ipa in the bottle?

just started bottling and I am doing about 12-24 bottles per batch and kegging the rest... In the pasy month or so, we have made 90 gallons.. mostly IPAs as we love them so... My question is what is the optimum time to drink the bottles... I would love to see how they taste DOWN THE ROAD, like save a 6 pack every year and store them away... Yes? No? Why Not? Thoughts..

Thanx

You'll lose a lot of hop character, as most of the hop aroma will fade long term. Most IPA's are better young, when aged they can be semi-sweet and very bitter, with not much hop at all. Pliny the Elder recommends on the bottle to be drank young and Stone recently released a whole batch of IPA deemed "Enjoy by 9/21" where the shops and bars selling had to sign a contract to turn over any unsold beer back to stone after that date. I wouldn't save a whole case, but if you're really curious it's better to do with homebrew than something expensive from a shop. Maybe put a bottle or two of IPA aside, but drink the rest soon. Many other beers age really well, though.

yeah... I shall put away a couple for giggles... For instance, DFH down here has 120 Min from like 2008 that you can buy, of course they are 30 bucks or more. I am sure the IPA wont last long anyways, but good to know...