Summer Hoppy Lager

Summer is here in NC in full force: 100F today with added humidity making it feel like 107F. Time for a nice easy drinking refreshing lager. But not just your average everyday lager - how about something that tastes more like a west coast IPA but is lower ABV and easier to drink several of on a hot summer day?

Enter the west coast pils...or india pale lager...or cold IPA...or...what the heck are we supposed to call these beers? I know...how about, delicious!

Hoppy lagers are all the rage these days. A recent article in Craft Beer and Brewing Magazine https://www.beerandbrewing.com/hoppy-lagers-are-on-the-clock indicated:

It’s an increasingly diverse landscape. In June (2025), the Brewers Association updated its style guidelines for Hoppy Lagers in the Great American Beer Festival and World Beer Cup competitions. It carved out a subcategory called West Coast Pilsners, which competition director Chris Williams describes as a “relatively newly developed but well-represented style.”

To accommodate the new substyle, the BA also made slight tweaks to the existing India Pale Lager category, aligning its hop parameters more closely with the IPA categories to eliminate overlap with West Coast pilsners.

The Brulosophy podcast also recently shared their opinions across a wide range of hoppy lager type beers https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C4-4AumkZe4 - definitely worth a listen before you decide to brew your own.

Ok, so how about my recipe? I went with a very simple grain bill - 100% pilsner - doesn't get any simpler than that! I took a bit of a "kitchen sink" approach when it came to hopping, adding Mosaic and Citra in the boil, Citra, Amarillo, and Wakatu in the hopstand and then Citra and Nectaron extract from Abstrax hops at fermentation https://abstraxhops.com/. Here is my recipe: https://share.brewfather.app/51eEh9SXMxR5XAI

I was aiming for around 49 IBUs and just 5.1% ABV. I fermented with NovaLager yeast from Lallemand as it is known to ferment pretty quickly at relatively high temps (I used 62F) and is very highly attenuative.

I like the way the beer turned out! The beer is very dry and is quite light on the mouthfeel - both as expected with the NovaLager yeast and low ABV. I feel like Citra was the dominant hop profile coming through with some nice grapefruit and maybe even some peach notes in there. Maybe that was from the bit of nectaron extract I added? Anyway, I really feel like this is about as close as I've ever gotten to a beer that tastes like it was dry hopped! I'm looking forward to further experimenting with these extract products and maybe even trying some of the fruit extracts next time. What would I change in the recipe? Maybe go a bit more on the bittering hops - I do get some bitterness in this beer although I'm not convinced I really achieved the full 49 IBUs the recipe called for. I'd probably also add a bit more to the grain bill to maybe boost the mouthfeel and increase the ABV just a bit. In any case, this is a really enjoyable easy drinking summer crusher!

Happy summer brewing!