IPA Day celebrated on the High Desert

The India Pale Ale is arguably one of the most popular microbrews in the nation. Beer fans celebrated IPA Day on Thursday. RPM IPA by Boneyard Beer in Bend wins awards year after year.

“RPM is our flagship, so we use about five different hops pretty much in equal percentages by weight,” said Tony Lawrence, brewmaster and co-founder of Boneyard Beer. “That’s obviously good manufacturing practice for a flagship beer.”

Fans of IPA Day took to social media with the Twitter hashtag #IPADay to share their brew experiences with others.

Matthew Ward of Bend Brew Daddy said he enjoys seeing other photos by searching social media.

“We call it beer-tography,” Ward said.

The brewery sold about 16,000 barrels of RPM IPA in 2014.

“We just came out swinging, trying to make a really good IPA,” Lawrence said. “I thought I had a different look on a recipe design that was a little different from the other IPAs.”

Boneyard Beer expects to brew 22,000 barrels this year. Lawrence explained that hops are what set the beverage apart from other craft beers.

“For instance, some of our recipes would have five pounds of hops in it for X while IPA will have 35 pounds of hops for the same volume produced,” Lawrence said.

Ward said, “I don’t think the IPA is going to slow down. It’s just one of those things that the more hops we get the more we want to tinker with them and the IPA is the perfect style to do that with.”