Cold IPA Emerges As A New Interpretation Of India Pale Ale

In 2020, Wayfinder Beer's Relapse IPA helped bring attention to Cold IPA, a new interpretation of India Pale Ale developed by brewmaster Kevin Davey in Portland, Oregon. The beer was brewed as a clean, crisp, hop-forward IPA using lager-inspired fermentation techniques, and Craft Beer & Brewing selected Wayfinder Relapse IPA as one of its Best 20 Beers of 2020. Cold IPA was presented as a way to combine the bright hop character of modern American IPA with the dry finish and clean fermentation profile associated with lager brewing. Davey later explained that the term “Cold IPA” was coined to describe a lager-ale hybrid rather than a traditional India Pale Lager. The emergence of Cold IPA reflected the continuing evolution of IPA in the twenty-first century. After West Coast IPA, Double IPA, and New England IPA had each reshaped drinkers' expectations, Cold IPA offered another approach: clear, dry, highly attenuated, and intensely hop-focused, while still positioned within the broader IPA family.