Fresh IPAs getting harder to find

No shortage of fresh IPAs in NC. Lots of options and I'm talking <1mo.

 

Look for local beers first that you like. Check the dates.

Avoid just as an example beers from way out of the area, like Knee Deep from Ca. It's a great beer fresh, but I bet I can find some on the shelf that were bottled in July or Aug.

Look for Stone Enjoy By and such, you know they're fresh.

Don't shop at the big beer super stores for hoppy stuff. They over by stuff sits and gets old , it's not stored properly.

Don't buy bottles from a broken six.

Two Hearted Ale is always a decent enough stand by, it's almost always 3 weeks or less here.

If you have 3-4 solid choices everyday, join the club, I suspect it's quite normal.

 

Quite honestly, all Sierra Nevada hoppy beers are best within 1-3 months. Secondly, seems like you're ready to take the next step into Sours.

 

Tl;dr

Buy local.

 

Vermont is overrun with new breweries, always something new and fresh to drink here (if the flatlanders don't beat you to it).

 

+1 to NYC IPA being easier to find. Right now I have 64 oz growlers of oat overdose and OH 2nd anniversary waiting in my fridge! SingleCut has a great IPA out every month, Other Half has great cans every 2 weeks (and great growler options all over). Barrier makes great IPA, as does Finback. Grimm is just the icing on the cake (if you find any!) Plus we get fresh pipeworks and captains daughter. NYC is killing it right now!!!

 

Lucky for me I get 2 best and freshest IPA's in FL Jai Alai and Crank

 

There's usually something that's fairly fresh available. I'm not super picky though as long as its only 2-3 months I usually don't mind.

 

thanks

 

One time I drank an IPA that hadn't been refrigerated for about 2 months and it tasted like expired ramen noodles.

 

I am lucky get Deschutes and SN fresh and cheap 8 or less for a six pack of their normal line up.

 

I'm not trying to be critical of the OP, but I just look at it a different way. I'm also in the Chicago area and I'm incredibly thankful for our local distro and options. Sure, there is always the chance that if you are looking for one specific IPA (or any other beer), you may be disappointed with its date/availability, but there are always plenty of other excellent relatively fresh options to choose from.

The OP also mentioned the scenario where we get a big fresh drop from brewery X, but that same shipment sits around for weeks/months - so strike when they are fresh and rely on other breweries (there are sooo many with a presence here) when they are not so fresh. Frankly from my POV, it is not an issue in the slightest in our area.

I am very sympathetic however to other areas that do not see the same variety of distribution.

 

I couldn't have said it better myself. Personally, I think the laws of supply and demand will eventually reduce the problem of IPAs sitting on the shelves. For example, I'm always shocked how many cases of Sculpin lay around at my local retailer. At some point Ballast Point (or the company that bought them) will realize that at $15 a six pack and with so many competitive IPA options out there, they will either have to lower their prices or reduce the supply of their beer in order to continue to be successful. In both cases, it means less beer on shelves. I know I would buy Sculpin more often if it were $10 a six.

 

Here in Colorado I find lots of ancient Sierra Nevada and Firestone Walker IPAs on shelves. Yesterday I saw some Torpedos from August! So for IPAs I generally stick with the local stuff, and when buying IPAs from afar I am very careful about checking dates.

 

Welcome to my life. My go-to semi-fresh IPAs are Bell's Two Hearted Ale and Ithaca Flower Power, but even those are often 2 - 3 months old.

 

Lately I just buy new stuff as it hits and just move onto something else. Or get some Badass stouts. Stone Ruination 2 seems to rotate nice here so I usually get that about a month old

 

Is it because of damage by light, and then do old IPAs taste better in cans (you can test this with Sculpin) or is it purely time (the beer continues to ferment) ? I'm afraid that from Europe I can't test this, I buy my beers online and can't choose the date.

What I find funny and ironic in all this, is that if you remember IPAs originally were beers fermented longer due to the boat trip between England and India. With shipping and slow communication routes inland in India, there's no way the British soldiers would have been able to enjoy a "fresh" IPAs and yet it got popular despite that. And now we're bickering about how fresh it should be

 

Maybe you enjoy malt-bombs instead of juicy hops?

 

As the shelves become more crowded with IPAs, expect more old beer. Checking dates is the only thing you can do.