As June 2013 approached, everyone at Deschutes Brewery knew they’d have to do something big, according to Joey Pleich.

Pleich, a sales brand ambassador with the brewery, said the 25th anniversary was recognized as a significant milestone, and as the anniversary approached, they kicked around several ideas of how to mark the occasion. In the end they opted for Drake Park, on the edge of Mirror Pond, where with the right squint in your eye you can see the image that’s adorned every bottle of Mirror Pond Pale Ale — in one form or another — since the brewery’s earliest days.

“We wanted to celebrate where we’re from,” said Pleich. “There was talk of a big party in Portland, but we’re from Bend, and we wanted to throw a big party, a big free party for all the locals and all the local support.”

Saturday, the brewery invited the community to join them for a day in the park, with eight hours of live music, food, and of course, keg after keg of Deschutes Brewery beer.

The official anniversary, June 27, marks the day founder Gary Fish opened the doors of the Bond Street brewpub back in 1988, the first establishment of its kind in Central Oregon and one of only a handful anywhere in the state at the time.

A quarter century later, Deschutes Brewery beers can be found in 19 states and two Canadian provinces, and the brewery has grown into the fifth-largest microbrewery in the country. Bend is recognized as a top-tier beer town and Central Oregon now boasts 20 breweries, several of which were started by brewers who honed their craft during a stint at Deschutes Brewery.

Saturday’s festivities began with a morning bike ride from Black Butte to Mirror Pond, with an estimated 260 riders covering the route between the landmarks honored by two of the brewery’s best-selling beers.

Fresh off the trail in a dusty Mirror Pond Pale Ale jersey and Black Butte Porter socks, Ron Thompson, 64, said it’s hard to overstate how Deschutes Brewery has changed Bend.

“They’re kind of the big daddy, they really put microbrew on the map and created a great industry,” Thompson said.

Born and raised in Bend, Thompson was living in Canada when the Bond Street brewpub opened, but as he recalls it was well-received almost immediately. On his trips back and forth to Bend, Thompson watched the brewery grow from a distance, but only realized how big it had become when his hometown beer started cropping up on shelves in British Columbia.

David Sailors, 58, pedaled the 40 miles from Black Butte to Mirror Pond in a vintage Phil’s Trail Ale jersey. Along the way he noted the aid stations staffed by mechanics from local bike shops — their volunteer labors struck him, he said, as a nod to the brewery’s many years of sponsoring bike races and other community events across the region.

Sailors arrived in Bend 16 years ago, not long after Bend Brewing Company and Cascade Lakes Brewing Company had joined the fray, but before the microbrew boom was fully underway. The fact the local beer scene is still growing with no evidence of rivalries or bad blood speaks well to the tone set way back when, he said, back when Bend was a one-brewery town.

“You’ve got Deschutes Brewery as this monster, but then there’s all these other little guys that can survive, do their own thing,” he said. “They’re not competing, and they can all just let the quality of their beer speak for itself.”