So... What is it?
The Cold IPA" is a variant of the classic West Coast IPA invented by Kevin Davey from Wayfinder Beer in Portland, Oregon. This beer strips back all the malt character, and leaves it clean finishing using lager yeast, which allows the symphony of hops to truly shine completely unimpeded by malt are yeast characteristics! Leaving you with the purest form of hoppy beer!
What's ours like?
This is a truly sensational expression of pure hoppy goodness! the malt profile is extremely subdued and dry finishing curtesy of the rice (which we learned from our Japanese lager) and dextrose, and the yeast profile helps to keep everything clean but doesn't throw off any esters that get in the way of the final product. Leaving us with a 7.5% old school style hop bomb! Packed full of resinous character and pine notes, followed by west coast style grapefruit forward citrus and finishing with a slightly zesty orange note, making this an awesome way to see what these hops are really capable of!
Batch Size & Stats
- 38L (2 19L corny kegs) / 10 gal finished beer
- 45L (11.9 gal) wort
- For a smaller 19L (5 gal) batch size simply half the ingredients of this recipe
- Starting gravity – 1.066
- Final gravity 1.009
- ABV – 7.5%
- IBU - 53
- Colour - 6.1 EBC
- Mash Efficiency - 85.7%
What ingredients?
Water
With sparging
- 32L (8.45 gal) for a 30 minute mash at 63°C (145°F) followed by 30 minutes at 70°C (158°F) then a mash out at 77°C (170°F)
- 30L (7.9 gal) sparge water at 78°C (172°F)
Without sparging
- 55L (14.5 gal) for a 30 minute mash at 63°C (145°F) followed by 30 minutes at 70°C (158°F) then a mash out at 77°C (170°F)
Malts: Total 13.6 kg / 30 lb
- Pilsner malt – 8.38 kg (18.5 lb) - 74.3%
- Flaked Rice – 1.9g (4.2 lb) - 16.8%
- Dextrose Powder - 1kg (2.2lb) - 8.9%
Hops & whirlfloc tablets
Centennial
- 22.2g (0.78 oz) - 11 IBU's - 60 minutes left in the boil
- 57g (2 oz) - 11 IBU's - 10 min
- 57g (2 oz) - 0 min
- 114g (4 oz) - Dry Hops - day 15 / near final gravity
Lupomax Citra
- 57g (2 oz) - 20 IBU's - 10 min
- 57g (2 oz) - 0 min
- 114g (4 oz) - Dry Hops - day 15 / near final gravity
Simcoe
- 57g (2 oz) - 14 IBU's - 10 min
- 57g (2 oz) - 0 min
- 114g (4 oz) - Dry Hops - day 15 / near final gravity
Whirlfloc tablets
- 1.5g (0.052 oz) / 2 tablets – 15 minutes left in the boil
Yeast options & fermentation temperatures
- 23g (0.8 oz) Saflager s-23 at 13.5°C / 56.3°F for 15 days, followed by diacetyle rest for 2 days at 15°C / 59°F then a cold crash
- 23g (0.8 oz) Saflager W-34/70 at 13.5°C / 56.3°F for 15 days, followed by diacetyle rest for 2 days at 15°C / 59°F then a cold crash
Water Profile
- Ca2+110
- Mg2+ 18
- Na+ 16
- Cl- 100
- SO42- 200
- HCO3- 57
Step by step process
Step 1 – Milling
- Mill grains to medium crush (set mill rollers to a gap of approx. 1.00mm / 0.039 inches)
- Just keep in mind roller gap settings are not universal so as you brew more batches you will find the ideal crush size for your setup
- Alternatively if you don’t have a grain mill you can order your grains crushed from most homebrew stores, both online and in person
Step 2 – Mashing
- Mash for 30 minutes at 63°C (145°F) followed by 30 minutes at 70°C (158°F) then a mash out at 77°C (170°F)
- Set your strike water to a few degrees above the target mash temperature, you can use our calculator to determine what your strike temperature should be
- ensure you mix in the grains thoroughly with a mash paddle to prevent dough balls from forming (big spoons, spatulas or whisks will also work)
- its easier to mash the grains and prevent dough balls if you add a little grain at a time, mix, add more grain and repeat until all the grains are mixed
- if you don’t have a mash tun with heating then ensure after you have finished mixing the grains in to insulate your mash tun (thick neoprene or heavy blankets both work well)
- after 60 minutes of mashing raise the temp to 77°C (170°F) for 10-15 minutes to mash out, and deactivate the enzymes breaking down the sugars
Step 3 (optional) – Sparging
- if your setup has the capability to sparge then do so with 30L (7.9 gal) sparge water at 78°C (172°F)
- if you are not sparging and using a BIAB (brew in a bag) method then remove grains from mash tun and twist and squeeze the bag to get as much liquid out of the grains as possible
- as you start sparging (or straining your BIAB bag) begin raising the temperature of your wort to a boil
Step 4 – Boiling
- once your wort begins to boil start a timer for a 60-minute boil and add your bittering hops, 22.2g (0.78 oz) of Centennial
- at 15 minutes left in the boil add 2.5 whirlfloc tablets
- at 10 minutes left in the boil add 57g (2 oz) each of Centennial, Lupomax Citra and simcoe
- at Flameout / 0 minutes left in the boil add 57g (2oz) of the same hops
Step 5 – Cooling
- After 1 hour of boiling start cooling wort down to yeast pitching temperature
- once you’ve reached yeast pitching temperature take an original gravity reading of your wort
Step 6 – Yeast Pitching
- It is best to make a yeast starter before beginning your brew day (ideally 1 day before) to ensure your yeast are as active and healthy as possible before pitching, but not completely necessary – you could also just rehydrate yeast 30 minutes before pitching.
- Pitch yeast in wort a degree or two higher than the target fermentation temperature to help yeast take off more aggressively
- To make a yeast starter you can use either:
- DME (dry malt extract) at a ratio of approx. 100g per 1L water (3.5 oz per 33 fluid ounces) for gravity of approx. 1.040
- some unfermented wort kept cold and sanitary from a previous brew day
- 70g of table sugar per 1L water (2.5 oz per 33 fluid ounces) – however, it is best to use malt sugar (wort / DME) whenever possible to reduce the chance of shocking the yeast with a different food source from starter to wort pitching
- To rehydrate yeast
- Add yeast to approx. 10 times as much room temperature water as the weight of the yeast e.g. 10g yeast in 100 ml water (0.35 oz yeast in 3.5 fluid ounces water)
Step 7 – Fermentation & Dry Hopping
- Allow yeast to ferment over the next week to two weeks
- If you have a temperature controlled system keep the fermenter temperature to the recommended fermentation temperature for each yeast strain (stated in the yeast ingredients section above)
- Monitor the fermentation activity over the first 14 days by the bubbling of the blow off tube / airlock of your fermenter, as the bubbling slows down (roughly around day 7) take a gravity reading. When the gravity reaches around 1.011 raise the temperature of your fermenter by 1-2 degrees for 2 days for a diacetyl rest (if you don’t have temperature control don’t worry about this step, its not the end of the world!)
- On day 2 of the diacetyl rest its time to Dry Hop, add 114g (4 oz) each of Lupomax citra, Centennial and simcoe to the fermenter
- Its important to note that fermentation times will vary based on your circumstances like, temperature, amount of yeast pitched, healthiness of yeast, gravity of wort, pH etc. so don’t stress be patient and know that these times are just a rough guide
- Once the gravity is the same 2 days in a row move onto cold crashing! (If you can’t / don’t want to cold crash go straight to kegging/bottling your beer!)
Step 8 (optional) – Cold crashing
- begin cold crashing your fermenter (bring the temperature of your fermenter down to as close to 0°C (32°F) as possible, for 2 days to a week depending on how patient you are
- If you don’t have a temp-controlled fermenter, you can cold crash by putting your fermenter in a fridge or temp-controlled chest freezer
- After you have finished cold crashing it's time to keg/bottle your beer! If you are bottling your beer from the fermenter uncarbonated remember to add about 5-7 grams (0.17 - 0.24 oz) of priming sugar to your bottles to carbonate your beer.
