Ilves IPA v2 was the second iteration of the first beer I ever brewed. As I overwrote my original Ilves IPA recipe when I redesigned it, I’m not entirely certain what I changed for this second run at it, but I’m pretty sure it mostly consisted of changes to the hopping additions and schedule.
Now, almost two years later, it doesn’t really taste all that much like an IPA. Who would have guessed that storing hop heavy pale ales for years wouldn’t be a great idea?
It has a pleasant but very mild hop aroma on the nose. The flavour is still mildly hoppy, but dominated by the malt character. I think there might be a slight vague, unidentifiable off-flavour in there too, but that might just be a result of how long it’s been stored in somewhat nonoptimal conditions.
What to take away from this and my other retrospectives of pale ales? For one thing, I’ve learned firsthand that there isn’t much point in hoarding bottles of pale ales for years…