Cold IPA Today; What’s New Tomorrow? Beer Experts on Inventing New Beer Categories and Exploring ‘Hybrid’ Styles

By Emily Hutto and Karson Krouse 

The modern brewing industry is rooted in experimentation. So many of the beer style categories we know today exist because someone dreamt them, and gave them a shot in the brewhouse. And then, adjusted batch over batch over batch over batch until those dreamt flavors, aromas, and mouthfeel became reality.

When we first began to tackle this editorial about innovative beer styles, we often called them ‘hybrid beers’— expressions often the result of combining brewing practices for both ales and lagers. Take a German-style Kölsch, for example. One of the oldest examples of brewhouse experimentation originating in Cologne,— and one of the most crowd pleasing over its long history— this style is typically fermented with ale yeast at cold temperatures. It’s been around long enough to be recognized with specific characteristics in beer style guidelines, such as those established by the Beer Judge Certification Program (BJCP), North American Brewers Association, and the Brewers Association. The German-style Kölsch is light in the paler side of beers (often straw colored), low on the bitterness scale, and with an alcohol level slightly lower than your average ale. It’s most often brewed with German Noble hops and Pilsner malt. Some great American examples of the style are the classic Colorado Kölsch made by Steamworks Brewing, Zipline Brewing’s German-style Kölsch, and Captain Lawrence Brewing Co.'s Clearwater Kölsch. 

Photo courtesy Steamworks Brewing

In the example of Kölsch, ‘hybrid’ beer styles provide opportunities for small craft brewers to experiment stylistically despite constraints of their facilities. Julia Herz, the Executive Director of the American Homebrewers Association, explained this opportunity in episode 2 of the RadCraft Industry Relief Podcast. “The whole notion of [American] breweries on a small level [historically] not being able to craft lagers is actually a truism in a sense; they’re more expensive, you don’t necessarily have lagering tanks, and they take longer to ferment,” she said.

Photo courtesy Julia Herz

But now, she poses, craft brewers are experimenting not out of necessity but instead curiosity. “You're seeing craft brewers say we’ve got all the equipment we can do all these things, let's do some things that will take people to even a deeper place for flavor in beer.” 

One of these “deeper flavor places” has been the recent development and craze around Cold IPA (and Pale Ale too). Generally, a Cold IPA is a dry, crisp, and clean IPA that has the flavors of both the bitterness from hops as well as the flavors from hop oils. We’d call Cold IPA a ‘hybrid beer’ because opposite of Kölsch, it employs lager yeast fermented longer at warmer temperatures. Josh Weikert of Craft Beer & Brewing Magazine suggests that this can be tricky because you have to find certain lager yeasts that can withstand the higher temperatures. Typically, the grain bill for Cold IPAs has a light Pilsner base that also relies on subtle sweetening from corn or rice. “As a ‘proper’ Cold IPA should,” Arbieter Brewing Company says of their seasonal flagship, “Cold Classic gives the impression of having body and chewiness to it but this perception comes from the alcohol content and hop oils, not residual sugar from the malt!” 

Of the many brewers we talked to about Cold IPA, John Able of Citizen 33, said that the aim in brewing this brew style is to let the hops shine. Able also pointed out that with any beer style, the nuances and associated guidelines are not static. “Sometimes I drink a ‘Cold IPA’ and I think this tastes like a Dry Hopped Pilsner. Beer names can mean everything and also nothing.” 

At the MaltCon2024 conference, Master Cicerone Jen Blair declared that “not every beer fits neatly into a beer style.” And most importantly, she suggested after comparing several examples from BJCP and the Brewers Association, THAT’S OKAY. 

Blair’s presentation reinforced the need for rigid beer styles in judging and awards programs, and equally the need for flexibility from brewhouse to brewhouse. When our community has space for curiosity and innovation, incredible sensory experiences are the result. 

As the craft brewing industry continues to evolve, ‘hybrid beers’ and new styles aren’t just inevitable; they’re electrifying. They breathe new life into otherwise forgotten categories, and they give brewers a reason to collaborate. Like Herz, we’re all in. “The exploration continues,” she added. “Inventing new styles is one of the best things… sign me up to brew these styles.”

The Tortilla Challenge, A Lawn Flamingo Beer Bong, and Stickers In Support Of The MJF Foundation

Are you going to slap each other across the face with these? 

The bartender was onto us. After finishing tacos and margaritas at State of Confusion, we ordered three more fresh tortillas to-go. It was the thick of summer 2022 and the #tortillachallenge was heating up TikTok feeds across the globe. 

We aren’t really trend or hashtag chasers at RadCraft. Sure, it’s important to keep your thumb on the pulse when you’re managing a brand’s online presence— but if there’s not a compelling why? to learning the latest dance sequence or a donation to follow dumping a bucket full of ice on your head, I say it’s all just noise.

Contribute breath not noise. It’s one of my one-liners. And I really mean it. 

That’s why I surprised myself when I suggested we find a hilarious location to do the tortilla challenge along what we called Tour De RadCraft 2022. This 3+ week long road trip included more than 30 brewery, distillery, malthouse, and farm visits to our partners and friends. The remote nature of our work means that we don’t always meet our collaborators in person right away, and I was on a mission to meet some people face-to-face before another summer became fall. 

It went without saying that we would stop in Chattanooga to see the one-and-only LT Butts. 

We’ll get back to the tortillas, but first it’s important to introduce this hardworking, humble brewer who we’re lucky to know. We met LaTroya Butts when she came to work at Bonfire Brewing in Eagle, Colorado. She eventually moved home to Chattanooga, Tennessee to work at Five Wit’s Brewing Company, and she would go on to receive scholarships from The Michael James Jackson Foundation for Brewing & Distilling and the Cicerone program via the Black Beer Chick #roadto100 initiative to further her brewing career. To-date, LaTroya is working at Resident Culture Brewing in Charlotte, North Carolina. She’s grateful for all of the people and organizations who have been a part of her journey thus far.

Time To Meet Frieda. 

The research and development for Five Wit’s Brewing took place in the owner’s pool house, “on a tiny system we called Pool City,” Butts says. “They had giant flamingo floaties and shirts, and flamingos just became the vibe. Then I came along. Everyone who knows me knows I love flamingos… and my flamingo beer bong named Frieda. Elliot [who co-owns Five Wit’s] once asked me what flavor Frieda was because he thought she should have a beer, just to see what happens…” 

The result was Frieda Sour Ale— an effervescent kettle sour with just the right balance of strawberry and pineapple flavors. Frieda wasn’t just a yard flamingo beer bong or the name of a beer in a can; she became a company mascot. To-date, Five Wit’s has an outside patio adorned with yard flamingos who watch over the brewery. Inside, the OG Frieda and a new twin sister flamingo live in the brewhouse. Frieda isn’t just a beer bong anymore; She is a summertime ethos; a symbol of well-crafted refreshment; an embodiment of the freedom that comes with long, warm days and the pride of independently brewed craft beer. 

Back To The Tortillas.  

Flash forward four years. We arrive at this Frieda shrine on our roadtrip, taste this remarkable sour ale, and take LaTroya to dinner at the Mexican restaurant across the street. One thing led to another and soon enough we were plotting our video. At Five Wit’s, it all comes back to Frieda.

So we took Frieda and her twin sister off gently from their resting places on the fermentation tanks full of their namesake sour beer, fired up the GoPro, took some swigs of said sour beer, and got grooving on multiple rounds of rock-paper-scissors. 

Cheyenne brought her A-game, and nearly lost her glasses. Em needed a pep talk to strengthen her tortilla slaps. LaTroya could barely contain her laughter. 

Here’s the final product. I want you all to know that no yard flamingos were harmed in the making of this video. 

So Why Does All This Matter? 

Because at RadCraft we love a good story. This one ties in some of our favorite people, with roots at one of our favorite establishments, Bonfire Brewing. And now, because we can’t help ourselves, the narrative continues with its own hashtags– and stickers, too. 

After receiving her scholarship, LaTroya sent us an email that read “I'm happy to be a part of the change we strive to make and couldn't thank everyone behind the Michael James Jackson Foundation enough for making this invaluable experience happen for me. I hope to someday pay it forward!”

So that, my friends, is what we’re here to do. Pay it forward. We turned this silly Instagram trend and inside joke into a campaign to raise money for The Michael James Jackson Foundation for Brewing & Distilling. Many of you purchased Frieda stickers last year, for which proceeds went directly to the foundation that funds technical education and career advancement for black, indigenous, and people of color in the brewing and distilling industries. We hope you’ll visit their website, learn more, and get involved yourselves. 

Thanks to LaTroya (@asaptroya) for being an endless source of inspiration, laughter, and flamingo puns. 

Cheers! 

- Em Hutto