The Bar Towel

I have a friend who wants to sell me beers he bought a year ago, the beers are mostly American ipa's, like heavy seas loose cannon, arrogant bastard, racer 5, etc. How do these beers age, are they still gonna taste good?

thanks

IMLE I would not age American IPAs, FWIW.

YMMV!

Generally IPA's are not really ageable since the hops, while acting as a preservative, do drop off in flavour as the beer gets older. SO while an aged IPA will likely still be drinkable as a beer, the hop bite for which it was bought will be diminished.

However, I've had some decent experiences with bottle aged IIPA's (over 8%) that I've just not gotten to in my cellar until they were more than a year old (from the date of bottling).

The other issue is HOW the bottles were stored. If your friend has kept them in a temperature controlled cellar then those bottles would stand a better chance than if they were stored in his closet.

So it's a crap shoot but those beers were probably better when younger than you'll find them now. However, I doubt they'll be bad. So set the price you're willing to pay accordingly.

Oh and share your findings here if you do buy and drink them.