How old is too old to buy an IPA?

[deepsouth]

@denny

@deepsouth

Professor, you have been brewing almost longer than i have been alive, so i yield to your knowledge.  do you care to share your secret to having a quality ipa that can run out longer than six months?

genuine interest here.

It all comes down to your personal tastes and preferences.  I’ve had a lot of IPAs that were older than 6 months and still tasted great.  But my own preference is for IPA “styles” that are ready to drink when they’re younger.

surely.  i had a pal send me a six month old pliny the elder because he wasn’t going to drink it and it was before you could get an ipa in the state of mississippi.  it was good, but it wasn’t PtE.

[a10t2]

@bierkieser

This is a crazy question… The IPA was created to keep beer “fresh” on the long trip from the UK to India for the troops there.  So the whole reason for the style was for it to survive long periods of time.

That story has been thoroughly debunked, but you’re right to say that the early IPAs would have been aged for long periods of time relative to what we consider normal now.

In this case, though, the consumer will undoubtedly have a fresher example in mind when they purchase the beer. JM, unless you’re able to open one and taste it next to a fresher can (and it passes the test), I would return it.