A McMenamins pub in Salem is now serving a specially-brewed beer to honor a late employee of the Oregon Department of Forestry.

Jeff Brandt, a longtime employee of ODF, was a regular beloved by the staff at Boon’s Treasury, a McMenamins restaurant and bar just north of downtown Salem (The pub gets its name from John D. Boon, Oregon’s first treasurer, who built the building in 1860 to house his store).

Brandt passed away in late May, and the McMenamins Thompson Brewery, located in South Salem, decided to spice up a seasonal IPA in his memory.

The Ranger Jeff IPA is essentially the brewery’s Sunflower IPA with some additions — citra hops and fresh juniper berries — said J en Kent, a brewer at McMenamins Thompson Brewery.

Brandt started working for the department as a monitoring coordinator in the early 2000s, and later became the manager of the Adaptive Management Unit, according to Mike Wilson, an information specialist and a colleague of Brandt’s at ODF.

During recession-era budget cuts, the Adaptive Management Unit was shuttered and Brandt went back to work as a monitoring coordinator until he retired a couple of years ago, Wilson said.

Wilson remembered Brandt as a “beer aficionado” who had lived in Germany for over a decade and was partial to IPAs. Wilson worked for Brandt during his time as the manager of the Adaptive Management Unit.

“Best boss I ever had,” Wilson said.

A keg’s worth of the Ranger Jeff IPA is on tap at Boon’s Treasury. The beer should be available at the South Salem McMenamins location in late July, Kent said.