You’ve probably come across and tried Cold IPA by now. If not, don’t put this style on ice. We think you’ll enjoy brewing this style as much as drinking it. If you’re on the fence because this style looks like a repackaged India pale lager (IPL) then let’s look at what makes cold IPA unique and how to brew it, through the lenses of a couple of industry experts who have been brewing cold IPA for a while now.

What are the defining characteristics for Cold IPA ?

Cold IPA is a dry, crisp, clean IPA that hearkens to a type of IPA that was fully hop-forward—that is to say, it showcases both the bittering potential of hops as well as their flavorful oils against a spartan grist backdrop. That grist often is heavy on adjuncts such as corn or rice, which lighten the body and leave more room for the hops to shine. It typically uses lager yeast fermented at warm-ish, ale-like temperatures to drive attenuation without adding a bunch of esters or other fermentation characteristics. The end result should be a low final gravity and a clean, snappy, brisk finish.

But how rigid, or flexible, should the definition be? Is it more about the process (how it’s brewed) or the outcome (how it tastes)?

Brewmaster Kevin Davey at Wayfinder Beer is known as the Pied Piper of Cold IPAs. He’s the one who coined the term, and who paved the way for this hybrid style: an IPA brewed with lager yeast at colder temperatures, but not so cold that it becomes an IPL, or India Pale Lager.

Another wrinkle is the fact that Kevin also uses adjuncts, such as rice or corn, to help “lean out” or lighten up the body of the beer. The purpose is to provide fermentable sugars for “high attenuation” – a higher conversion of sugar to alcohol to achieve a drier beer profile.

It begs the question: must a beer be made with adjuncts in order to be called a Cold IPA? Matt Brynildson at Firestone Walker says: "With Hopnosis, we achieve high attenuation with an all-malt mash (ie. no adjuncts). At the risk of getting too technical, we do this with through step mashing, amylase enzyme additions and the use of lager yeasts that are more attenuative by nature. However, with Gen 7 we decided on a massively hoppy Double IPA brewed with pilsner malt, rice, and dextrose, which give Gen-7 a bright golden color and relatively light and dry profile for such a big beer. ".

As Matt puts it, “To me, the key is linked to fermentation profile, attenuation, and drinkability, not whether the beer is brewed with adjuncts – and Kevin agrees with me on that point.” This is where outcome ultimately trumps process when it comes to defining the style.

These are the basics you need for recipe design:

• An adjunct lager malt bill. 20–40% rice or corn mashed with all American 2-row Pilsner malt. No caramel malts. Fermented to incredible dryness: 82-88% apparent degree of fermentation. Mitch Steele from Stone & New Realm Brewing recommends 10 to 20 percent adjuncts; Kevin Davey at Wayfinder Brewing goes higher at 20 to 40 percent adjuncts.

• A lager yeast strain fermented warm. Quick fermenting yeast that throws low ester and low sulfur such as the Weihenstehan strain (Fermentis W-34/70) is an ideal choice. Fermentis S-189 which originated from the Hürlimann brewery in Switzerland has a profile that tends to give herbal and floral notes to beers. Also worth a try is White Labs Mexican Lager yeast WLP940 used occasionally by Wayfinder as a point of difference.

• Dry hopped warm during high kräusen in primary fermentation. This achieves biotransformation while negating oxygen pickup.

• Filtered or clarified to crystal clear and well-carbonated. This last point solidifies Cold IPA as the opposite of New England IPA (NEIPA).

Is there a good starting point when building a cold IPA recipe?

• Start with American Pilsner malt. American barley has higher, often much higher, enzyme and protein levels that will balance the high adjunct. Keep the alcohol by volume (ABV) high. West Coast IPA ABV is unofficially above 6.8%, which fits this style.

• The trick to making cold IPA great and getting the color right is using high amounts of adjunct. If you were to make this beer style with only pale lager malt, the results would be far more golden because of the gravity. So, if the gravity was kept low, the color will be correct, but the hops will be out of balance. You need the sweetness of the alcohol and adjunct, the bitterness from the high hop addition BUs (bitterness units), and the light crispness of the grain/adjunct bill to make it a cold IPA.

What should a homebrewer consider when selecting their adjunct?

• Use flaked rice or flaked corn (or rice and corn syrups). Remember cold IPA is a canvas for the hops.

• Always test the mash with iodine. Not all flaked products are made the same, and you must ensure that the mash is converted. Starch in the wort will result in a hazy and sweet beer.

• Another option is to boil the flakes, especially rice, because not all flaked adjuncts are fully gelatinized. On a home brew scale we can substitute the flaked items with rice or corn syrups but you need to calculate the amount required (usually around two thirds) in BeerSmith or similar software. Crisp Malt in the UK sells pre-cooked torrified rice flakes.

Parts of this article are quoted from Craft Beer & Brewing Magazine and BYO Magazine