IPA Freshness?

You didn't just immediately drain pour the 6 week old Jai Alai on principle alone?

As much as this topic gets talked about, I don't know that many people have ever actually tried the same beer (say an IPA) on the same day with various ages on it. I certainly haven't.

I'd love to see someone do a "blind" tasting with a couple of well-regarded IPAs, but the trick would be that there was a sample of the same beer at 1 week old, 1 month old, and say 2 months old just to see how they would come out. Maybe do this with at least 2 different IPAs so that it isn't immediately obvious that everything tastes almost "the same." If the tasters did not actually know that this was the setup, would there be any real consensus that age significantly lowers the score of the beer? If so, by how much?

 

I had a 6 month old Hair of the Dog Blue Dot and it actually was juicier and tasted better than some fresh IPAs, however, I also had a 5 month old Kern Just Outstanding that I forgot about and it completely lost all hop forward flavor. I think it depends on the beer.

 

It really does taste weird. Not even like it's a tad better fresh it's just weird when it's older hard to enjoy.

 

IMO: Jai Lai, zombie, Pliny, and double sunshine fall off fast, with in a couple weeks. Had some 3 week old zombie and month old Pliny around Christmas multiple members of the tasting commented on them not tasting fresh

 

I wish I kept the receipt when I bought two four-packs of Hoptimum. The hops were really spoiled, was not like the first taste at all.