How long do IPAs stay "Fresh"?

The IPA beers shipped from Great Britain to India relied on the bittering aspect of the beers to aid in beer stability. Those beers were not specifically brewed to 'highlight' hop flavor/aroma. That is very, very different from contemporary beers such as Pliny the Elder, etc. Modern day American style IPAs are brewed to 'highlight' hop aroma/flavor and therefore are best consumed fresher (a month or so from packaging).

Cheers!

 

About...1 minute for everytime this has been brought up in beeradvocate.


joking aside, constant refrigeration can triple the hop flavor of a (warm) 3 mth old shelf turd.

 

I'd think 30 days kinda marks the end of "fresh". If it's two months old it certainly isn't fresh, but I've had beers I've babied kept cold and dark last easily 10 weeks. This was HT, it's obviously canned, I kept it on ice from Vt to Nc, it was dark and cold till it was beach week.

 

The second they're bottled the hops lose half the taste/aroma

 

Not long enough. I prefer to drink within 30 days, but may push to 60 or 90 days, depending on the beer and the abv.....

 

Fresh is certainly better when talking about IPA's but I've had IPA's that were around 11 months old that still tasted pretty darn good. A few years ago I cellared a DIPA for 6 months because the hoppiness was too aggressive for my palate at the time and when I drank it after the cellaring period, I thought it was tasted better than when it was fresh.

 

Unless they are very old...They stay fresh as long as you think they can stay fresh.

 

"Northern Discovery hops have some of the same citrus tones you find in other hops, along with hints of apricot and orange. However, what’s really different about Northern Discovery hops is that Katchever believes that the high amount of the compound linalool allows this IPA to age well." story

 

Fresher is better with just about everything and especially hoppy beers and I'm a total Hop Head but I'm getting tired of standing in an aisle or half inside a cooler, with or without my readers, trying to find the date on different bottles and cans or trying to decipher the Gregorian chant calendar dating printed in a light black water soluble ink on a dark brown bottle with condensation on it.

If we all drank more the beer would be fresher

 

less than 24 hours.

 

How about this -- any ideas/opinions/etc on whether certain varieties of hops are more prone to fading than others? I feel like some of the new wave stuff does (Citra, Mosaic, etc.), but then again I also wonder how much of that is process -- that is, will an IPA that relies heavily on flameout/whirlpool & dry hopping fade quicker than those with stronger bittering additions?

I've been really disappointed, TBH, at how poorly some of these new wave hopped IPAs last. Six weeks and major drop off? Like almost to the point of being undrinkable? Just doesn't sit right with me. I know, I know, "Drink 'em fresher!" But, seriously, six weeks doesn't seem like asking too much.

 

Can you provide more details here: why are the referenced beers "undrinkable"? Does the diminishing hop aroma truly make the beer "undrinkable" or is it more that the beer is just more disappointing then when it was fresher?

I have posted numerous times that I am of the opinion that hoppy beers that rely heavily on dry hopping to 'define' their flavor profile are susceptible to quickly having their aroma/flavor 'fall off the cliff' while hoppy beers which are more 'balanced' in their hopping schedule will have a more gradual fall off. But it is important to consider that the more 'balanced' hoppy beer would not have a 'sledge hammer' type hop aroma in the beginning vs. the hoppy beer that is heavily dry hopped.

Just one hour ago I bottled my first attempt at a clone of Pliny the Elder. I used a total of 4 ounces of hops for dry hopping (a 5 gallon batch). It will be interesting to note how this beer evolves over time (e.g., over the next 2-3 months).

Cheers!

 

Things get iffy for me if it's older than 1 to 1.5 months.

 

Referenced beer (singular). Really nice beer originally, but by week six the nose had lost all its tropical notes, leaving, to be quite honest, not a helluva lot behind, less some generic maltiness and maybe even an odd touch of booze (and this was not a high ABV IPA). Palate fared similarly poorly, just very little flavor, and the flavor that did endure was a shell of its former self. Instead of some nice citric bitterness and light tropical flavors, I got a slight vegetal note, some light malt sweetness, and hop bitterness without much hop flavor. It was shocking, really.

 

I know most say 90 days, but I've noticed for some IPA's (Jai Alai) die faster. So I am now one of those within a month guys, who I used to make fun of because I figured there was no way you could tell. But you really can.

 

Thanks for sharing those details. I have never experienced anything close to what you are describing there.

The first thought that popped into my mind is that this beer must have had a packaging problem; too much air/oxygen ingress. What you are describing sounds to me like severe oxidation has occurred.

I wonder whether this was a bottle/batch issue or whether for this particular brand/brewery this phenomenon always occurs.

As has been mentioned in other posts, hoppy beers are best enjoyed at the source (e.g., brewery/brewpub, a homebrewer's house, etc.).

Cheers!

 

I know when any IPA is old the second I take a smell and taste. I think all beer is best really fresh. But for those obsessed with dating, big dark and brown ales cure most time issues. I buy amazingly fresh SNPA from Mill's River and am spoiled rotten.

 

Depends on how heavily the beer is dry hopped.Most of the top rated highly acclaimed IPAs that have flavor profiles that border on mango/pineapple with perfectly balanced bitterness fit into this category. The more dry hopping the quicker the beer goes south.

A beer that is almost solely reliant on dry hopping for flavor profile will be dead in a month. A 50/50 dry hop to kettle hop can last 2 months and be nice while others can last 3 months with solid recipes and a supreme bottling/canning line(minimal oxygen in the vessel)

So you have to identify what kind of beer your working with then make a call from there there is no 1 date fits all for India Pale ales.

 

I like my IPA's fresh from the field, squeeze out the hop juice into the proper glassware while onsight and drink up! ahh fresh!

 

Anything not poured straight from the brite tank is worthles/s