Tongue Buckler

I hate it when I keep a non-aging beer too long. I bought two Ballast Point Tongue Bucklers last spring. I shared the first with a friend after drinking a few other beers during one of the Lakers' playoff series. Not a circumstance to accurately comment on the beer, other than to say that I remember it as a balanced, malty, hop monster. The second sat and sat in my beer fridge. Procrastination is not good with a 100 IBU beer.

I opened the second tonight and immediately got the aroma of stale hops, not the smell I was anticipating. While the first was rich and balanced, with a strong hop kick, tonight's beer was malty, yes, but the stale hop taste overwhelmed the beer. Its richness was lost to hop degradation. The beer was not completely bad, but it was on its way. There was enough of the original goodness left to remind me that this is a beer that is much better fresh, and not to delay the next time it's released.