IIPA Peak Drinking

[Cloud Surfer]

I made a IIPA, something along the lines of a PTE. It's coming up to 3 months in the bottle now and I'm almost all out. To my mind it doesn't have the same beautiful hop aroma and flavour it did to begin with. It's still quite nice, but maybe past its peak IMO.

Is there a considered time line where IIPA's are in their peak drinking window? When they say to drink the PTE young, I wonder what they really mean by that.

 

[madscientist451]

Sorry, what is a PTE?
When I brew hoppy beers, I usually run 2.5 gallon batches so they don't get too old. I also started fermenting IPA's in kegs and doing a closed transfer to the serving keg, which also helps keep the hop aroma and flavor fresh. So "peak drinking window" is going to be determined by many factors including personal taste preferences and brewing/packaging methods and equipment.

 

[micraftbeer]

My super hoppy beers definitely lose a lot of their magic after a month. They don't turn bad or anything, they just come down off their glorious pedestal.

I keg. And I do find that really good low oxygen transfers process after fermentation goes a LONG way with hoppy beers.

 

[Cloud Surfer]

PTE is Pliny The Elder. I haven't scored a bottle myself, but everyone raves about it so much, I thought it was a good starting place to brew my first IIPA. It may just be the best beer I've ever made, so I'm a fan.

I have a pretty sweet CO2 setup, so I do everything in a low O2 environment all the way into bottle.

 

[Cloud Surfer]

My super hoppy beers definitely lose a lot of their magic after a month. They don't turn bad or anything, they just come down off their glorious pedestal.

I was thinking the same thing in the first month. I couldn't believe I had made that beer. While it is still drinking very nicely at 3 months, I think that initial 'magic' has faded.