Tuesday, October 27, 2009

Seasonal beers on tap at Ska


One of the most fortuitous outcomes of Ska Brewing Co.'s move to a 24,000-square-foot building a year ago has been occasional tappings of some fantastic limited-run beers.

Ska purchased a small pilot system to allow its talented brewers to test their skills on small batches. One of the first of these, a Belgian amber, portended great things to come.

A visit to Ska on Monday showed the brewers have stepped up their small-batch efforts. Three very limited seasonal beers were on tap. I chose a sour, barrel-aged version of Ska's Nefarious Ten Pin Imperial Porter. The sour note was strong, a dominant taste rather than a suggestive flavor. I liked it, but a little bit went a long way, especially considering the beer's assertive alcohol content.

Also on tap were two Halloween-themed beers. I had a taster glass of a pumpkin-spiced brown ale that was delicious. It was a tad sweet with a nicely balanced pumpkin flavor. Again, one wouldn't want to drink more than a pint of it at a time, but it tasted of an experiment gone right. I didn't get to try the third beer.

These beers won't be bottled, so it behooves you to try them while they last. I look forward to seeing what comes next.

4 comments:

  1. I got to try all three when I was at Ska on Saturday for the Homebrewer's meetup.
    My favorite was the third you didn't try. It was a pumpkin spiced imperial porter and it was good. It had a very different pumpkin flavor than the pumpkin brown ale.

    One of the coolest things about the pumpkin spiced brown ale is that it was brewed by the female bartenders at Ska. It's called "Bitches Brew" and supposedly has an ABV of 6.66%

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  2. Oooo a sour Imperial Porter? I gotta get me some of that. Do you think they will bottle and distribute any of that? I love the Imperial Porter and a sour version sounds very tempting.

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  3. I'm bummed I missed the Homebrewers' Hoedown. I had to work.

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  4. Sog, Jeff, et all-

    As discussed at the Homebrew Hoedown, a few of us here in Durango are going to get together at my house at 4pm on Sat Nov 7th for the AHA's national "teach a friend to homebrew day." I have a 5 gallon batch of a Belgian Dubbel that we will be bottling, and then we'll be making an extract recipie of a red ale. If anyone is interested, shoot me an email and I'll get you the address.

    Chris
    bigfatsnowboarder@yahoo.com

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