Cold IPA Today; What’s New Tomorrow? Beer Experts on Inventing New Beer Categories and Exploring ‘Hybrid’ Styles
As the craft brewing industry continues to evolve, ‘hybrid beers’ and new styles aren’t just inevitable; they’re electrifying.
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.”
#GrayForGood Global 2021 Campaign Celebrates Women’s Gray Hair and Intentional Gestures Toward Closing The Gender Equity Gap
The campaign has a starting goal of $1M in donations from 50,000 people at $20 each. Success will be tracked by stated dollars using the hashtag #GrayForGood.
LYONS, CO— Just in time for Women’s History Month and International Women’s Day in March, HerzMuses Enterprises launches Gray For Good - For All Womanhood, a 2021 global grassroots campaign devoted to celebrating all women-identified individuals who go gray and eradicating the gender equity gap by increasing charitable giving to women and girls focused causes.
Goldstein Market Intelligence identified in 2020 that more than 75 percent of women use some kind of hair dye in the United States alone(1) with the halo of mental, economic, and societal costs of coloring gray simply too large to measure. Couple this with the fact that organizations focused on women and girls only received 1.6% of all giving in the U.S.(2) and giving to women and girls of color accounts for 0.5% of giving by foundations.(3)
“The cultural pressure to color gray is immense and as I’ve come of age I keep asking why, why, why do I feel like I am supposed to cover it up? If I live to be 80-years-old and color my hair six times a year starting at the age of 40, the collective cost could reach $20,000 or more,” says Herz. “It is beyond time to eradicate the manufactured coloring expectation and instead use the savings to fund women and girls focused causes as society collectively works to eternalize gender equity within our lifetime.”
To motivate women globally to go gray for good, Herz produced a two-minute music video depicting the pain and predicament of coloring one’s gray. The video, filmed in her hometown of Lyons, Colorado, features lyrics including:
Why we gotta color?
Why we gotta try?
Why we gotta cover up what’s real and not a lie?
I’m a woman with a soul.
When people scan my gray,
It makes me feel that I’m not whole.
Color is cheap, but there is a cost.
It’s cognitive dissonance in a box.
Adults and children everywhere are encouraged to participate by consciously celebrating women who are gray with genuine gestures of support, and by contributing directly to their favorite women and girls charities. The campaign has a starting goal of $1M in donations from 50,000 people at $20 each. Success will be tracked by stated dollars using the hashtag #GrayForGood.
“Due to COVID-19, millions of women stopped coloring. Let’s use this collective moment to remind the world that we are enough without having to color and direct the financial savings to create meaningful and generational change,” Herz adds. “The more women who say I grayed, I saved, I gave, the more we will advance all womanhood for so many important reasons.”
Video and digital assets are available here.
Learn more and contact Julia for speaking engagements at grayforgood.com.
Contact Emily Hutto with media inquiries about #GrayForGood at hutto@radcraftbeer.com.
ABOUT GRAY FOR GOOD - FOR ALL WOMANHOOD
Gray For Good - For All Womanhood is a global 2021 global campaign to celebrate all women-identified individuals who don't dye their gray hair and encourage the world to consciously and collectively increase giving to women and girls focused causes, bringing donations to a more equitable place. Join in at grayforgood.com and by using the hashtag #grayforgood.
ABOUT HERZMUSES ENTERPRISES
Julia Herz founded HerzMuses Enterprises in 2020 to bring energy, momentum and awareness to meaningful causes, companies, and brands. Learn more at herzmuses.com.
(1) Global Hair Color Industry Analysis By Product Type (Powder Hair Color, Crème Form), By Usage, By Composition, By Distribution Channel & By End-User With COVID-19 Impact | Market Outlook 2017-2030
(2) The Women & Girls Index 2020: Measuring Giving to Women's and Girls' Causes
(3) Ms. Foundation for WomenStudy on Philanthropic Giving for Women and Girls of Color, July 1, 2020
Watch BEER! A Love Story This Valentine’s Day
#BEERMovie is For Lovers
This Valentines Weekend it’s time for date night at home with BEER! A Love Story. Settle in for the must-watch beer movie of the year with dinner, popcorn, your loved ones, and a pour of the world’s most consumed fermented beverage: BEER!
This film, made for beer, food, wine, film, art, and life lovers weaves together the story of multiple international beer personalities, including Peter Bouckaert, Steve Hindy, and Julia Herz who are gathering virtually with Director Friedrich Moser this Thursday, February 11 for a live, interactive panel about this new movie.
WHAT
BEER! A Love Story, a Blue + Green Communication and Storyhouse production is an independently produced, 4K full-length feature documentary that weaves together the stories and passion of a notable beer cast from Austria, Belgium, Germany, the United Kingdom, Italy, and the United States.
WHEN
BEER! A Love Story is available globally throughout 2021 and now through February 28 via Untappd, the exclusive film debut sponsor.
On Thursday, February 11, join BEER! Director Friedrich Moser, cast members Peter Bouckaert, Julia Herz, and Steve Hindy, and host Trace Smith, the CEO of Next Glass and Untappd, for a Live Q&A at 8 PM ET. The public are invited to screen the movie for the special price of $9.99, and the first 100 to sign up gain interactive access to this panel.
WHERE
Find BEER! A Love Story at BeerMovie.org for rental and download, from the comfort of your living room.
BEER! A Love Story Media Inquiries: Emily Hutto at coop@radcraftbeer.com
Hashtag: #BeerMovie
Press Assets: available for download here
ABOUT THE FILM PARTNERS
Blue + Green Communication is a film production company based in Vienna, Austria.
Based in Brussels, Belgium, film production company Storyhouse is run by producer Maarten Schmidt.
Julia Herz of HerzMuses Enterprises is featured in the film and is managing the 2021 global digital premiere.
ABOUT EXCLUSIVE FILM PARTNER UNTAPPD
Founded in 2010, Untappd is the world’s largest social beer app, with over 8 million users globally. Individuals can check-in and rate beers at bars, restaurants, breweries and a host of other venues as well as view friends’ profiles to toast and comment on their beer choices. Additionally, the company provides menu publishing software to over 18,000 businesses worldwide. www.untappd.com
Untappd Media Inquiries: Kenny Gould, Creative Director, kenny@untappd.com; tel:7049758612
Beer Connects Communities and So Too Will BEER! A Love Story Feature Documentary
New Indie #BeerMovie Features Small Craft Brewers’ Challenges and the Art of Brewing and Homebrewing
LYONS, COLORADO— HerzMuses Enterprises presents the global digital premiere of BEER! A Love Story, a Blue + Green Communication and Storyhouse production. This independently funded, 4K full-length feature documentary debuts today through an exclusive partnership with Untappd through February 28.
BEER! A Love Story was produced by Director Friedrich Moser and Maarten Schmidt. Moser, who directed the Oliver Stone-backed A Good American among many other documentary films, now brings his filmmaking prowess to featuring craft beer. This film weaves together the stories of 30 international protagonists across multiple countries who speak the universal language of beer, the world’s most consumed fermented beverage.
“We wanted this film to bridge the gap between Europe and America, and to show the panorama of beer styles now replicated across the globe,” Moser says. “For any foodie, movie buff, and beer or beverage fan this is a must-watch film.”
In BEER! A Love Story, Moser profiles a cast of U.S.-based craft beer personalities including Peter Bouckaert, Steve Hindy, Julia Herz, Greg Engert, European namesakes such as Rodenbach, Orval and Stiegl, and small, breakout brewers like Bierol in Austria and Cloudwater in Manchester, UK.
From January 21 through February 28, Untappd users can exclusively rent and download the film. “We are thrilled to play a part in bringing this film to our global community of beer lovers”, said Trace Smith, CEO of Next Glass, parent company of Untappd. “Untappd has always been about beer bringing people together, and that theme is at the heart of this film.”
Watch the movie trailer and find everything about BEER! A Love Story, including future screening events in February and beyond at beermovie.org.
BEER! A Love Story Media Inquiries: Emily Hutto at coop@radcraftbeer.com
Hashtag: #BeerMovie
Press Assets: available for download here
ABOUT THE FILM PARTNERS
Blue + Green Communication is a film production company based in Vienna, Austria.
Based in Brussels, Belgium, film production company Storyhouse is run by producer Maarten Schmidt.
Julia Herz of HerzMuses Enterprises is featured in the film and is managing the 2021 global digital premiere.
ABOUT EXCLUSIVE FILM PARTNER UNTAPPD
Founded in 2010, Untappd is the world’s largest social beer app, with over 8 million users globally. Individuals can check-in and rate beers at bars, restaurants, breweries and a host of other venues as well as view friends’ profiles to toast and comment on their beer choices. Additionally, the company provides menu publishing software to over 18,000 businesses worldwide. www.untappd.com
Untappd Media Inquiries: Kenny Gould, Creative Director, kenny@untappd.com; tel:7049758612