I thought that the whole point of Indian Pale Ale was that it would last longer, as in it would survive a sea voyage from England to India in the 1800s (6 months)

It would go unspoiled, which is a bit different of a thing than tasting it's best.

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.

Maybe IPAs were meant to taste as they did after a long voyage to India. Maybe at the end of the voyage was when they tasted their best. Maybe the hops were just a preservative and nobody really liked drinking beer with overly strong hop flavours and aromas.

My theory is that people who like these extremely hoppy IPAs have (1) lost their ability to taste more subtle flavors, (2) are performing some kind of signalling to their fellow beer connisseur peers about how much of a beer geek they are.

Extremely hoppy ≠ extremely bitter. A lot of hops have floral, citrus or tropical fruit flavors and aromas. It’s why hazy IPAs have become so popular; they tend to use more of those kind of hops rather than the bittering varieties and end up juicy and balanced, rather than having overwhelming bitterness.

Or, perhaps, people simply have different tastes. IPAs make up nearly 1/3rd of the dollar share of craft beer in the US - they're hardly some ultra-acquired taste that you could use to signal that you are part of the beer elite.

They're just nice. People have different taste. I don't understand why you have to make theories. If I had to I'd theorise people who make theories about people who like hoppy IPAs (1) have sensitive taste buds, (2) are performing some kind of signaling.

So meta!

To add to this, the high alcohol content typically found in IPAs helped with transportation, too.

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.

I'd probably recommend people just go for a different style of beer if they don't like IPAs :)

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.

After six months it's basically Heineken, so great by 19th century standards...

I guess 'lasting' meant, 'getting you drunk, not sick' back then. It does that just fine, also after the taste and aroma of the hops have become dull over time.

This is true, but unfortunately most breweries still dont give a bottled/canned on date, so it can be difficult to figure this out (unless there's some secret I'm unaware of). There's at least a couple beers I buy regularly that are great within a month or so, but will be pretty nasty after being on the shelves after a few months.

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.

Funny you mention Tree House. The beer seems almost impossible to get these days.