Late last week the newest seasonal bottled beer from Hood River’s Double Mountain Brewery arrived: Brut IPA. It’s available in the brewery’s refillable 500ml bottles and I have to say it’s the most elegant packaging of the various brut IPA’s I’ve seen so far.

It’s also the first I’ve heard of using actual champagne yeast to ferment. Here’s the description:

An elegant IPA fermented with French Champagne yeast, blushing with honeyed apple and ripe citrus aromas. A no nonsense, get-out-of-my-way malt bill sings the parallel harmonies with the hops and yeast. Dry, light, and oh so bubbly.

(To be clear, others may well also use champagne yeast, but this is the first description in which I’ve seen it explicitly listed. No mention of amyloglucosidase enzyme.)

Will report on this as part of a possible larger discussion of the style.