[TrueSlacker0]

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.