International #IPADay

International #IPADay was founded by Ashley Routson (aka The Beer Wench) and Ryan Ross but it was inspired by similar worldwide wine events such as #ChardonnayDay and #CabernetDay. Ashley, more commonly known in the beer world as The Beer Wench (Wenchie or just Wench) witnessed how these events brought people together around the world to drink wine, whether they normally drank wine or not, because they wanted to be part of the event. Feeling that the beer industry has been slower to take advantage of social media, the First International Celebration of Craft Beer was born. The IPA was chosen as it's a style that is most readily available and has a wide range of characteristics, making it easy to find and allowing enough choices that even people who don't normally like the style can find one to drink. And, since the spotlight will be on IPA's, perhaps introduce more people to the style and expand their taste profiles:

International #IPADay is an event geared towards making craft beer more accessible to the masses. Please encourage all of your non-beer drinking friends to take a break from their normal beverage routines to join the worldwide craft beer celebration on August 4th! This is a time for education and advocacy! We should all set out with the goal of converting at least one person, if not the whole world of drinkers, into craft beer lovers!

So wherever you on Thursday, take the time to enjoy an IPA and introduce the style (or craft beer in general) to someone who wouldn't normally drink it. I'll be down at the most appropriate place there is for International #IPADay, the Petrol Station, recently crowned as the "Most Bitter Bar in America" by Stone Brewing. They'll have a plethora of IPA's on draft and will be tapping three casks at 7:00pm. Rumour has it, a couple of those casks will be from the elusive Brewluminati series (including the latest release) brewed by Independence Brewing. Those don't make it down to Houston very often, so its an event not to be missed.