> Malty strong beers age well. Hoppy beers don't because the compounds are volatile.
> IPA's always taste off to me.
That sounds contradictory to what I've heard about IPAs: that they were created because the normal beers the British had at the time wouldn't survive the journey to India, so they added a lot more hops and called it India Pale Ale. Based on that, I'd expect them to age better, not worse, than other kinds, but I'm not a beer person and this is just secondhand knowledge that I've never bothered to verify.
The amount of hops in the beers from that story were about as bitter as a common blonde ale.
The modern IPA is nothing like that anymore. Also its the aroma compounds of hops that breaks down so fast, not the bittering aspects.This is why you can store a Russian imperial stout (high hop bitterness, low hop aroma, very high abv) but not normally a double/triple IPA (high hop bitterness, high hop aroma, high abv) and defiantly not age a normal IPA or session IPA (high hop aroma, low abv).
*Some overly malty double and triple IPAs will age into a nice barley wine if given enough time.
The hops are somewhat antibacterial, so they can help against contamination, but the hop flavors break down over time, and light and oxidation are what "skunk" a beer.
I've been using them for a little over a year for a daily medication. The price is less than half what the local pharmacies are charging - and that's without insurance.
If you want to get licensed I found HamStudy's[1] learning method the most efficient use of my time and was able to breeze through Technician and General class. Their "Find a Session"[2] page makes it easy and inexpensive to take the test(s) remotely too.
I've done both. If you and your remote station have good antennas, a low local noise floor, and the right atmospheric conditions, a little power can take you to the other side of the planet.
Probably the former but possibly the latter. Sometimes "conditions" are such that a tiny amount of power will go a very long way. Right now, near the peak of the solar cycle, 4 watt CB radios are sometimes heard thousands of miles away.