Yesterday, I visited my friend that I don’t see very often. While sitting around, he brought up that 2 of my beers that I brought to his summer BBQ last June were still in his fridge. So obviously I tried one. Very, very disappointed. It was the Grapefruit Pulpin’ IPA. I expected the fresh hop aroma to be gone but the carbonation was very low and the overall taste was stale. I bottled the beer in April 2016 and drank/shared them in May and June. All of them were well carbonated at that point.
This made me start wondering a few things… Maybe it got oxidized during dry hop or bottling? Maybe I didn’t do a good enough job capping with the basic wing capper? Or do IPA’s just not age well?
This… there are very rare exceptions, but IPAs really age terribly.
The lack of carbonation is a little odd, though. I’m wondering if capping issues also played a part as well. Either way, I wouldn’t expect an IPA to last for that long.
The IPA doesn’t age well as an IPA but the ones I’ve bottled and tasted are still a good pale ale. I don’t know why you lost carbonation. Maybe the caps
I thought IPA’s were created to age well… Hops are a preservative.
The hops and aroma fade. IPA was brewed strong and hoppy for shipping purposes. It was watered down upon arriving in India to save on tax and shipping cost. That’s my belief anyway
With that standard wing capper, if I didn’t pay close attention to the caps some of them would crimp on the bottle cock-eyed. Since then I’ve upgraded to a bench capper.
What’s the longest amount of time you all have aged something? What was it and how did it taste?
I don’t really care for IPA or PA, so I don’t brew them. I think I may still have a Chocolate Milk Stout from when I started brewing over 3 years ago. My Stouts and Dark Belgian aged well, the rest of the stuff didn’t go bad over time but didn’t really improve either. I have random bottles from almost every beer I’ve made. Going to start clearing some of those out soon though mostly because they’re taking up space and bottles I could use for new batches.
I need to be better about keeping at least a bottle or two of the beers I brew. April 1st, I’m going to buy Founder’s Kentucky Breakfast Stout. It’s gonna be difficult to save those. Or maybe justifying $30 for a six pack to my wife will be difficult.
