You thought you’d seen every possible variant of IPA over the past decade and then along comes “Cold IPA”. The concept behind the style is to take West Coast style and make it even drier with a bitter, cleaner finish so that the drinker is ready for another refreshing sip.
Most examples of this new style are pale with some adjunct additions and finish dry. I thought Black IPA seemed like a good candidate to apply a similar approach. Aiming to get enough of the dark malt character but not so much that it would get in the way of the hop flavour and aroma. I wanted it to be a bit cleaner, drier and balance so that both sides of the beer could be present in equal measure.
For the recipe development, I took a fairly standard ale approach to the malt bill. I wanted a definite maltiness to come through but I didn’t want this to be a heavy beer or a hoppy stout. We used Simcoe, Hallertau Blanc and Chinook kettle, whirlpool and dry-hop additions in a typical west coast IPA additions.
So what style is it? We need to put some descriptor on the label that allows people to know what to expect when they pick this up. We settled on COLD BIPA as I think it probably encapsulated what we were going for here with this beer.
It comes in at 6.4% abv and the maltiness plays really well with the hops here.
I’m really happy with how this beer turned out for us and I hope you’ll enjoy it too.
Cheers!
Use left/right arrows to navigate the slideshow or swipe left/right if using a mobile device
