Last week I made fun of Beer Cruncher seemingly being the only one out there trying to make “Cold IPAs” happen. Then I ran across my first one in the wild.
A colab between Central California’s Alvarado Street and Figueroa Mountain Brewing called “Acapulco Cold”.
It is actually pretty good. I enjoyed it.
If I am to use this one example of the style, I do think there is a slight difference between this beer and an India Pale Lager style beer. Small, but there. The Lager side is very hidden, but still present.
Good if I don’t want the Lager feel, bad if I do.
Is it enough of a difference to give it its own style name like Cold IPA? Well, if I didn’t care about the marketing side I would say this is a sub-genre of IPL – definitely in the IPL family but enough of a difference to acknowledge it.
You can’t blame them for trying to attach it to the Ale side instead of the Lager side, but they are cheating a bit.
Hey, this particular CIPA is a nice beer. If they want to keep trying to make this style work, go for it – I definitely recommend trying one out if you see one, especially if you’re into a hoppy Lager. Honestly, I would have rather had this beer with Ale yeast though. ??
