IPA That's Gotten Better With Age?

[Tyler.W]

I brewed a Black IPA in early November that has been in the keg now for 42 days. I brewed this using Omega's HotHead Kveik yeast at 92F. I prepared a yeast starter, but I did not pitch nutrients into the wort (OG of 1.070). The beer was smelling good at first, but about midway through fermentation it started to get funky. It did not smell like sulfur, but it did not smell good. I transferred to the keg and let it sit a while. I have been drinking it slowly for a few weeks now and at first it did not taste good and I almost was ready to dump it. As it has aged it has gotten more and more enjoyable where the hops aroma and flavor are starting to shine through. I have never heard of an IPA getting better with age, so something I must have done screwed it up. I figure I pushed the yeast too hard which was putting some funky fruit (but not pleasant) aromas into the beer that has finally started to age out. I also feel like the mouthfeel was a little off, almost slick, and that has also disappeared.

I know I am not providing much useful information, but do you have any idea what the most likely culprits could be for this situation?

 

[Stonehenge360]

Don’t know your hop schedule, but it is possible with a lot of hop additions to have a hop burn or very green flavor to the beer. IPAs don’t age because they are sensitive to oxygen, however, all beer will usually get better as it conditions and yeast falls out of suspension. For an IPA where you have been reasonably careful about oxygen ingress, I find it starts out “green” for the first week or two where it might be a bit harsh, then you have a solid few weeks of great, then it starts to oxidize to a noticeable point after a month to 6 weeks. That’s just my experience

 

[Tyler.W]

Don’t know your hop schedule, but it is possible with a lot of hop additions to have a hop burn or very green flavor to the beer. IPAs don’t age because they are sensitive to oxygen, however, all beer will usually get better as it conditions and yeast falls out of suspension. For an IPA where you have been reasonably careful about oxygen ingress, I find it starts out “green” for the first week or two where it might be a bit harsh, then you have a solid few weeks of great, then it starts to oxidize to a noticeable point after a month to 6 weeks. That’s just my experience

3 gallon batch hop schedule:
60 min - 0.6oz Nugget
15 min - 0.5oz each of Citra and Simcoe
Hopstand - 0.6oz each of Cascade and Amarillo
Dry Hop (on day 2 for 3 days since it was fermented at 92ºF) - 0.8oz each of Amarillo and Centennial

This yielded an estimated 84 IBU.

I will need to research hop burn more, but from the brief reading I just did it doesn't seem like that was the case. The off-flavor was in the aroma and initial taste of the beer, but quickly dissipated once swallowed where I would then taste the actual flavor of the beer.

Thanks for the notes on the progression you typically notice. Since I force carb my beer, would you recommend for IPAs I just let them slowly carbonate (rather than shake carbonating) which should take them out of that initial "green" period you notice?

 

[Stonehenge360]

Looks like there aren’t a ton of hops in there. Great IBU, just not the 1/2 lb of hops you see in NEIPA. High dry hopping specifically is very sensitive to oxygen.

This makes even more sense that it would get better with time. Ignoring oxygen, almost all beers get better with age. Your beer probably had yeast in suspension which can give odd flavors, and since it wasn’t heavily dry hoped, you don’t have to worry about oxygen quite as much

I don’t think force carb with shaking hurt anything, I just tend to not bother with it. since the beer usually takes a week to get great, I just let it carb during that week