Flavor changing over time,...for the worse.

I have a West Coast style AG IPA that's full-bodied, with a medium bitterness, and huge hop aroma. It tasted great at a month from brewday, and I thought it would be great as it aged. it's been about 4-5 months now, and I almost don't want to drink it. The malt profile has developed a flavor that's reminicent of burnt extract. Now, it's possible that I didn't notice this flavor under the hop aroma, which has begun to fade, but I think this is unlikely.

Any ideas?

I have had changes happen to every beer over time and this is normal. As far as masking flavor I have found that as any beer ages it tends to get dryer because the yeast is working on it and hops fade a bit and that is when you notice any subtle off flavor as there is less to hide it.

The other side is that it takes a while for some infections to be noticed. This usually starts to surface early or after 3 to 4 weeks in some cases.

I just purchased a microscope so I can see this sort of thing if it ever comes up. I have others who brew near me and some do have problems and I would like to be able to help them knowing for sure what the problem is.

It is my opinion that hoppy beers just don't age well. Hop flavor and aroma fades fast.

I've had a couple beers that started out good, went a little weird then after another month or so, came back around. An ESB that I did w/ WLP023 got an odd minerally flavor around 3 months in the bottle that disappeared by month 4. One beer w/ a good portion of weak tasting peat smoked malt really went through a lot of changes as it aged.

I'd ignore this one for a couple weeks and see how it develops....