In recent years, IPA has been the reigning style in craft brewing, and from this base style countless variations have emerged with varying degrees of success in the market. Everything from NEIPA and Black IPA to Hazy, Juicy IPA and Brut IPA. Lately, yet another new and exciting style has emerged, dubbed Cold IPA.
The style was developed by the American brewery "Wayfinder Beer" in 2017/18, and was an attempt to create a fresh and very easy-drinking variant of the popular Hazy IPAs on the market, while still allowing the hops to shine and be at the forefront. Only now is this a style that is gaining popularity and is being brewed by several large breweries, including Sierra Nevada.
A Cold IPA takes the best from several styles, resulting in a fresh thirst quencher with a bit of a kick. The style draws its malt base and yeast from pilsner, balanced bitterness from West Coast IPA, and flavors that lean more towards NEIPA. And it should be crystal clear. Sounds strange, but it works!
Malt Base for Cold IPA
The malt base should be relatively simple, think American lager styles, or cream ale, just with a bit more strength. Pilsner malt is often used, and about a quarter adjuncts, meaning corn or rice, or sugar can simply be used to increase the alcohol content up to around 7% abv. This malt base gives us a light and clean malt base that becomes relatively dry, but far from as dry as Brut IPA.
Hops
In the hopping process, we draw both bitterness from West Coast IPA and flavors from East Coast IPA. For bittering hops (60-minute additions), essentially anything with high alpha acid can be used, such as Magnum, Columbus or similar, to around 50-70 IBU.
The next addition comes only at whirlpool/hopstand, and here we can have a relatively large dose of hops to provide plenty of flavor. What you use here is quite flexible, but here we want to bring out big flavors of tropical fruit and citrus. Think classic American hops like Centennial, Simcoe, Citra, but also more tropical varieties like Galaxy or Vic Secret. Experiment a bit and see what you like.
Dry hopping is also an important part of this beer style, and it is recommended to add the hops around day 3 of the fermentation process. At this point, the yeast will usually be at its most active, and will be able to transform flavors from the hop oils in a completely different way (biotransformation). For dry hopping, the choice of hops is just as flexible as during whirlpool, but definitely consider tropical fruit flavors.
Yeast Selection
For the fermentation process, there's an interesting twist. A Cold IPA should be fermented with lager yeast, but at ale temperatures. Most common are yeast strains that ferment relatively cleanly and do not leave too much character. Saflager W-34/70, for example, is a popular choice, or WLP800 if we are looking at fresh yeast. This should be fermented at ale temperatures, i.e. 18-20 degrees Celsius.
Even though the fermentation temperature should be relatively high, it is still important to keep the temperature consistent. If the temperature varies throughout the fermentation process, the yeast can become stressed in the worst case, and we may end up with less pleasant flavors, such as sulfur (rotten eggs).
After about 14 days, the beer should be fully fermented. Towards the end, it may be wise to increase the temperature a few degrees for a couple of days, to avoid diacetyl (buttery flavor). Finally, the beer should be cooled down well for a few days (cold crash), so that yeast and hops settle well at the bottom. This is a style that should be clear, preferably crystal clear. Feel free to filter the beer if you have the equipment for it, otherwise fining with gelatin can work wonders.
If you want to try out Cold IPA the next time you brew, we can recommend our new beer kit Stone Cold IPA.
