I've never really had a Cold IPA that blew me away, and I've tried a lot. Not sure what it is about it but the one you made here does sound quite good. May have to brew one someday.
Did one of these a couple of months ago with 80/20 pislner and flaked corn. Fermented under pressure with Lutra Kveik as a 'seudo lager' in the keg with a floating diptube which is probably the easiest way to do it. It was ready in a week, and lasted about that long too!
Something that confuses me. How can a beer be ready in a week? People brew these beers "grain to glass in 7 days" but whenever I brew anything it's never good if it hasn't bottle conditioned for at least 3 weeks. Even with kveik
I brewed a Cold IPA earlier this summer. Very similar grist, but I used flaked corn in place of rice. And slightly different hops, along with 34/70 yeast. Ended up being one of the best beers I've made so far and I plan on making it again soon.
Judging by your smile, this beer must be very smackable lol I agree with you, S189 is a great lager yeast. On a side note, your video quality is absolutely leaps and bounds better than your early days on the channel. Case in point - the dynamic range is awesome - seeing details in highlights and shadows at the same time is pretty hard to achieve. Sorry to geek out on you, cheers Steve on yet another successful brew tutorial!
That is awesome to hear dude!! I appreciate it, since I've been one of the slowest brewing channels to learn videography but I'm glad it's finally paying off. I appreciate everyone's patience with this!
@@TheApartmentBrewer I am a pro photographer and I see things like that. Big pet-peeve is the white balance, color tonality and focus. But you have definitely done your homework.
On an episode of the BruLab, they explained that the IBUs can actually decrease with big dry hop additions as the hop matter can absorb the iso-alpha acids. I wonder if this is one of the reasons that this beer (and probably many other west coast IPAs with huge calculated IBUs) do not turn out to be very bitter. Great video Steve, will definitely be brewing myself a cold IPA!
I love me some Cold IPA! Been using the Novalager and it seems to always turn out great. I do want to try the 34/70 though, it's way cheaper and potentially flocculates a lot better. Like the macro shots! Cheers!
I've done 5 Cold IPA brews this year. Probably my favorite IPA style right now. I haven't used Flaked Rice yet but have been opting for Flaked Corn about 20%. Great video!
You mentioned in the "Possible Improvements" bit that you were looking for a stronger or different bitterness. I recommend Warrior in place of, or in combination with Magnum. In my experience it seems to have a sharper, cleaner bitterness than Magnum when used in West Coast style beers I've brewed. Additionally, Since I began pre-acidifying my wort for these styles, my homebrew contest results have gone through the roof. Now I routinely drop pre-fermentation acidity to around 4.2ph on West Coast IPA's and Pilsners. Thank you for your continued content!
@@jacobhutchison7596 - Yep, 100% I normally brew 11gal batches and, depending on post boil PH, my lactic acid addition going into the fermenter is usually 1-3ml. For reference, my West Coast IPA's are going into packaging around 4.6-4.7ph. I measured the PH of MANY West Coast IPA's and the "good ones" are always in the 4.5-4.8ph range. Anything over that tends to be "flabby". PS - I also do this for my Pilsners...
I ended up doing this recipe, excluding some modifications due to my local resources. it ended up being very fruity and tropical taste. I didn’t have access to cryo hops but I kept the hops additions the same. I also doubled the corn sugar and ended up with a 9% brew that doesn’t even taste alcoholic ended up extreamly clean in flavor but very hazy. 19C fermentation at 2psi using 34/70, dry hopped at 1.020 then dropped the temp to 15C and cranked the psi up to 15, OG was 1.069 FG was 1.005.
I just finished my keg of west coast pils yesterday, while brewing the scaled up version of it to 6.6%. It’s almost the same as a cold ipa, but I don’t add rice/corn, and fermented with nova. These types of beers are my favourite at the moment. Keep up the great work! Cheers!
Wait, you pre-acidified your wort!? How? Lactic acid? I think I understand why with your mentioning that dry hopping rises the pH, but I've never heard of this before. Did you measure the pH then figure out how much acid to add? Maybe this idea, the process, the how and why would be a good subject for another video. Great one here as always, good on ya, thanks!
I'll incorporate it into another ipa sometime. Yeah it's just a few mL lactic acid added to the wort when transferring to fermenter. Confirmed pH and then pitched.
Man.. just made one last week and ferm stalled at 1.020. Pitched at 80F and Im thinking maybe was too high for 34/70.. ended up tossin the brew and redid the recipe yesterday. Fingers crossed. Great vid!
Ok, 2nd batch was better. Think I need to revisit my ferm system (stainless bucket in a chest freezer and lamp for heat). Freezer seems to dip temp a little lower then desired when it kicks on and lamp needs a hotter bulb to correct faster. Either way, had to ferm this one 8days before dry hopping. One of my better beers surprisingly lol. Strata, 586, nelson. Insane combo. Lime, citrus, striped gum. Want to use cryo next time.
Just as an aside, almost all my brews I do split-batch fermentation so that I can see how 2 or more different yeasts work on the same wort/grist. This would have been a fun experiment to do half with your 34/70 (or Diamond, etc) and the other half with a Kolsch yeast. I've just started using Lallemand's Koln, and it surprised me with a 94% attenuation on a Cascadian Dark Ale (black IPA?) with great hops flavor coming through. I'd bet it might've worked on your IPL here too. (I notice you actually mentioned Kolsch early in this video, so you were probably thinking along those lines already.)
very nicely done. Looks and sounds very good. Glad you helped spell out what a Cold IPA is. I thought it was just a IPL as well. FYI that beer is very clear since I can read your shirt through the glass.
It's definitely a debatable thing but there are officially recognized beer styles with less delineation between them! Clarity is huge on this style! I'm glad it came across on video, that can be tough.
I think ill give this one a go, maybe add in some carapils for head retention? My last cold ipa didnt hit the dry mark for my taste so the addition of some sugar too is a good idea. Cheers!
I still dont know how a cold IPA is not an IPL. It's a highly hopped lager. It's also typically said to be fermented with a lager yeast at warm temperatures. So neither cold or an ale... That said i have my version of a beer like this currently in the fermenter. I used Citra and Centennial and I'm fermenting with lutra at 85f. I'm looking forward to having a light body hoppy beer on tap to finish out the summer.
Love the look of this beer, recently had an epic Cold IPA, had put me in the mood to brew one! Can I ask how you achieved your carbonation as it looks excellent! Did you force carb? If so at what level and for how long? What was the serving pressure? Love the videos, I’m on your Patreon too, keep up the good work!
I used a little biofine in the keg but it cleared up pretty fast after that. I imagine there would be a slight haze with all the dry hops without finings.
Thanks again Steve! You mention pre acidifying your wort. What was the pH? And that might make for some interesting and informative content. Ya know… like you always make. 🍻
Just to boost the conflicting nomenclature (using ipa term but using a lager yeast for this style) I've made a black cold ipa (I've seen a couple commercial examples since I made mine so I wasn't the only one) and it was good but I doubt the rice addition could be perceived compared to if I left it out.
Thanks for another fun episode!! Quick question...if you were to do a lager yeast under pressure (say 12-15psi)...what is the upper bound of temperature you could do this at? I live in New Orleans without any temp control (for cooling)...so, alternatives are what I'm having to work with. Thank you in advance!!! CC
I think it depends on the lager strain but I've never personally taken anything above the high 70s under pressure. Lutra kveik might be a better option for you if you want to keep it hot.
@@TheApartmentBrewer Goodness, thank you for the prompt reply! I was thinking of trying that new Novalager yeast...which I think naturally has a bit of a higher upper temp max. I was thinking maybe that under pressure could be ok with, say 78F as a max? I.was really keen on trying something like your black lager Shwarzbier that I saw just the other day.... Again, thank you for the help!! Much appreciated CC
I have used 34/70 lager yeast under pressure and let it free ride temp at around 75 and 13-17psi, and it has done very good. Not on tis beer style though but was thinking it would work just great.
Another great video. I know you have explained it before, but with so many people saying you don't need to mash out with the no sparge method, I'm curious what your reason was to still do it. I'm sure you have a well thought out reason why, for now I'm just blindy copying you.
Really its just a habit at this point. I find that it still does two things: Increases my efficiency and makes the wort drain out of the grain basket much easier than otherwise.
Hmm you got me a bit worried about mine aboutr wanting more bitterness. I went more with the Arbeiter model (BYO magazine) which has a much lower bitterness (25-35 ish IBU from FWH), and hopped more like a NEIPA actually (I went Mosaic, Galazy, El Dorado). I guess this style lets you do what you want for the hop side, can't wait to taste mine and compare to a more west coast style vs NEIPA stype hop profile. So maybe you craved bitterness because your mind went West Coast. Cheers!
I think this could work both ways, and if yours was designed to be softer than perhaps that makes the most sense! I love West coast hops with a good punchy bitterness so that's why I went that route.
I think a better way of showing us your hop additions (at least for the boil) would be to show how many IBUs they translate to, rather than weight and AA%
Great content! Keen to give this a go. I am fairly new to brewing but was surprised you didn't dry hop with Cryo, using half the amount for greater yield?
Your videos are great!… chock full of solid intel. I just watched this a second time along with the IPL recipe video you released a couple of years ago. My next brew will be my first IPL based on one of them. I’ve compared them both in terms of process, recipe and your impressions/improvements. Did you have a preference or any recommendations b4 I start? FYI, I am able to pressure ferment. Thanks again.
Really glad you are enjoying them! If you can't pressure ferment you may want to stick with a few very specific yeast choices to get you what you need at higher temperatures: either 34/70 like I've used here, lutra Kveik or a very clean ale yeast like Nottingham or US-05. That will help you make lagers or lager like beers at higher temperatures.
@@TheApartmentBrewer Thanks. Yes, I can pressure ferment and I have temperature control. I will be using 34/70 for this one. I was just wondering which of your two IPL recipes you preferred.
Going to try this one soon. I have a quick question… Do you ever consider dumping the yeast before the DH, then rousing the DH addition when at soft crash temps? I have a conical and It concerns me that the hops quickly compact in the cone and limit hop utilization at those cooler temps… interested to know your thoughts on this. Seems like for this beer, you did not do a yeast dump prior to the DH so I gather there was no hop rousing step. Thanks again for the great videos!
I've roused the hops before when I use the conical but its not typically standard practice for me. Not a bad idea if you're set up to do it. That being said you could see increased vegetal effects and hop burn as a result potentially.
I have PTSD with suck back being an issue when doing soft cold crashes. Is there a way to keep that to a minimum, especially post massive dry hop additions?
If you can pressurize or spund your fermentation that would be the best way to avoid suckback. I've heard of people using a balloon to capture CO2 and minimize suckback as well.
At the end you mention a (little) lack of bitterness, is it possible to add hops extract after the beer is done? can it replace that cold dry hoping? As a beginner with some mash-extract brews behind me, where I replaced sugar with spray-malt. This time I only used the Spray-Malt, with a 20min boil with Citra-Cascade and post boil with Citra, both removed before pitching with Lutra. While not ready yet, first sample are not bad at all, I imagined it would be more like a seltzer without any taste of maltiness but it seems I'm wrong, or I don't know what I am doing.
It's a good question, but no, you can't just add hops after to get bitterness. You need to boil the alpha acids in hops to isomerize them, that's what creates bitterness.
@@TheApartmentBrewer I'll admit my self-made hops extract (with alcohol) isn't that bitter (but good flavour). I also bought a commercial hops extract, where the label says: "isomerized 6%", what does that mean? (it's pretty bitter to taste but low on flavour ) Btw: This video saved my spray-malt beer experiment.
Hello from the bottom of Australia, I read that the original IPA was an English ale with English hops not American ones, they put in heaps or English hops to act as a preservative for the long voyage via ship to India, so really a IPA you buy everywhere should be called an American Indian pale ale.
Yes, if you're diligent enough to remember to do so (I am not lol). It helps get that final beer pH in the sweet spot. I just used a few mL of lactic acid.
To me this is another failed style, along with Brut IPA, meant to bring back the worst tongue scraper WCIPAs while being the anti-NEIPA. Styles like this are always going to fail because nobody actually remembers the IBU Wars with any fondness and are, IMO, why NEIPAs gained and maintained their popularity. Like, I'm normally all for people spending their money how they please, but Cold IPAs and Brut IPAs and the breweries that make them need to be ostracized. Just my opinion and it's worth the value of the electrons used to send it.
Wake up on the wrong side of the bed today? Let people brew and drink what they want to brew and drink. Maybe its a passing fad, maybe not but its already outlasted brut IPA. Personally I really don't care about the IPL vs Cold IPA debate or if it's just WCIPA in disguise, but I know I love clean west coast hops and appropriate levels of bitterness and I think that's why this one works. I don't think there's a need to crush bitter IPA.
@@TheApartmentBrewer I love good WCIPAs as well, it's something that I can drink all day. I've had fresh Pliny multiple times and it's rightly regarded as the standard bearer for the style, even if I think there are equals to it and even better beers in the style if you like the new school hops. But then you have beers like Sculpin, whoch was objectively terrible, but was propped up by this IBU Bro culture that demanded ever more bitter beers in contravention of good sense and taste. The IBU Wars did real, actual damage to the craft beer market and culture that is only being slowly recovered from. Personally, I regard anything that threatens to bring that back as reprehensible. Obviously, I don't control anybody's bank account but my own, so I don't have any power over anybody else and my opinion is only worth the cost of the electrons, same as everybody else.
Way off I think. No one needs to be ostracized. Cold IPA is doing well commercially and with home brewers. The focus isn't to make the most bitter, tongue scraping beer possible (like in the "IBU Wars"). It's supposed to be assertively bitter, because people still like that, but also focus heavily on those very fruity/juicy and tropical dry hop character. Brut IPA is all but gone, but Cold is here to stay I think. FYI I like NEIPAs, but also like a more bitter IPA about half the time.
