Fresh Hopslam Versus Year Old Hopslam

I have a friend who was recently diagnosed with a gluten allergy, so he no longer drinks beer. I was in his basement a few weeks ago and he had a ton of stuff down there that he was essentially giving away. There was an entire six pack of Hopslam and I asked if I could have one just to see how it aged. I would never let one sit around that long, but since he had already paid for it and let it sit, I thought it would be interesting to try. He gave me the whole six pack, so last night I had a fresh one and year old one side by side. The aged one was, in and of itself, pretty good. It had lost nearly all hop aroma and most of the hop nuances in the flavor. Bitterness was there, and it was more malty than a fresh one. It was pretty much like a barleywine. The fresh one was obviously more hoppy in both aroma and flavor. It seemed to be "lighter" as well. Fresh is better, but if someone poured an aged one in a glass without telling me what it was, I'd think I was having a prettty solid barleywine.

 

yeah...very rough on him. Me too in a way because he was the guy I did 90% of my craft drinking with. Now when he's around I make comments like "this isn't very good" or "you probably wouldn't enjoy this one". He now does his share to keep Jameson in business.