Aging IPA’s

[Insidious Rex]

So Ive been told by a learned source that theres really no point in aging strong IPA’s as the alpha acids from the hops undergo relatively swift chemical reactions independent of storage conditions which can degrade the taste of the beer. I can see why you would want to drink a normal IPA after purchasing it but what about some of these hop monsters? Does this fact hold true for them as well? Should I be running down to the basement and guzzling all my 120 Minutes and Dreadnaughts and rare occasion high alpha stuff Ive stored away? And if this is true then why have some said the old Ballantine IPA’s still hold their taste after 50+ years? Is beer storage useful only for the Barley Wines, Imperial Stouts and Strong Ales of the world?

[markaberrant]

The hop flavour and aroma will dissipate over time. I recently had a bottle of DFH 90 that was clearly past it's prime. It was good, but no longer tasted like an IPA, it was more of a strong ale/barleywine.

If you want a strong ale/barleywine, I would buy those for aging, as they typically have a more complex malt profile than an IPA.

I guess what I'm saying is, what is the point of drinking an IPA with no hop aroma or flavour?

[stronk]

Real, true to style IPAs should last for a long time, but the hop aroma will dissipate fairly quickly. I doubt it's actually the alpha acids that react away; it's more likely to be aromatic oils which come from the hops along with the acids. They are more reactive (hence why they dissolve in the beer with short contact times, as opposed to the AAs, which take substantially longer). So an ageing IPA will quickly lose its aroma profile, but the hop flavour will take longer and the bitterness will probably remain indefinitely.

[Insidious Rex]

so..... something like a Dreadnaught (100 IBU's) would actually seem like it had become more bitter since the effects of the aromatic hops would quickly lessen while the bittering hops would maintain? So really the time to drink an IPA is right after its brewed to get the true full fresh effect? (true with any beer I suppose but it seems exponentially more so with heavy IPA's if thats true).

What of beers that go heavy on the aromatic hops but dont necessarily overload the brew with alpha acids during the bittering run? Like fresh hopped beers.

[n0rmann]

I've never aged an IPA, but someone I know who has said the aging of the IPA diminishes the hop flavors, but allows other flavors that were covered by the hops to come through. Again, I'm not speaking from experience, but it could make sense.

[stronk]

It all depends on what kind of an IPA you are making. It's not exactly off-style to make an IPA that's basically a very bitter barleywine (i.e. no aroma hops), but most would prefer their IPAs to be aromatic and their barleywines malty.

Not all IPAs should be drunk asap after brewing, because some of them are strong enough to need quite a bit of conditioning before their flavours calm down. The solution here is either to simply up the amounts of aroma hops or to redesign the beer so that it has more of an emphasis on hop flavour than aroma.

I generally think that there is no use-by date for beer in my cellar. I know roughly what is going to happen to the flavours with time. Some beers benefit from ageing (a nice strong old ale or strong belgian ale), some even require it (look at Eggenberg's Samichlaus: over 10% and they don't release this year's batch until brewing time next year), but some will just lose aspects of their flavour to time and eventually end up tasting boring. I'd expect most medium-strength hoppy beers to be counted among the latter group.

[dparsons]

I wonder if it would work to age and then dry hop a keg (or cask).

[stronk]

That's a really nice idea, actually. Assuming you chose your hops right to complement the aged flavours and style.