For my mid-August article for The Bulletin, I profiled Velvet Wallpaper IPA, the collaboration beer from Double Mountain Brewery and Van Henion Brewing. It’s a west coast style IPA and Double Mountain sent me a bottle to sample in conjunction with the release.

It’s the tasting room wallpaper that inspired the name of the beer. According to the press release, it “was inspired by a serendipitous moment when Matt Swihart, Double Mountain’s owner, walked into Van Henion’s brewery and discovered the same timeless, classy velvet wallpaper pattern found in the Hood River pub, albeit in a different color.”

Naturally, brewing an IPA is the obvious choice for the two hop-focused breweries. Five different hops were selected, Simcoe, Cascade, Centennial, Strata, and HBC 586, in a variety of formats including whole leaf, pellets, and cryogenically concentrated lupulin.

The hops were added at multiple stages, from late in the boil through dry hopping to maximize the infusion of hop character into the beer without excessive bitterness.

Additional details and tasting notes are found at the article. It’s a tasty beer, with the usual high quality I find in both breweries’ beers, and bottles are still available.