“Executives say draft beer typically stays fresh for between two and six months.”
Need to work on this.
Need to work on this.
Grain has quite a bit of lactic acid producing bacteria in it, on top of it's just being readily available in nature in general, so breweries naturally have a ton of it around. Most common lacto and pedio bacteria, the primary two type of LAB, is not very tolerant to hops. If you make a really hoppy beer, this naturally helps prevent the beer from souring.
Of course, a lot of beer is intentionally soured by these, and basically all beer originally would sour, and it's perfectly safe to drink. Just not desirable in every style of beer.
And, if you’re not a fan of extra-hoppy ipas, letting an ipa age will mute the hoppy flavor and could potentially make a more enjoyable beer.
The alpha acids in hops oxidizing will have an impact on the flavor of the beer - largely it will reinforce the malt flavor, but depending on your susceptibility to off flavors, you might get cardboard or BO type flavors.
The only reasonably reliable way I've found to get around this is to buy refrigerated whenever possible, and to look for "what wasnt here last week". Or buy from one of the handful of breweries that does print dates.
For what possible reason? During normal times there would be no reason to maintain beer stockpiles. During "challenging" times, those who would benefit from a long life supply of alcohol should look at wine, spirits etc.
Or they can get used to stale beer.
Or they can learn to homebrew.
The exeception to this rule is that beers with added acidity, like a lambic or a Berliner weisse, will age well despite being lighter and lower alcohol content.
I have a few like this sitting in the basement. At least one of them has a label recommending at least one year and up to 20 years of storage. It will be fun to see how it tastes at some point.