How young do you like your ipa's

from the day you bottle them.

i like them almost immediately but they tend to taste best after 5 or 6 weeks in the bottles. one of my other friends thought they were best at 3 weeks, and some of my other friends thought 10 weeks was best. most importantly how young do judges tend to like them best?

I like them before the hops start to decline in the aroma. Usually they don't last that long however.

5 weeks.

My last one was bottled over three months ago. It's still a great beer, but the dry hopping has faded a lot.

IPAs are one of the best reasons to keg. When you keg them & force carbonate, you can be drinking them within a few days. My vote 1 week or less is best and only possible with kegging.

I like one week after the dry hops are removed.

Based on limited anecdotal experience, they score pretty consistent for about 6 weeks, then worse.

As a judge, I rarely think american or imperial IPAs I judge have enough hop aroma. They almost always have plenty of bitterness, if not too much.

best when drank SOOOON! and if you dry hop in the serving keg.....well its just even more better. :cross:

Three weeks, from brew day. Bottling might need four.

Conroe said:

Three weeks, from brew day. Bottling might need four.

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crazy. that is so much sooner than i have been doing. let me ask you all this. how long would you leave a sg 1.063-fg 1.011 ipa in the fermenter before bottling. i would do a month, but i get the impression some of you would do sooner, like in 3 weeks

ColonelForbin said:

crazy. that is so much sooner than i have been doing. let me ask you all this. how long would you leave a sg 1.063-fg 1.011 ipa in the fermenter before bottling. i would do a month, but i get the impression some of you would do sooner, like in 3 weeks

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Two weeks primary, one week or so dry hopping, into a keg, and carbed up ASAP. If your recipe is balanced and made correctly, it should work out just fine.

...Seems a little strange for a beer designed to travel, but I drink mine in 4 weeks too.

ColonelForbin said:

crazy. that is so much sooner than i have been doing. let me ask you all this. how long would you leave a sg 1.063-fg 1.011 ipa in the fermenter before bottling. i would do a month, but i get the impression some of you would do sooner, like in 3 weeks

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I have yet to make a IPA but thinking about it. Is their a reason to leave a IPA in the primary or secondary longer then other brews ? Other then to dry hop for a week?

abbot555 said:

I have yet to make a IPA but thinking about it. Is their a reason to leave a IPA in the primary or secondary longer then other brews ? Other then to dry hop for a week?

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No, in fact there's a reason to get an IPA out of primary or secondary faster than other brews because of the delicate hop aromas you want to preserve. Two week primary, one week secondary on dry hops, and then straight into the bottle or (ideally) keg.

Also, oxidation is a larger risk with hoppy beers, so make sure you rack extra carefully (or purge your vessel with CO2) and keep the beer away from sunlight.

IPA's are fickle beasts, but once all of your techniques line up, it is such a rewarding style.

I will start drinking them after a week in the bottle, but my rule of thumb is that they never seem to decline, only improve, so that the best one in any batch is always the last one. Probably 80% of my batches are IPAs or APAs (for which the same rule applies).

The longest I've been able to keep any given batch is maybe three months absolute max.

I dry hop in the keg so really enjoy the two weeks during dry hopping as I can enjoy the evolution of the beer as the dry hops slowly infuse.

ColonelForbin said:

crazy. that is so much sooner than i have been doing. let me ask you all this. how long would you leave a sg 1.063-fg 1.011 ipa in the fermenter before bottling. i would do a month, but i get the impression some of you would do sooner, like in 3 weeks

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Two weeks ago I brewed a 1.067 IPA. In less than a week it was at 1.011 FG I started it fermenting at 60 and let it rise to 68. I racked it to secondary and added dry hops. Dry hopping doesn't take much over 3 days at 75F in my house. I let the hops sit five days and the beer has been crashing cooling at 27F for three days now. I could keg it and carb it easily in a week, or bottle it and have it ready in 10 days or less. This one will be a month old when I start drinking it. It's my Labor Day IPA.