are somewhat arbitrary.

 

Yup, that is pretty much the case for the substyles as defined in the BJCP style guidelines.

You could consider the English IPA as one more substyle if you wish:

Ordinary Bitter -> Premium Bitter -> ESB -> English IPA


Cheers!

Jack

 

But some breweries expressly state that their DIPA are better with age - dogfish 120 minute and dark horse - 2x crooked tree. Why would a DIPA get better with age?

I know dogfish is more malt forward to begin and is such high abv that it would probably mellow out, but wouldn't that make it closer to 90 minute? Is the goal by aging 120 minute getting a high abv 90 minute?

Dark horse on the other hand is extremely hop forward. I wonder how that one will age. I drank two and put two in the cellar.

My personal experience with hopslam is that it tastes noticeably worse after two months. One of my favorite beers when fresh, but after two months I think it turns too boozy as there isn't enough malt balance.

 

FFS

 

I have about three bottles of this years hopslam left. Too many limited releases and homebrews to consume all three six packs i bought this year. Willing to trade if people want to taste older hopslam.

 

Yeah, you know I can't think of a better answer. I have never had one that aged even slightly well to my taste. However, those who know more than I claim that some can. A home brewer friend of mine has one that he ages and it doesn't taste bad...but maybe because I am his good friend...lol...

 

I'm guessing here--a plain, simple, easy to read date of brew/bottling, in MM/DD/YYYY format. Julian dating is great, but I go slightly cockeyed doing math on the specific day of the year, y'know?

 

I see what you're saying. I'm prior military (and a current DoD employee) and we use julian dating everyday, so to me it's just as easy to read as the MM/DD/YYYY format, but I could see how it would be confusing to someone who doesn't use it very often. You could always print off a julian date calendar to keep handy. ;-)

 

The other factor there is that some brewers use what seems to be a garbled/jumbled version of Julian, and you have to look twice or thrice to separate the date code from the lot code, and what-have-you.

 

Fair enough, but I still use what the beer tastes like fresh as the intended benchmark, unless like Deschutes the brewery provides a "best after" date where aging is literally recommended. The brewer (or tasting panel) is the single source determining what a given beer is "supposed" to taste like; they then release the beer to thousands or millions of individual palates who decide whether they like it.

For those who are sensitive to bittering compounds, they can either choose to wait and see if the faded hops help (although doing this can also allow other undesirable changes to occur), or maybe they just want to opt for something that is less bitter fresh.

 

Maybe you should come to Washington or Oregon. I've had a number of local TIPAs that are so balanced between malt and hops, and the ABV is so well-hidden (I'm talking about 10% here), that you'd swear you were drinking a 6% IPA. OK, 7%.

 

I have a grapefruit and habanero sculpin and could not find a date on them. When ballast point changed their label a few years ago, I've not seen a date since. It's a roll of the dice that I seem to take less and less. The more legit date was in reference to six point. While they still put a date on their beer, they have extended their window by several months. Their stock became too big and sat on the shelves for too long. So they changed their dates to give it more shelf life. This does not work well for resin, hi-res, etc.

 

There are 3 IPA substyles, 14a=British, 14b=American, 14c=Imperial.

Just saying that is for the 2008 guidelines.

 

Jeff, I was aware of 14C but IMO an Imperial IPA = DIPA. I was trying to keep the discussion to non Imperial/Double IPAs. Otherwise known as 'regular' IPAs.

Cheers!

 

Absolutely. In fact, I believe Zombie Dust and PsuedoSue are aged at the brewery for 6-12 months prior to their release in order to achieve that perfect pale ale quality. I'm pretty sure that's what makes them so great

 

Ok, but cat. 14 = India Pale Ale.
There are many more in the new, yet to be published guidelines. Those new one ar not "regular".

 

Can't speak for Six Point, but I save bottles for homebrewing and have about 50+ empties of Sculpin and Grapefruit Sculpin (haven't had Habanero Sculpin yet) and every single one of them has a bottling date on the label. Bottom right hand corner. All of these bottles were purchased within the last 6 months.

 

I think I agree with what most have said here. I don't care for IPA's more than 3 months old, which is one of the reasons I won't by the quart bottles of Sucks (they haven't been turning over very well here). Some of the IIPA's might hold out a little longer. I had some New Glarus Scream that's pushing 4 months and it's still excellent. I've been getting Dark Penance lately on sale for about half price. They're 5 months old and I think I like them better now than when they were fresh. I'm not much of a black IPA fan, so maybe the mellowing hops is working for me.