Old IPAs

I can echo your experience with Enjoy. Had an Enjoy By 3 months past its Enjoy By date. Still Enjoyed but the catbox odor and weed flavor haunts me to this day...must find more....

 

Well said. Tastes vary and every individual eventually finds the "sweet spot" with regard to the age, temperature, and condition of any beer they enjoy. Traditionalists (like me) will like their IPA well aged and not served frozen.
I don't mind the current crop of "American" style IPA and there are one or two that I really enjoy once in a while, but I confess to being a little confused as to why so many folks like them served so cold, considering that the fresh, 'green' hop character that is touted specifically as a desirable aspect of 'American' style IPA is demonstrably more prominent and 'up front' if the brew is served at 50°F or higher, whereas it is somewhat diminished when served very cold.
But there you go...one should always just enjoy their brew the way they best like it, and damn the naysayers and beer snobs!

 

I agree. I understand that mobile canning fills a need in the market and is a good option for many brewers. Further, I've had beers from mobile canning that were prefectly fine [although I've had soured/infected mobile cans too]. My earlier point was just that many people these days simply assume cans > bottles, but that's not necessarily true as explained by the professional brewers and others earlier in this discussion. I will still buy cans from a mobile canning service, but they better be dated to prove they are fresh, otherwise I'll choose one of the many other beers on the shelf.

I would like to thank who ever resurrected this thread, because in my humble opinion, this was one of the most informative discussions of 2014. I hope anyone who did not see this discussion the first time around will take the time to re-read it for the insights of the professional brewers and others who chimed in.

 

Had a case of Hop Ranch last year and didn't love it until it was at least 3 months old..... Then BAM, great beer. No more onions.

 

Didn't like Hop Ranch at all, Dirt Wolf was much better.

 

No joke! I've pretty much given up on finding any semi fresh Firestone Walker IPAs. I've contacted them twice but never once got a response. I'm reasonable but when you see bottles 8+ months old thats not cool

 

I've only ever had one bottles of fresh Jack and its tremendous, but it's literally like hitting the lottery. Old Jack is a malty mess of a beer, Don't know why it's always old stuff, fresh it's great it should fly off the shelf. I suspect guys buy it and don't check the date, it sucks and they never buy it again, so it sits. And sits.

 

I think I've seen this topic come up many times before, and each time my thought is the same: it depends. Some beers, even beers within the same style, differ greatly on how well they age. DFH proudly claims on its 90min IPA bottles that it 'ages with the best of them', and I'm inclined to agree; that stuff's never gone bad on me. On the flipside, I was a dummy and left a bottle of Knee Deep Simtra in my fridge for juuust a tad too long; it tasted like dirt and musty tannins.

What I'd love to see is more and more breweries figure out their particular sweet spots for how old their beers can get without depreciating in taste or how old they should be before drinking, and how well their particular beers age. I may have fallen out of love with Stone, but I LOVE the concept of the Enjoy By / Enjoy After bottle series. Even the best of us beer geeks probably need to be hit over the head with freshness dates from time to time.

 

I'm anxiously awaiting cans of FW Jack. Hopefully they make it thru distro fast and I get to try it fresh.

 

There was one IIPA I had that I thought was really good even several months later: Evil Twin Molotov Cocktail.

Most older IPAs I've had end up losing the nose and just taste sweet with the malty-ness coming through. However, I felt that Molotov had a nice nectar/orange body and had more depth in the flavor department than I could remember. It had transformed very well!

I've had 5 month old hopslam and wasn't too thrilled by it.

 

I prefer Hopslam with about 2 months on it versus fresh. But there are, of course, limits. I went out to eat at a certain chain restaurant(hint: rhymes with juno swill) and was pleasantly surprised to see 90 minute as a bottle option. Being that I hadn't had a 90 minute in a while and that I've found it goes great with pizza, I ordered one up. I was brought a bottle with a bottle date of January....2014. Needless to say, it was awful. I've actually said in threads like these that DFH's IPA hold up to age better than most, but this beer was undrinkable- first time I've ever sent something back in a restaurant in my 36 years on this earth. They offered me a 60 minute on draft and it was better, though I'd love to see the date on the keg, because it was malty as well.

 

I have been tempted several times to send back old IPA's or PA's, because it happens a lot in restaurants that are generally catering to folks that drink mass quantities of beer "made the hard way", which turn over fast. But I have not. I guess if you have some old ones in your fridge and are someone who is into target shooting that is an option!

 

I see a lot of old Kona castaway. I get excited to see it until I read the date.

 

Why does the can urge me to drink it ASAP then?

 

Had a 5 month old Destihl Hoperation Overload a friend gave me the other day and while it really had no hops, it was a pretty decent American barleywine.

 

Weyerbacher Double Simcoe, bout 1-2 years old, really hits my palate right.

 

Had an 8 month old Dirtwolf and it seemed to have improved the flavor profile. Tasted almost exactly like a Stone Enjoy By.

I think some higher abv% IPA's can benefit from sitting in the bottle for a few months.

I actually still have two 2014 Hopslam's left from a 6 pack I bought last year. I never drank them because I wasn't a very big fan of the booziness or flavor profile. Never understood what all the hype was about.

I'll probably open one this weekend to see if things have changed.

 

How about a nice big label on top of the case that says "To be sold by Month/Year or return to supplier" Problem solved, Thank you.
That said, I've been in places where a two year old IPA would have been quite welcome compared to the local stuff.

 

that would be a start! The issue could be that the supplier sold it to the distributor fresh...but it sat in the distributor's warehouse for a long time...or was misplaced, or improperly rotated as inventory....but either way, the customer should not have to suffer as a result!

 

Hey. I get it about the distributor. Must be pretty irritating. But that said, Is out of date beer that bad? I've been places that would love to have that beer. Is there some kind of exporter? ( as I hurriedly look up exporting rules)