Pour 15.35 liters of water into your kettle and set the heating to 65°C.
Add your grains and stir well to avoid lumps.
Maintain this temperature of 65°C for 60 minutes.
Meanwhile, heat 16.65 liters of water to 77°C; this will be used for the sparging step.
Once the saccharification hour is finished, raise the temperature to 75°C for a 10‑minute Mash‑Out.
Step 2:
When the Mash‑Out is finished, proceed with lautering and sparging.
Step 3:
Heat your kettle to perform a 60‑minute boil.
Add 10 g of Columbus at the very beginning of the timer. This hop will provide a nice bitter base of nearly 18 IBU. It is essential for this beer style to have a clean and sharp bitterness.
Step 4:
Once the boil is finished, cut the heat, let it drop to 80°C, and steep 100 g of Mosaic and 50 g of Idaho 7 for 30 minutes.
In the original version (3rd place at the Rolling Beers 2025 homebrewing competition), Matthieu, the big boss of VOLQ, used Krush hops. Since this variety is no longer produced by Yakima, we chose together to replace it with Idaho 7.
Without presenting exactly the same aromatic markers, its composition in “survivable” compounds is very close. This means it will behave similarly and have an equivalent biotransformation capacity. It will also bring beautiful apricot aromas and a resinous touch that will pair perfectly with Mosaic hops.
This hop is also a deliberate nod to Matthieu’s previous kit on our site: Champ’Ale – Brut IPA, first place at the Bastia Beer Festival competition.
Step 5:
Cool the wort to 20°C. Take the gravity, which should be around 1.046.
Continue cooling until reaching 17°C.
Transfer to the fermenter and add the 2 sachets of Novalager yeast.
Although this beer style can be brewed at 15°C with a standard lager strain, VOLQ’s “hack” consists of using Lallemand Novalager yeast. This hybrid strain behaves like a lager (neutral and clean fermentation) but at a higher temperature. These two degrees of difference save a lot of fermentation time since it avoids a diacetyl rest.
24 hours after pitching, add 80 g of Mosaic and 50 g of Idaho 7.
You will maintain a temperature of 17°C for 10 days. This is the time the yeast will need to reach the final gravity of 1.006.
*If you are equipped with a harvest container, you can perform a hop dump between the two Dry Hops.
Step 6:
When the FG is reached, lower the temperature to 12°C and add 20 g of Mosaic and 100 g of Idaho 7. After 5 days, perform a Cold Crash at 2–3°C.
Step 7:
Once the Cold Crash is done (3 to 5 days), you can proceed with carbonation.
For this beer style, 2.5 vol. of CO₂ is ideal. If, like Matthieu, you are in Unitank, you can pull the beer directly from the fermenter. Otherwise, proceed with counter‑pressure bottling.
You are not equipped with a pressurizable fermenter? No problem. When your Cold Crash is finished, sterilize 7 g/L of sugar and proceed with classic bottling.
A word about VOLQ Brewery:
Behind the VOLQ microbrewery, based in Congénies in the Gard, we find Matthieu Filippini. A food‑processing engineer by training, Matthieu learned the craft like many of us: in his garage, brewing nearly 70 amateur 20‑liter batches starting in 2022.
Very active on Instagram, he documents his trials, shares his progress, and refines his recipes thanks to feedback from the community. His high standards pay off quickly: his creations win several homebrewing competitions (with no fewer than 10 podiums!). Building on this success and supported by a widely funded Ulule campaign, he takes the leap in 2025 by creating his 150‑liter microbrewery.
The name VOLQ pays tribute to the Volques, a Celtic people native to the Vaunage and founders of Nîmes. Today, the brewery offers a range built around a permanent Blonde Ale, a rotating hopped variant (Cold IPA, NEIPA…), and a monthly limited‑edition release. A path that proves one can move from amateur to pro while keeping real creative freedom!
The goal with this Cold IPA recipe was to create a very clean, sharp, and expressive hopped beer. Thanks to the addition of corn flakes and the work of Novalager at 17°C, you obtain an ultra‑dry, clear base with extreme drinkability.
On the hop side, the combination of Mosaic and Idaho 7 brings a true aromatic explosion: intense notes of tropical fruits, apricot, and a very refreshing resinous touch, all carried by a firm and very clean bitterness that makes you want to come back to it.
