Twisted Limb Paperworks, a hand paper making company located in Bloomington, IN known for its commitment to environmental business practices announces a new line of Beer Paper made with the spent barley hulls used in brewing Upland Beer. In addition to the natural flecking and texture created by the barley, the paper flaunts four beer colors—wheat, pilsner, amber, and porter.

The company developed recipes recycling used colored office paper in just the right combinations to create handmade paper colors that match as closely as possible those of different beers. "What I found most challenging was creating an opaque color based upon a transparent one," studio manager Juliana Dumas said. "We would pull a color with the PhotoShop eye dropper out of a photograph of a glass of beer and shoot for that color. The wheat and pilsner were pretty easy for us. The amber took a number of tries."

The idea for the beer paper grew over time.

After Twisted Limb's success with turning their lawn grass into paper starting in 2005, Woodhouse-Keese started looking for other local vegetation to turn into paper, considering invasive species plants and even the algae from a popular local lake. At some point, someone told her that there were barley hulls remaining from the beer brewing process, an idea that intrigued her but one she didn't have time to pursue. The idea resurfaced several more times and then was forgotten until she heard that Upland, a Bloomington-based brewery was moving its brewing facilities to the warehouse just on the other side of the B-Line bridge from the Twisted Limb studio. The B-Line Trail is a new cross-town bike and pedestrian path in the Indiana college town.

Woodhouse-Keese saw Upland Brewery owner Doug Dayhoff at a neighborhood association meeting and asked if she might have some spent barley to experiment with. Dayhoff was very agreeable and two days later, he was carrying a couple 5-gallon buckets of barley hulls to her car.

"Doug warned me that it was going to smell pretty bad, but I didn't take him that seriously. We are used to some pretty funky smells when we process our grass or let the pulp sit too long, so I figured we could handle the barley. Well, after a day of sitting in our studio while we made our test batches, it smelled so horrible we crossed our fingers that we would not get customers for a couple of days. Thankfully, we quickly figured out how to manage the barley odor-free, and it has been pleasant working with it ever since."

Paper made with remains of the beer brewing process also solves another challenge of Twisted Limb Paperworks—creating paper and stationery that appeal to men. "Traditionally, 96% of our customers have been women—most of our paper is floral and our designs feminine and whimsical. Men were coming into the studio asking for note cards and we didn't really have much to offer them. Everyone, men and women alike have responded very positively to our beer paper, but I think that the rich earthy tones, the simple texture created by the barley, and the concept will appeal more to men than some of our other papers."

The handmade beer paper and matching envelopes are sold blank or printed as cards with an original woodcut of a beer bottle, mug, and letters that spell Cheers! The woodcut was created by Darian Goldin Stahl, a recent IU graduate in Fine Arts and former intern at Twisted Limb. Text on the back of the card clues the recipient in on the secret ingredient and the color's beer name. The cards are also being promoted to microbreweries and Green Drink groups around the country, printed with their logos.

For more information or to purchase beer paper cards, please visit www.twistedlimbpaper.com.