All IPAs should have "best by" dates

Wow, am I sick of wasting money on old IPAs with no hop aroma and old malty taste. There should be a rule!!!

 

brew date would be better. It is up to interpretation for a best by date.

At any rate yes, I wish it was a rule

 

Agreed.

 

Yeah, I had a DFH 90 minute the other day. Didn't even taste close to what it should

 

I agree. Quality, expensive IPA's are not super-popular around here, so my motto is never buy a dusty bottle!

I did find a local gourmet market that has a great beer selection...and they date the beers when they put on the shelf!

 

homebrewing great IPAs will spoil you.

I have an IPA on tap right now that was amazing for the first two weeks. I can already taste a difference after 3 weeks... Nothing quite like brewery FRESH IPA

 

My LHBS also happens to be a gas station, liquor store. They actually have great liquor selection, wine, and a TON of craft beers. They label with the date of intake on the price tag. Ironically, I've gotten some incredible "aged" beers for 50% off because they don't understand that some of these stouts get better with age. Numbered bottles of some small local crafts that are 1-3 years old, for 5-6 bucks. Perfect!

 

A bottling date is best I think. I've probably wasted hundreds of dollars on IPAs that sucked. If I was a commercial brewer, there would be no question in my mind I would go the Russian River route of labeling with a bottling date.

I like to try lots of different beer, but trying IPAs is a friggin' crapshoot. Gets old.

 

It helps to keep them refrigerated after they are conditioned...

 

I agree that I wish they had a bottled on date, especially for things that are > $10/bomber, its hard to pull the trigger. Then again for $20-30 I could be brewing 5 gallons so I'm trying to only buy for sampling if I can't appreciate the money for commercial IPAs.

 

It's hard to even buy the local stuff without a bottle date... Hop Stoopid is hit or miss and I'm 45 mins from the place.

 

I have just stopped buying IPA's due to this. Problem solved. The only IPA's I drink are my own.

 

Question for the more experienced brewers: how long can your IPAs sit in the bucket before the hoppiness starts to fade?

 

Depends on which type of hoppiness you are referring to. The bitters will pretty much always be there, but the aroma and flavor, created by late additions, and especially dry-hopping are at their peek after 2-3 weeks after dry-hopping. From there, its into the bottle for conditioning 2-3 weeks, and after that, into the fridge for storage...

 

and by conditioning you mean, 5 days in the fermenter, 7 days dry hop, 3 days crash cool, transfer to keg and start drinking?

I get natural carbonation from the fermenting in a keg with a spunding valve so I have a nice and fresh 14-17day old IPA

 

I tore into a 2008 120min IPA the other day and it was fantastic. All of alcohol taste had given way to really nice and complex raisin and apricot.

I'd have to agree w/ the posters that are saying "brewed on" dating as opposed to "best by" since that's completely subjective.

 

I bottle condition, and use this schedule:

21 days primary,
14 days dry hop in secondary,
14 days bottle conditioning,
then into the fridge (and my belly) they go...

 

In Boulder last summer we lucked up and Walnut Brewery, for a couple of hours, was celebrating the birth of a new IPA by handing out a free pint. It really opened my eyes to how an American IPA should taste. I like that Sweetwater does have a brew date.

 

Bell's Brewery now does this:

 

Bells is implementing a born on date on their labels. It's an improvement over them listin the batch number, which they already do.