IPA freshness

Scene has its positives and negatives here. I'll get the negatives out of the way first: We are hit by silly levels of excise and liquor licensing restrictions, making growth in craft brewing quite slow. We are also being overwhelmed by imports at a much faster rate than the growth in our own scene. As a result people are being educated on stale examples of styles (including imported American IPAs, which are expensive here). Visitors comment on how expensive beer is in Australia, which is true - but our incomes are generally pretty high, so it evens out somewhat.

In saying that we have very good breweries. For example: Mountain Goat, Bridge Roads, Feral, Mornington, Murrays, Burleigh; all consistently turn out good quality American IPAs and other US/European influenced styles. New Aussie hops are increasingly being used in American style pale ales and IPAs (Galaxy, Vic Secret, Ella, Summer etc). Australian breweries often knock out pretty good English style beers and often dabble in NZ/Aussie hops in styles like Pilsners & English bitters/IPAs. ABVs tend to be lower here than the USA. Overall our beers tend to be solid, and more on the balanced side rather than the extreme/hoppy.

I live in an ok beer area (Perth), which used to be frontrunner, although I would say Melbourne (Victoria) is the leader these days. There are some good breweries/brewpubs around the city of Perth (Little Creatures, Feral, Last Drop, Mash, Monk). But a noticeable lack of proper beer bars or legitimate craft beer festivals. In that I mean, we have lots of pubs/bars with craft taps available, but not many destination craft beer bars. Nearby Fremantle is the best bet.

We have a decent beer scene in the Margaret River wine region, a couple of hours drive south (Eagle Bay, Colonial, cheeky Monkey, Cowaramup, etc).

Australia does have a strong homebrewing scene.

In general though, Australia seems to lag behind NZ when it comes to craft beer. An American visitor would have a good time here and sample some nice beers, but may be disappointed overall given what they are used to (I've been to the US).

 

No dig, man. Just IMO, Jai Alai seems to lose its mojo much faster than any other IPA I drink on the reg. I prefer it within a few weeks, but it is still well worth it for a month or more.

 

Having had the opportunity to drain some cans/bottles/growlers of ultra fresh IPAs recently, I'm noticing a huge difference from week to week in the aroma as well as the overall hop whallop. The day after the recent Alchemist pop up sale, the cans were intense and brimming with hop presence: 3 weeks later,they are great hoppy beers but lack that real punch you get when it is green and hazy. The Fiddlehead Second Fiddle cans have also provided a good example of the intense hoppiness upon canning, and a noticeable drop off a week or two later: again, still a great brew, but the intensity fades.

 

And spend twice that on shipping? No thanks.

 

2 4 pks of Furious delivered to my door for about $32. So right at $4 a can for a 16 oz can, a glass of crap beer at the local bar costs more. Not for everyone, but an option for a one time try.

 

I think the hop fade is overrated over short time periods (2-3 months). I opened a Heady Topper this weekend from late April and it tasted just as good as a can from the same batch opened the week I bought it. John Kimmich himself says it is best at 10 weeks old. I do think that cans, which should provide 100% UV protection, are far superior to bottles in keeping IPAs fresher longer. I think any canned IPA is good for 3-4 months.

I've had some other IPAs like Titan, which were drain pours at six months old or so. Yet Boulevard Double Wide is still delicious even several months old.

 

“I do think that cans, which should provide 100% UV protection, are far superior to bottles in keeping IPAs fresher longer.” The real benefit of cans is that they are 100% impermeable to air (oxygen); bottled beers permit air (oxygen) ingress through the cap liners. Hop fade is an oxidation process so the impermeability factor helps.

“I think any canned IPA is good for 3-4 months.” Well, let me tell you about my purchase of a case of Jai Alai (cans). I bought the case fresh (3 weeks from canning). The first 12 or so of those beers were great; very aromatic (hop aroma) and tasty. By about month 1.5 there was noticeable hop fade and the remaining beers while still good were less aromatic/tasty then the first 12. All beers suffer dissolved oxygen (DO) at packaging and over time the oxidation will result in staling; one aspect of staling for hoppy beers is hop fade.

I should caveat that wrt the Jai Alai story above I did not store the case of beer in my refrigerator; the beer was in the basement with 1-2 beers periodically added the the refrigerator for consumption. It may well be if the case of Jai Alai was continuously stored cold the hop fade would have been delayed beyond the 6 week mark.

Cheers!

 

Why would an IPA go stale faster than regular beers?

 

The oxidation process of hop fade is just more noticeable in a hoppy beer like an IPA and it can occur relatively quickly (a few weeks) Other aspects of staling like developing a cardboard like flavor (i.e., development of trans-2-noneal) take a longer time (several months) where the amount of trans-2-noneal exceeds the flavor threshold.

Cheers!

 

Yikes! A couple of weeks? I'll be checking dates!

 

Some good primers here and here. Oxygen is an enemy, and is affected by the canning or bottling process, and by temperature of storage. I always keep any IPAs refrigerated. I'll pull other stuff out if I have to. Light is also an enemy of all beers. Anecdotal evidence only, but I think bottle/can conditioned IPA/DIPAs hold up longer than those that aren't.

 

More like 5-6 weeks from packaging but please go above and read my first post. Some IPA brands are more forgiving of aging aspects (e.g., Sierra Nevada hoppy beers).

Cheers!

 

Thanks for the great info, I am moving back to Perth from California late 2014/early 2015 after ten years away so I will follow your recommendations to get into the best beers around the area. I love Little Creatures but the rest are new to me.

Cheers.

 

@JackHorzempa is correct, but keep in mind the following:
Since beer is often available from a distributor for a retailer to purchase the week after the week it is released by the brewery, that means that even if you are buying within the hour of it going onto the shelf you are already drinking product that is close to two weeks old. There are exceptions to this, I know, but as a retailer, we simply are bound to have product beyond this "a few weeks" deadline that is being indicated here. We try to keep it as tight as possible, but the changing nature of supply and demand means that one month old beer is inevitable.