Short & Shoddy | Cold IPA

Author: Jordan Folks

Over the last few decades, the love of hoppy IPA has grown substantially, which has led to the development of several offshoot substyles. From regional variations like West Coast and Midwest IPA to those based more on appearance such as the ubiquitous Hazy IPA, this style continues to leave its mark on the craft beer landscape. One recent development has involved brewers producing versions of IPA that possess characteristics typically associated with lagers.

Not long after the short-lived popularity of India Pale Lager (IPL), which is essentially an IPA fermented cool with lager yeast, Kevin Davey of Wayfinder Beer in Portland, OR began tinkering with methods for producing an IPA-esque beer that was crisper, cleaner, and more drinkable than other types of IPA. After a few years of experimentation, he settled on an approach that involved including a fairly heavy dose of corn and/or rice adjunct with no crystal malts and fermenting with lager yeast at slightly warmer temperatures. He called his invention Cold IPA, which was notably dry, crisp, and crushable while possessing all of the hoppy goodness modern drinkers expect from an IPA. While not an official BJCP style (yet), the following description covers the bases:

An aggressively hopped, straw-colored beer designed for pure hop expression. Fermented with a lager strain at slightly warmer temperatures and including a decent amount of adjunct grains, it’s lighter in body than a West Coast IPA, cleaner than an IPL, and as refreshing as a Pilsner.

As someone who has lived just minutes from Wayfinder Beer for many years, I was fortunate enough to have the opportunity to try Kevin’s initial iteration of Cold IPA, and suffice to say, I was hooked from the start. Over the years, I’ve brewed several batches of Cold IPA and recently wondered how one made using Short & Shoddy methods would turn out, so I hit the brewery to see for myself!

| BREWING THE BEER |

For this recipe, I leaned heavily on some of my favorite modern hop products that I’ve found produce beers with exceptional hop character. Massive thanks to Northern Brewer for providing me with the grains for this batch!

Short & Shoddy Cold IPA

I began collecting the full volume of filtered water at 10:12 AM, which I adjusted to my desired profile before preparing the grains.

When the water was properly heated, I stirred in the grist then set my Clawhammer Supply 240v controller to maintain my target mash temperature.

Once the 30 minute mash rest was complete, I removed the grains and brought the wort to a boil, adding the hops, dextrose, and dried rice extract as stated in the recipe.

At the completion of the brief 30 minute boil, I quickly chilled the wort with my JaDeD Brewing SS Coil Hydra.

A refractometer reading showed the wort was at 1.057 OG, for a brewhouse efficiency of 57%.

After transferring the chilled wort to a fermentation keg, I pitched 400 mL of Imperial Yeast L13 Global slurry harvested from a prior batch into the 64°F/18°C wort. It was 12:36 PM for a total brew day time of just 2 hours 24 minutes.

A week into fermentation, I added the substantial dry hop charge, which includes several types of hop products.

I let the dry hops mingle with the beer for 24 hours before taking a hydrometer measurement confirming FG was reached.

At this point, I cold crashed the beer overnight then pressure transferred it to a CO2 purged serving keg along with some Biofine Clear. After 2 weeks of conditioning, it was carbonated, clear, and ready to serve to tasters.

| RESULTS |

A total of 22 people of various levels of experience participated in this Short & Shoddy evaluation. Participants were informed of the specific beer style and provided the BJCP description prior to completing the survey. Tasters were then instructed to rate how hoppy, malty, and dry they perceived the beer to be on a 0-5 scale where a rating of 0 indicated “not at all” and 5 indicated “extremely.”

Tasters were provided a list of common hop, malt, and yeast characteristics then instructed to select from each the one they perceived as being most prominent in the beer.

Hop Characteristics

Malt Characteristics

Yeast Characteristics

Next, participants were asked to indicate whether or not they detected any off-flavors in the beer; those who did were provided a list of common off-flavors and instructed to select the one they perceived as being strongest. Two people felt they detected astringency while diacetyl and light-struck were each endorsed by one taster.

Tasters were then asked to rate how well the beer represented the intended style, based on the provided BJCP description, on a 0-5 scale where 0 meant “not at all” and 5 meant “exactly.”

Finally, tasters were asked to rate how much they enjoyed the beer on a 0-5 scale where 0 indicated not at all and 5 indicated extremely.

My Impressions: I felt this beer was excellent – bursting at the seams with juicy hop character, which was emphasized even more by the clean fermentation and high attenuation from the use of rice, and I perceived no off-flavors whatsoever.

| CONCLUSION |

Originally invented in 2018, Cold IPA is among the few lager-like IPAs that seem to confuse some brewers and drinkers, whether intentionally or not. Similar in ways to both IPL and West Coast Pils, Cold IPA is distinct in that it’s fermented with a traditional lager yeast at warmer temperatures, and it also relies on a fairly heavy dose of adjunct grains to create a crisp and refreshing beer that emphasizes hop character.

While fermenting warm with a lager yeast is arguably shoddy on its own, the delicate nature of Cold IPA may lead some to believe it requires a careful brewing approach. However, tasters of this Short & Shoddy version made with abbreviated mash and boil times while being fermented with unrinsed yeast slurry not only seemed to enjoy it, but felt it was a solid representation of the style. Out of the 22 tasters, only 3 reported perceiving off-flavors, and while a good number rated sulfur as being the most prominent fermentation character, the majority perceived it as being clean.

I’m just going to get this out there – this was the best Short & Shoddy beer I’ve made to date, and honestly, I would never have guessed it was anything other than a well-made beer. Clean malt flavor with heaps of hop character and clean fermentation made this beer insanely enjoyable to drink. The blend of Mosaic, Citra, and Krush hops played beautifully together, and I detected zero flaws. I absolutely will be brewing this recipe again, and I’d encourage anyone who likes modern hoppy styles to do so as well!

If you have thoughts about this Short & Shoddy brew, please feel free to share it in the comments section below!

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