I just got back to Afghanistan after my vacation back to Seattle and my wife had bought a bunch of beers for me way back in March to have waiting for me. Overall she did pretty good but one beer had me worried because it was an IPA. Hoppy Bitch IPA by Northwest Brewing. Not the best IPA in the world but my wife liked the label. She hates all beer and did this just for me so I didn't have the heart to tell her the IPA would probably be total shit by the time I got home 3 1/2 months later. I should add that it was stored at room temp in little china hutch type thing in the living room, not in a cellar or fridge. But damned if this IPA taste damn good! I was shocked, no loss of hops at all! It had been a number of other beers, it would have sucked.Their website only lists Columbus hops, could that be the trick? Are there hops that have better staying power than others? Why is it a Pliny would fall of and this run of the mill IPA stay just as though t it were fresh. I know 3 1/2 months seems silly as I type it, but I've had Marharaja, Dugana (or whatever it's called) Pliny and others at that age and they were significantly worse than their fresh counter parts. Why? What hops do you know that can last longer?
3.5 months isn't a crazy amount of time, you should get a fresh one and compare. I would guess that the hops did fade or at least change a bit by the time you drank it but with a name like Hoppy Bitch it probably still had enough to go around. I brewed an awful DIPA that turned into an OK barleywine after about 6 months or so.
Apollo lingers forever. Did a barleywine with Apollo as a FWH 120 min addition, yet somehow I still taste it 8 months later. Apollo seems to be the only hop I've ever used that no matter what point in the brewing process I use it, it comes through. Columbus lingers as well. I've had some old Heretic Evil Cousin, and its still tasty six months out as it reeks of apollo and columbus. Plus its dry as hell and doesn't have any crystal malt pruniness, so after several months whatever hop aroma and flavor remains can still shine through. The Stone 15th Anny is also a hop bomb, even at 2 years old (cracked one yesterday). Bittered with Columbus, Citra late addition and Pacific Jade and Nelson as the dry hop. Still tastes quite dank and earthy to me....
Amount of O2 in the package has a big influence. According to Mitch Steele at his NHC talk, yeast has an influence that is not understood. The hoppy beers Stone made with Belgian yeasts lasted longer on the shelf than they ever thought. He stated some research needs to be done to understand that. Was the IPA very light or was it a little dark? Dark malts have anti-oxidative properties that might help the hops last.
Good insight Jeff. It was darker than most IPAs. Very interesting about the yeast. I'm going to have to experiment with that when I'm back in the world.
This topic was discussed in the thread entitled IPAs/DIPAs with Decent Shelf Life:http://beeradvocate.com/community/threads/ipas-dipas-with-decent-shelf-life.103091/#post-1512118 The ideas that I discussed were: · Hoppy beers that are not heavily dependent on dry hopping for their flavor profile seem to last longer. Examples of hoppy beers that seem to last well are SNPA and Celebration. Examples of hoppy beers which do not seem the last well are Flower Power, Sculpin, Pliny the Elder. · Limit oxygen ingress during bottling · Bottle Conditioning seems to help Anything that mitigates the oxidation processes will help mitigate hop fade. Jeff, I had forgotten about Mitch’s story about the yeast effect. That is indeed an interesting concept. Cheers!
Was it aroma or flavor, or both that he was referring to? Really curious about what kind of biotransformations the yeast is catalyzing, although if its covalently linking sugar to hop compounds, those are really tough to study without some really expensive, high end mass spectrometers.
IIRC, it was aroma, then maybe flavor. He was saying Enjoy By has a short shelf life, but they were surprised how the ones with Belgian yeasts tasted even after a year. You might e-mail him, he has been great to talk to at the last 2 NHCs.
“he (Mitch) has been great to talk to at the last 2 NHCs.” I will second the above! I had two separate conversations with Mitch at the recent NHC and he was very gracious! I had a chance to discuss early IPAs (circa 1800 English IPAs) and he patiently listened to my numerous questions and provided answers to all of them. Mitch is a great guy (and needless to say a talented brewer). Cheers to Mitch Steele!
Stan Hieronymus gave a presentation at the recent NHC entitled “Preserving Hop Aroma”. Unfortunately I was unable to attend this particular presentation but I just read the chart package. There are tons of scientific details in that presentation; it is great! One chart showed graphs of three hops (labeled A, B & C) and the effects of hop fade over time (0 month, 1 month, 3 months and 6 months) between a beer that was just late hopped vs. dry hopped. For hops A & B, the late hopped beer was more stable (less effects from aging). For hop C, the dry hopped version was more stable (less effects from aging). So, it would appear that amount of hop fading is a combination of how the hop is utilized (late hopped vs. dry hopped) and the hop variety. Cheers! P.S. Needless to say but the amount of aging effects increased with time: 1 month had a small effect, 3 months a moderate effect, and 6 months a large effect for all three hop varieties. P.S.S Two statements of wisdom on Stan’s conclusion chart: · Store you hops and your beer cold, your hops colder. · Drink it now. Those guys from Stone might be on to something.
