IPA Day on August 6th!

So large chain stores, that shall not be named, that sell greeting cards, are notorious for making up bizarre holidays to generate sales for greeting cards. Thus, it is in this tradition, that in order to sell more beer, that the Craft Beer industry created:  IPA Day..

The History is somewhat vague on the holiday. Some speculate that at some point in the 1870’s a group of gentlemen in a pub in England, got together and were extremely bored. They decided it was time that England stood up and proudly conquered yet another portion of the globe. A toast was made, and a Globe was dragged out of some musty closet and it was spun in front of a blindfolded bar wench who was instructed to put her finger down on the spinning globe. Thus, her finger landed on India

Another toast was made and they all boarded a boat. About half way around Africa they had run out of Rum. They rummaged through the hold and found a few barrels of beer and thus there was some celebration. They poured some beer out of the barrels into their cups and upon tasting it they promptly spit out the horribly spoiled brew. It had all gone bad.

By the time they all made it to India they plundered it something fierce. They were taking out their frustrations because nobody had had a good drink in months. The group eventually set up a garrison and some returned to England with their spoils.

It was at this point it was realized, that a new beer recipe would need to be “thought up” that could survive the entire trip to India and thus, allow them to treat the people of India with maybe just a bit more respect. Maybe it would even make the whole trip more worthwhile.

Thus, possibly in August, nobody is really quite sure, (As everyone was probably pretty loaded from tasting all of the different recipes.) the IPA (India Pale Ale) was born.

So it has been reasoned that the first Saturday of August is now christened: IPA Day.

What IPA will you choose to drink in honor of this day?