Notch – LP India Pale Lager

LP? As in Long Play, or a record, an album, or vinyl – if LP still has you scratching your head, go ask your dad, or someone with a beard. Long Play is how I think about beer, and it’s the opposite of one and done. I’d rather linger and extend the good times. It’s old school, like buying beer in rounds, or dropping a needle on the first side of Double Nickels on the Dime with nothing to look forward to than more of the same (it was a double LP). And this beer is built for those times – a lager rich and hoppy enough to satisfy that itch, but dry and clean enough to entice you for another.  

IPL? As in India Pale Lager, a new brewing riff where an IPA (India Pale Ale) is fermented with a lager yeast. We all know the conventional wisdom about the IPA is largely bunk, and today IPA is simply shorthand for hoppy. So bring on the IPL, which has bupkis to do with India or a Pale color, but does use a Lager yeast.

In practice, this beer is a light amber lager that is dry hopped with US impact varieties. The hazy orange appearance is from a blend of Pils, Vienna, and Cara Vienna malts (plus a few others), the hop character is firmly in the flavor and aroma camp (low bitterness levels), and the yeast profile is all lager (clean, soft, and dry). Is it simply an IPA with a lager yeast? Yes and no. It’s very similar to Left of the Dial in many aspects, but when I brew a lager I think in different ways, especially with regards to malt. Where LOTD was almost 100% British malt, LP is German and Canadian malts usually found in lagers.

I’ve been asked if the lager yeast can really be noticed in such a hopped up beer. If you are thinking about a classic Helles or Pils lager character, the answer is absolutely not, as the subtle character of the yeast is obliterated by the US hoping. But from a brewing perspective, you are creating a clean fermentation with no ale yeast fruity esters to compete with the hops. Could you do this with a cold fermentation of a neutral ale yeast. Yes, you probably could. But where is the fun in that?

This is our fifth lager, but our most nontraditional beer to date. My curmudgeonly purist posse can breathe – Cerne Pivo and Polotmavy are returning shortly!
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