On the topic of when to drink IPA's along the process:
I tend to make my pales and IPA's with just base and crystal, relatively dry, and plenty of flavor and aroma additions, including gratuitious dry-hops. I ferment to FG, warm a tad and let it sit for a few days to clean up (usually 10 days or so total). At that point I dry-hop either in primary or in secondary (depends on my mood and if I need the primary for something else). I usually do this for 3-5 days, then keg. I drink them within a few days as I carb on a high PSI and sometimes shake.
I find that basic grain bills for pales and IPA's are particularly good young, probably peaking about a week or so after being in the keg.
Now, that said, I find my bottled pales/IPA's are good even later, probably due to the fact that they're not gassing off hop aroma from the whole batch with every pint like a kegged beer does.
I tend to make my pales and IPA's with just base and crystal, relatively dry, and plenty of flavor and aroma additions, including gratuitious dry-hops. I ferment to FG, warm a tad and let it sit for a few days to clean up (usually 10 days or so total). At that point I dry-hop either in primary or in secondary (depends on my mood and if I need the primary for something else). I usually do this for 3-5 days, then keg. I drink them within a few days as I carb on a high PSI and sometimes shake.
I find that basic grain bills for pales and IPA's are particularly good young, probably peaking about a week or so after being in the keg.
Now, that said, I find my bottled pales/IPA's are good even later, probably due to the fact that they're not gassing off hop aroma from the whole batch with every pint like a kegged beer does.