Hi. First post! Love the website and forum. I live in Texas, so I've never had Pliny the Elder. I'm FINALLY getting a bottle in September. But by the time I get it the bottle will be maybe 6 weeks old. I have read that Pliny does not age well. Will that be a problem??? Thanks!
It will be fine, but if you had it side-by-side with a 1-week-old bottle you'd likely be able to tell the difference.
Its best (in most peoples opinions) to drink hoppy beers as fresh as you can... 6 weeks is pretty much prime as "most" of what I have read thru posts/threads, personal opinions and suggestions on bottles themselves is about 3 - 4 months from bottle date....usually 3 or 90 days... most hoppy beers will have a bottle date which you can referance or even better (ala stone) a "drink by" (enjoy by) date. Some people will argue that your 6 week bottle will not taste as good as there 1 week old bottle but it is a fact that the hop bitterness and punch diminishes from the time its been bottled so consume it a.s.a.p.
It will travel via commercial airline, so it will be at room temp for a while. I'm sure it will taste great, but I want maximum flavor!! Lol. Oh well - guess I'll take whatever Pliny I can get! We do have some great beer here in south Texas, but no Pliny!
Had a 5 day old pliny that changed my life. I've had multiple multi-week pliny's and have only been forced to down a few month+ old pliny's. Fresh is better but pliny is always better than no pliny.
Pliny the Elder and most all othe IPA are truly best when consumed fresh. The aroma and taste of the hop profile changes drastically as it ages for so w reason, which always has surprised me because IPA was created to last the long voyages by ship across the ocean which would take months sometimes but as more research and tasting has progressesed it's been found that intensely hopped beers, to have there designed aroma and taste are best consumed as soon as possible after bottling. That being said 6 weeks should be just fine , but just as a test take good note of how it taste 6 weeks after bottling and if you can ever land a Pliny Elder bottled or off tap within a week or so you should be able to taste/ smell a difference and I'm sure it will be greatly appreciated. I say this being a true IPA/ Pale beer enthusiast and had trouble grasping this concept myself until I tried side by side a fresh(within week of bottling) and a couple month old Zombie Dust. The difference was almost night and day, the couple month old still tasted amazing but the freshly bottled(was only 5 days old when consumed) was seemingly a different taste/ smell altogether with the hops at least. Just my opinion but I've also read some scientific backing to this with relation to esters and some other important features of IPA/DIPA/Pale Ale.
