The day is finally upon us — it’s International Beer Day and that means it’s time to go out and celebrate beer!  By celebrating you’re joining a community of hundreds of thousands of men and women around the globe, all rejoicing in the deliciousness that is beer. Ready to celebrate? Here’s what to do:

Tell the World!

Help make sure everyone in the world knows about International Beer Day by telling your friends on facebook and tweeting with the hashtag #IntlBeerDay.  Heck, we’ll make it even easier than that, you can just click one of the buttons below:

Find Your Nearest Celebration

You and your friends are going to need somewhere to go out and celebrate International Beer Day, luckily there are 278 Official IBD Events taking place all over the world!  You can find your nearest event using our Map of IBD Celebrations:

And don’t worry if there isn’t an official celebration nearby, all you really need to celebrate International Beer Day is good beer and good friends — just grab your pals, grab some brews and go start your own celebration at your favorite local pub.

Give Your Friends the Gift of Beer

One of our favorite International Beer Day traditions is giving the gift of beer! There’s nothing quite like being handed a surprise beer and hearing, “I bring you the gift of beer” — Pick up a six-pack and give each bottle out as a gift, we guarantee you’ll make someone’s day.

We’ve also made some silly digital beers that you can send to your friends on facebook, just copy the url below the beer of your choice and post it on your friend’s wall.  Fair warning, friends who receive digital beers will probably insist that you buy them a real beer later on.

http://internationalbeerday.com/celebrate/gift-of-beer-dark/

http://internationalbeerday.com/celebrate/gift-of-beer-light/

http://internationalbeerday.com/celebrate/gift-of-beer-red/

You can learn even more about how to celebrate here.
Cheers, and Happy International Beer Day!

Worried that your favorite bar might not be celebrating International Beer Day this year? Worry no longer!  We’ve crafted a super simple form to let you recommend your favorite beer establishment.  Just fill out the form below and we’ll automatically contact them on your behalf — Heck yeah.

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Ladies and Gentlemen the time is upon us — International Beer Day is four months away, and as of today we are accepting applicants for Official 2011 IBD Celebrations. If you’re interested in taking part in this year’s festivities, drop us a line using the form below and we’ll get you started.

(For more information on the benefits and details of hosting an International Beer Day celebration, click here.)

As 2010 came to a close I found myself thinking a lot about how last year’s International Beer Day went. IBD 2010 exceeded my wildest expectations, it was an uproarious eruption of the world’s love for beer, sung in thousands of voices across the globe. As I sat reminiscing on the year’s celebrations, I got to thinking about what I want for International Beer Day in 2011 — about what would make International Beer Day even better.

And so I present to you the fruit of that contemplation, the Belated 2011 International Beer Day New Years Resolutions.  (Yes I realize we’re nearly two months into 2011, that’s why they’re belated.)

Resolution #1: More Celebrations in More Cities

There were more than 100 recorded IBD celebrations in 2010, but many people still lived in cities where no official celebrations were being held.  Not only are we making an effort to reach drastically more bars for 2011, we’re also building a way for folks like yourself to tell your favorite bar all about International Beer Day with the click of a button! That way you can get your local bartenders in on the action, easy as pie.

Resolution #2: More Celebrations Outside USA

In 2010, there were verified International Beer Day celebrations in 10 countries that we know of: The USA, Canada, Israel, Estonia, England, Turkey, Philippines, Ireland, Australia, and South Africa. (If you celebrated IBD in another country, let us know in the comments and we’ll update the list.) For 2011, we’re really ramping up our goals and shooting for celebrations in no fewer than 50 countries, plus more individual celebrations in each!

For this reason, we’re looking for folks who are fluent in both English and an additional language to help us translate the IBD website, so that the whole world can easily learn about International Beer Day, no matter what language they speak.  If that’s you, be a hero to IBD and contact us today.

Resolution #3: Get Breweries in on the Action

IBD is in a large part about celebrating the noble work of brewers, those fine men and women who craft and bring us our beer.  Last year International Beer Day was largely held up by local bars and individual citizens of the world.  For 2011 we’re aiming to get way more breweries holding celebrations!

Come New Belgium, come Sierra Nevada, come Anchor and Bell’s. Come Magic Hat, Flying Dog, Dogfish Head and Lagunitas.  Come breweries of all shapes, sizes, and walks of life — from Anheuser-Busch to Craft Brewers to Homebrewers.  August 5th is our day to raise a frosty mug to your hard work and achievements, so drop us a line to get involved, then join us in beertastic jubilation!

Ambitious goals, I know, but that’s how we roll here at IBD Headquarters.  Have a Happy (incredibly belated) New Year, and let’s make 2011 the best year for International Beer Day yet!

Jesse and I decided to spend the sunlight hours (if you can call them that in San Francisco) of International Beer Day at 21st Amendment Brewery in San Francisco…partially because of the free WiFi, partially because of the grilled cheese place across the street, and partially to check out the brewery tour they were doing for International Beer Day.

The tour ended up being really fascinating, especially learning about the intricacies of brewing – Zambo, head brewer at 21st Amendment, described it as “talking to the beer”. Every day he takes a sip and says “oh, you’re good” or “oh, no, you definitely need more time”.

Here are some photos:

I remember it like it was yesterday — I’d gone out drinking with my friends that night and had finally arrived home, slipping into the warm sleep of the inebriated.  Little did I know, my life would never be the same…

…Ok so maybe it didn’t happen exactly like that, but I think I prefer this version.

Ladies and Gentlemen, allow me to proudly introduce the new and astonishing International Beer Day website!

She is lovely, is she not? Rough edges, soothing colors, and all sorts of rich subtlety.

After the long hard work of a very talented design/development team, International Beer Day now is now a website worthy of embodying the worlds greatest celebration.

How does it feel? It feels great! Now we can finally communicate to you all the excellent things going on at IBD headquarters. For example, we’re about 20 minutes from installing the long awaited IBD Celebration Map, so that you can find festivities near you this August 5th. We’ve also had our first spotting of a real live International Beer Day sign posted in public:

I practically jumped out of my skin when a friend texted me this picture. Sure I’ve seen a lot of IBD posters, but only on the internet, and try as we might to deny it, the internet is not in fact a real place.

This poster on the other hand, is real. It is made of paper, printed with ink, held up with adhesive, and sitting out here in the real world – somewhere in North Berkeley in fact. It’s sitting in the window of a real life beer establishment.

So yes, maybe it’s a little silly to get choked up over a sign, but it can’t be helped. For me, this is a magical moment.

Six days until IBD, this year is going to rock so hard.

International Beer Day is a Glorious August 5th Celebration of Beer, taking place at pubs, clubs, bars and breweries all over the world.

That’s right, folks. Come this August 5th, Makers, Lovers and Sellers of beer all around the globe now have another reason to raise their frosty mugs. Along with hundreds of bars, restaurants, pubs and breweries worldwide, we have declared the aforementioned International Beer Day!

The purpose of IBD is threefold:
1) To gather with friends and enjoy the deliciousness that is beer.
2) To celebrate the dedicated men and women who brew and serve our beer.
3) To bring the world together under the united banner of beer by celebrating the beers of all nations and cultures together on this one remarkable day.

International Beer Day is our chance to let the breweries and bars of the world know how much we appreciate them, all while participating in one of the activities ever — drinking beer!  Perhaps even more than the beverage itself, International Beer Day is about celebrating the establishments who produce it, sell it and give folks a place to enjoy it.

So raise your glass on August 5th to celebrate these heroes behind each tasty brew. Cheers, and Happy International Beer Day!

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The Origin of International Beer Day

International Beer Day was conceived by Jesse Avshalomov, and was founded in 2007 by Avshalomov, Evan Hamilton, Aaron Araki, and Richard Hernandez as a celebration of beer and the people who provide it.

As Avshalomov tells it:
“A few years back a group of friends and I decided that there needed to be a day in celebration of all things beer, a day in thanks to the people who produce and provide our favorite beverage. So we invented International Beer Day, convinced our local bar to celebrate on August 5th, made a little website for it, gave thanks to the beer industry, and had a good-ol’ time.

Then we started receiving emails from people who had found the IBD website and held their own celebrations in England and South Africa. We knew then that we needed to take our celebration to the world.

Ever since we’ve been working each year to bring the celebration to more and more people, and this year we’ve hit nearly 100 celebrations!  We’re working super hard to make this year’s celebration Epic, we’ve even had a classy logo and new website designed, so we hope you have yourself an awesome International Beer Day.”

Ladies and Gentleman of all beers and creeds
Today I present something everyone needs!

You can guess it’s new clothes
Or a new baseball bat,
You can guess it’s a car
But it’s certainly not that.

No this gift is more primal, more earthen, more fair
And I bet upon hearing, you’ll float through the air.

For this news is good news
And it’s tasty news too –
It’s yeasty and hoppy
And goes well with brew.

Have you guessed what it is?
Should I tell you? I’m Torn!
Oh all right, here it is:

Today my friend, International Beer Day, is reborn.

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