Aging IIPA

If I wanted to age an Imperial IPA (lets say a year) this would obviously cause the hop flavor, aroma, and crispness to dissipate and possibly become skunky. Would it be possible to brew the beer with say 10% more grain bill and not put any hops in at all. Then age for a year. When ready to bottle I could boil up a bit of water (enough to account for the 10% grain addition) and do the hop additions to the water just like I would with the beer. Then add the hop water to the aged beer to add in the nice hop flavor, bitterness, and aroma. Is this possible or just plain stupid? Would the beer suffer any for aging that long or would it mellow out and be smooth?

Why would you want to age this a year when it is a style consumed best when fresh?

From what I understand, beer tastes best after aging for 2-3 months. Of course this conditioning should be in either a bottle or a clean secondary, not on the trub in primary. Some heavier darker beers can benefit from aging for up to 6-8 months, but I'm talking thick, dark stouts to give the flavor profile better time to develop. I've heard Barley wines can age up to a year, I've never done one though.

Basically, I too don't see how aging for a year could improve the beer. I think you will experience the smoothest flavors after a couple months conditioning. And how can u brew an IPA without the hop additions during the brew process? IPAs flavors are so dependent on those hops blending. I wouldn't waste bottles or other resources for a whole year for this idea, with all do respect. But I like that you are thinking outside the box.

Normally this style of beer is best consumed at 2-3 months due to the hop profile going bad after this time period. But if I were to add the water that I boiled the hops in during bottling wouldn't this achieve the same thing allowing the hops to be fresh and crisp?

LandoAllen said:

If I wanted to age an Imperial IPA (lets say a year) this would obviously cause the hop flavor, aroma, and crispness to dissipate and possibly become skunky. Would it be possible to brew the beer with say 10% more grain bill and not put any hops in at all. Then age for a year. When ready to bottle I could boil up a bit of water (enough to account for the 10% grain addition) and do the hop additions to the water just like I would with the beer. Then add the hop water to the aged beer to add in the nice hop flavor, bitterness, and aroma. Is this possible or just plain stupid? Would the beer suffer any for aging that long or would it mellow out and be smooth?

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What you are proposing would be closer to an American barleywine rather than an IIPA. It would probably have a lighter body than an American barleywine, but it would be pretty close.