Get the beer down to 60˚. It is critical that we make this happen. Using the plate chiller, wintertime city water may do the trick. Well water certainly will. 65˚ would be OK but remember, beer temp rises 3-4 degrees during fermentation so 60˚ is best. This will assure a good start to the yeast, nice flavor, no aroma.
Fermentation
Here we begin the cold process. The first time around, we recommend a White labs Charlie’s Fist Bump yeast- WLP1983. Ale yeast is easier to use and less temperamental than lager yeast. This proprietary yeast will activate and thrive in the 55-60˚ range. Most ale yeast, American Ale (Chico) for example, does its best work at 65-72˚ F, producing its characteristic esters and fruity nose to accentuate the hop aroma.
A Cold IPA wants none of this. We want hop bitterness, hop flavor, and hop aroma, and then again some more. Ferment in primary for 4-5 days and then add the dry hops. 3 days later transfer to secondary.
Secondary fermentation
We rarely recommend transferring to a secondary vessel for fermentation. However, for this recipe we are. We're doing this for two reasons. First, this beer will take longer to ferment than normal because it's being made with an ale yeast at below average temperatures. Yeast is less active at lower temperatures, especially ale yeasts.
Second, we want to limit the amount of time that dry hops will be in contact with the beer. There is such a thing as "too much of a good thing," and more than 3 days of dry hopping at the amount we suggest qualifies for this. So, after 3 days on the dry hops in primary, rack into a secondary vessel.
Secondary fermentation used to be very common but it's something that homebrewers rarely do these days. Current thinking is that the risks (contamination and oxygenation) outweigh the benefits. We're actually still concerned about both of these so what we're going to do is ferment this beer in a keg and do a pressurized, closed transfer with CO2 into a clean and sanitized secondary keg. Note, we're using one of our prototype keg fermenters, but any keg will do.
Store at basement temperature, we hope about 57-62˚ for two more weeks. Check gravity to confirm that it's done. Then the beer is ready for packaging and consumption.
