Review: Ska Big Shikes Orange Blossom Imperial Pilsner

Ska Brewing Co.'s latest Local Series release comes as the result of a project with Old Chicago restaurants. The restaurant chain asked Ska to come up with something unique for them to put on tap as part of an effort to reconnect with craft brewing.

Ska invited Jonathan Shikes, managing editor and prolific beer blogger at the Denver weekly Westword, to help design and brew the beer

This project follows an earlier blogger-brewer collaboration Ska did with myself and Jeff Hammett, formerly of Beer 'N Bikes and currently writing at San Diego Beer Blog.

Ska also bottled Shikes' batch for release as no. 18 in its Local Series, which is distributed only in and around Durango. Ska has been doing the Local Series for many years (a list of releases is here), brewing at its whim special creations. It gives the brewers a chance to experiment, and Ska's customers a chance to try something new.

Shikes' beer was tapped May 16 at Old Chicago in Denver, timed to coincide with American Craft Beer Week.

Now on to Shikes' beer itself. It's a big recipe, an imperial pilsner that comes in at 8.7 percent ABV and 73 IBUs (incidentally, Ska brewed a standard pilsner as no. 3 in the Local Series in 2005).

It pours a pale yellow color, topped by a short froth of white foam. The taste is bready and heavy on the palette, with a little citrus and sweetness from orange blossom honey.

Strong lagers are tough to brew well. Often, they end up syrupy, overly sweet and difficult to drink. Unfortunately, this describes to an extent this Imperial Pilsner.

Ska sometimes falls into a common trap for ambitious craft brewers: beers that are too big, too much, too flavorful. Looking back at the few Ska beers that seemed to miss the mark, it's been one ingredient that dominated the taste: too much Scotch in the barrel-aged Scotch ale, too much lemongrass in 2010's DIFF, too much hops in Ska Sour.

For Big Shikes, it's simply too big to really enjoy. It's not a bad beer, but neither does it leave you wanting more. About 12 ounces is all you really want to drink; a 22-ounce bomber ought to be shared. I ended up drinking the 14 ounces or so pictured here and pouring the rest down the drain.

Ska makes some great beers: their ESB, Ten Pin Porter, Modus Hoperandi IPA and Mexican Logger, in particular, are superb examples of their styles. But while I look forward to trying their next Local Series effort, Big Shikes I can do without. C

(P.S.: This seems to be the consensus on this beer).

Review: Ska Brewing Mexican Logger

Until now, Ska Brewing Co.'s Mexican Logger has been merely a local's favorite, a beer appreciated by a few of us in Durango while barbecuing, rafting, hiking and watching the thunderstorms roll down the Animas Valley.

Photo courtesy Ska Brewing.

This is changing. Ska recently began canning Mexican Logger, its summer seasonal, and distributing it widely. No longer will the lager be our little secret.

Ska is brewing about 900 barrels of Mexican Logger this summer, double last year's production, and distributing it to all of the brewery's markets.

Ska began brewing Mexican Logger in summer 2001. "We had been going through a multi-summer Pacifico phase, sometimes even drinking it instead of Ska beers when it was particularly hot out," Ska co-founder Dave Thibodeau said in an email. "Well, that couldn’t fly for long so we decided to brew our own beer to put limes in."

Mexican Logger  (4.2 percent ABV, 18 IBUs), is brewed with a yeast strain from Mexico City and a light helping of Saaz hops. It's Ska's lowest booze beer, and the only lager it regularly brews.

It comes in bright green cans that will probably attract lots of eyes on the shelves of liquor stores (there's some in bottles, too). Amusingly, in the fine print next to the UPC code, it says "Ale, in Texas," even though Mexican Logger is, of course, a lager.

"As we all know, Texas likes to make up their own rules despite facts, i.e. creationism vs science," Thibodeau said. "Contradictory to the actual definition of 'ale,' Texas defines it as beer over 4 percent ABW. Beer under 4 percent ABW is called 'beer.' Because the Mexican Logger is a lager we couldn’t get it approved to sell in Texas, unless we called it 'ale,' so there you go, it’s 'ale, in Texas.'"

Anyway, Mexican Logger pours a pale yellow with a white, fluffy head of foam. It's fairly strongly carbonated. Despite the low booze and hopping, Mexican Logger is surprisingly flavorful. Corona, it's not.

Mexican Logger is a middle-aged beer in Ska's history. It's not as old as True Blonde and Pinstripe, which date to Ska's founding in 1995, but nor is it a young buck like Modus Hoperandi IPA (born in 2009).

Ska seems a little anxious over how Mexican Logger will be received in its newer markets like Missouri and Texas. It's not a hop bomb, nor barrel-aged nor sour.

But it's clear that people enjoy Mexican-style lagers. Corona is the no. 1 imported beer in the U.S., and more and more American craft breweries are doing their own. One worth mentioning is Del Norte Brewing in Denver, which brews a whole lineup of Mexican-style lagers.

For a decade, Mexican Logger has been a well-liked summer seasonal in Durango. I bet it'll do fine out in the big, wide world. B

Review: Papago Brewing Oude Zuipers

On my annual trip to Phoenix to watch baseball's spring training, I like to stop in Papago Brewing in Scottsdale. It has an extensive and interesting tap list and if you don't like any of the 30 craft and craft-quality import beers on tap, there's a wall of refrigerated bottles that allows you to choose one to buy there and drink on-premises.

Besides, they let you throw darts as you drink beer.

I took home a bottle of Papago's Oude Zuipers, a Belgian-style tripel. Actually, it's brewed for Papago by Brouwerij Van Steenberge in Belgium, so it's not so much Belgian-style as actually Belgian.

Last weekend, I brought the bottle out as I contemplated whether I wanted to drink 25.4 ounces of 11 percent alcohol beer. I removed the cage but not the cork, and decided better of it and put it back in the fridge.

A few minutes later: pop. And my decision was made for me.

You don't want to let a $12 bottle of beer go to waste, and without its cork, it was time to drink it or pour it out.

As I needed some food to soak up such a big beer, I made an emergency trip to Guido's Favorite Foods, an upscale deli in downtown Durango, for some pancetta and olives. Then a quick stop at City Market for oyster mushrooms and cherry tomatoes.

Back at home, I poured Oude Zuipers as I made my pasta dish. The Belgian ale is a reddish brown color, with a substantial off-white head of foam. The carbonation sticks around nicely.

It's a touch sweet on the palate, and carries that great Belgian yeast complexity. It finishes with a warming character from the strong alcohol content. Oude Zuipers is quite wine-like, actually.

Oude Zuipers was as good as any Belgian-style tripel I've had. Popping the cork accidentally sent me into a minor panic, but when you have all afternoon to cook a fancy pasta dish and drink Belgian beer, you're doing pretty well. A-

Review: Great Divide Colette

The saison is a beautiful thing. Dry, crisp, light, bubbly, flavorful — this traditional Belgian style is the true Champagne of beers (apologies to Miller High Life).

Up till now, however, drinking saison was an expensive proposition. You could get a bottle of Saison Dupont or, my personal favorite, Ommegang Hennepin, but you'd pay something like $10-$12 for a 22-ounce bottle (or the slightly larger 750 ml Champagne-style bottles).

Delicious!

Great Divide Brewing Co. has upended this situation with a game-changer: a truly tasty saison bottled in a six-pack.

Colette just showed up on liquor-store shelves in Durango, packaged in regular 12-ounce brown bottles. It has enjoyed a well-laureled young life, winning a silver medal at the 2010 Great American Beer Festival.

Colette is brewed with barley, wheat and rice and fermented at high temperature with four yeast strains. Like most saisons, it's relatively boozy at 7.3 percent ABV.

It pours a straw yellow, with a healthy, frothy white head of foam that quickly recedes against the strong alcohol content. A tip: when pouring Colette, maybe leave a little bit in the bottle, as mine had a thick layer of yeast gunk on the bottom. Or don't; it's a free country. (And it wasn't due to age — my Colette was bottled on March 3 and poured on April 2).

A wonderful, earthy aroma introduces a dry funk on the palate. The wheat and rice — arguably nontraditional ingredients for this style — are actually nice additions, rounding out and strengthening the flavor. The carbonation pops.

Saisons are not usually hoppy, and Colette follows suit, with very mild hopping laying down a backbeat while the yeast solos up front.

Saisons are just a great summer style, light but very flavorful. Colette is a seasonal release, April through July.

A brewer friend of mine not long ago bitched about how trendy saisons have become. I fail to see the problem.

Colette costs about $9 for a six-pack of 12-ounce bottles. That's 12.5 cents per ounce. Compare that to $10 for a bomber, which comes out to 45 cents per ounce.

Great Divide has made drinking saison much more affordable. Colette is a fantastically tasty beer. You should buy it and drink it. A

Review: Carver's English-style Organic IPA

India pale ales vary as much as any beer style can. Seemingly subtle differences in hop selection can make a big impression on your palate.

The latest IPA from Carver Brewing Co., Durango's Main Avenue brewpub, takes an English approach to the style.

The IPA is completely organic, using Weyermann malt and hops from New Zealand, Carver's head brewer Erik Maxson says in an e-mail.

"This was a first run for these hops, and we are pretty proud of the result," Maxson says.

The hops exhibit a sunny, orange-like citrus quality, quite unlike the grapefruit flavor found in some of Carver's hoppy beers. It's relatively boozy at 6.9 percent ABV, but hop bitterness is well within the English style (and lower than most American-style IPAs) with 50 IBUs.

This is a well-balanced ale, with enough hop flavor to keep you coming back for more. I prefer it to the comparable Left Hand 400-Pound Monkey. B+

Also of note, Carver's is about to tap (if the brewpub hasn't already) an oatmeal pale ale, Maxson says.

"This time around I have left the herbs out (chamomile and yarrow) because of frequent request for a 'naked' version," Maxson says. "It will be carbonated instead of nitrogenated to help all those hops shine through. Lots of oatmeal in the mash makes it super silky, and a plethora of American hops throughout, mash, boil, knockout, fermentation and conditioning. A true Carver's original."

On a recent visit to Carver's, another bar hand was raving about this beer. That's usually a good sign.

Review: Three Rivers Bell Ringer

Much like Carver Brewing Co. in Durango, Three Rivers Brewery in Farmington releases only one bottled beer per year. In both cases for these brewpubs, it's a barley wine.

Three Rivers' Bell Ringer is available now at the brewpub in downtown Farmington in 22-ounce bomber bottles dipped in wax. (Bottles of Carver's Big Grizz Barley Wine are also available now at the Durango brewpub).

Bell Ringer is what the brewery calls an "IPA barley wine," but it's really not so much a new style as a hop-forward take on barley wine.

Bell Ringer, a recurring holiday seasonal, is obviously meant to be a double entendre with its 10.9 percent ABV. Without care, it could indeed lay you out on the canvas.

It pours a deep amber with a modest off-white head that quickly recedes in the face of the strong alcohol content. The hops come in strong, stronger than most barley wines. It doesn't quite have that very well-rounded caramel malt character and deep complexity seen in the best barley wines.

Bell Ringer might be a little bit one-dimensional, but it's still a very good beer. It's definitely one you want to split with others. It might also be a good idea, as the brewery advises, to lay one down for a while to see how it ages. B+

Review: Ska Brewing The One Eyed Monster

"Tell me if we nailed it," Ska Brewing Co. co-founder Bill Graham said, handing me his glass. "Raspberries and dark chocolate."

Ska decided to bring a new beer style to Durango for its annual beer to coincide with the city's Snowdown festival.

The One Eyed Monster, released last week, is what the brewery calls a Black IPA: essentially, an IPA brewed with dark malts.

When I walked into the release party at Ska last week to take a couple of bottles home, Graham was there. So, naturally, I interrogated him about the new beer while he was trying to play trivia with his friends.

The black IPA is a relatively young beer style that took hold in the Northwest about two years ago. Deschutes, Hopworks and other Oregon breweries have been at the forefront.

Ska's take on the style is very different from others I've seen.

While Deschutes and other NW breweries tend to favor typical, aggressive IPA hops like Cascade, Citra and Centenntial, Ska chose to hop The One Eyed Monster with Fuggles, a relatively mild hop of English origin, and Brewers Gold, a relatively mild hop of German origin.

The One Eyed Monster comes in at approximately 6.5 percent ABV and 65 IBUs, similar to a standard American IPA.

Ska brewed only 30 barrels of The One Eyed Monster and is distributing it only in Southwest Colorado. The 22-ounce bombers cost about $4.50 each.

It pours very dark, with a decent head of foam. The taste, at first, is a wash of chocolate malt, followed by a palate-cleansing hop flavor that tastes refreshing, not a word I often use in craft-beer reviews.

The aftertaste is indeed reminiscent of raspberries, perhaps also toothpaste (not a bad thing).

The style has provoked disagreement among beer taxonomists over what it should be called. Ska went with "Black IPA," a name that some have criticized as contradictory because it's saying black India pale ale, and a beer can't be both black and pale.

Folks in the Northwest prefer the term "Cascadian Dark Ale," after the regional Cascade Mountain range, which seems a little silly. You can't expect brewers in Colorado and elsewhere to follow that lead.

Neither does "India Black Ale" seem entirely satisfactory, because this new style is entirely American. The Brewers Association splits the difference, calling it an "American-style India Black Ale," which is probably about as good as we're going to get.

Putting aside the name game, Ska's version of the style is unlike any other you may encounter. While some brewers have reached for aggressive citrus hops that batter the malt into submission, the simple, humble Fuggles and Brewers Gold might be the way to go.

The One Eyed Monster is dark, malty and hefty. The hops are certainly here, but they don't dominate. It's an entirely pleasant departure.

The One Eyed Monster is an innovative approach to a still-developing beer style.  Not incidentally, it tastes quite good.

Bill, you nailed it. A

Review: Carver's Smoked Baltic Porter

Last week, Carver Brewing Co. tapped something new and different for local craft-beer drinkers. The brewery's Smoked Baltic Porter was a first for Carver's, and, to my knowledge, any of Durango's breweries.

Baltic porter is a centuries-old style that seems to be enjoying a recent resurgence. Pagosa Brewing just tapped its own attempt, and chatter about the style on other beer blogs indicates it is not merely a local phenomenon.

"Why now?" Carver's head Brewer Erik Maxson said in an e-mail. "Hard to say other than maybe the proliferation of breweries and their brewers' desire to explore lesser-known styles is also increasing. I'm sure there are plenty of things not yet explored in the style realm or ingredients-wise, but with so many already established styles it would take a really long time to exhaust all of those possibilities. On a personal note 'is there really anything new under the sun?'"

Ah, the Ecclesiastes-quoting brewer. Seriously, though, it's something I've heard from other brewers — It's very difficult to come up with anything truly new at this stage in the craft-brewing game. Maxson's assistant brewer pushed to brew the Baltic porter.

Carver's Smoked Baltic Porter comes in at 7 percent ABV and 45 IBUs. I picked up a growler last weekend for free with my stamped-out growler card (a great deal, by the way).

It pours an inky black with a big tan head of foam. In appearance, it's not unlike an imperial stout.

It has a grand, roasted malty taste, with a hint of smoke and a depth and complexity that exceeds the traits of basic porters.

Maxson said the beer uses smoked German malt at about 15 percent of the grist.

Incidentally, my fiancée and a female friend with whom I shared the growler were also impressed. It's often interesting which beers women like or don't like. This one passed the test.

Carver's Smoked Baltic Porter is a very tasty and well-executed beer that's worth your time and dimes. A-

Review: Steamworks sour brown ale

Durango has three new beers on tap just this week, and each is very different. (More on the other two later).

Steamworks Brewing Co. just tapped a sour brown ale brewed with Brettanomyces yeast. More and more brewers have been getting into weird souring yeasts, an encouraging and tasty trend.

It's a big, boozy beer, and as such it's served in a small goblet, which will run you about $5. (It's nice, actually, to see good beers served in glassware other than the ubiquitous shaker pint).

This one pours a fairly dark brown, with a modest off-white head of foam. As with many Brett beers, a fizzy, carbonated texture lingers.

The taste suggests apples and fall. Brett beers are endlessly fascinating — not only are they starkly different from each other, but they change dramatically over time. This one is already fairly tart, so it should be quite sour in a few months (if Steamworks has any left by then).

Steamworks' sour brown puckers. It wraps your tongue in sourness, with an almost soda-like fizz. Sour heads (a somewhat rarer breed than hop heads) should enjoy it. It's not a beer for the craft-appreciating novice, but it's good, and very interesting.

Some are already pronouncing the sour trend played out. Personally, I love the astonishing variety seen from one sour beer to another, and I wish there were more. Give this one a B, with appreciation for the extra time and expense that goes into brewing with Brett.

Also new are Steamworks' aggressive Elephant Rider IPA and Carver's Smoked Baltic Porter (interestingly, Pagosa Brewing also just tapped a Baltic porter). I'll have more on those later — after I drink them.

Review: Big Grizz Barleywine Ale (Carver's)

As mentioned on Durango's first, best and only beer blog last week, Carver Brewing Co. has tapped its Big Grizz Barleywine Ale, a potent English-style beer meant to keep your spirits high and chests warm in below-freezing weather.

I managed to stop in for a Big Grizz on Sunday night as temperatures dipped into the teens. A lovely server brought a little goblet to my table in exchange for a mere $3.50.

Apparently, it was from the 2009 batch, a keg that brewer Erik Maxson must have squirreled away to see how the old bear ages.

Well, it turns out. It has a hint of sweetness and a little fruitiness that is well balanced by hops. It sports  fairly assertive carbonation that cedes to the amber-colored 11 percent ABV body. A full texture gives the ursine beverage a substantial heft appropriate for the style.

I like it. Call it an A-, almost an A. Big Grizz is the only barley wine in town, and many thanks for that. Durango is far too cold to be left without a barley wine.

One nitpick about the name: Big Grizz? Carver's names most of its beers after local phenomena. The Durango area has bears, but not grizzlies.

Review: Rio Grande Pancho Verde Chile Cerveza

And so we come to the clunker. I purchased a six-pack of this stuff in Farmington long ago. I drank one and it took me many months to try another for review purposes.

Pancho Verde Chile Cerveza is the creation of Rio Grande Brewing in Moriarty, N.M., a dot on the map next to the bustling crap-tropolis of Albuquerque.

Pancho Verde pours a pale yellow, reminiscent of industrial American lager. It sports a minimal head of white foam for a few seconds before dissolving into tepid yellowness.

Green chiles, a crop for which New Mexico is justly famous, come through in the aroma and flavor. Pancho Verde is extremely light-bodied. The green chiles lend an organic, vegetable taste followed by a gut-turning injection of green chile heat.

Give Rio Grande props for doing something unusual and reflective of its home region. That's all the praise I can must for this one: Without the green chile, I imagine Pancho Verde would taste something like PBR. It's so thin-bodied that there's nothing to the flavor but green chile, a seering heat that is out of balance and unpleasant. As one guy wrote on BeerAdvocate, "If a green chile could take a piss, this is what would be in the toilet." A vulgar but illustrative comment.

The craft-brewing revolution began more than 30 years ago. With market competition and learning brought by homebrewing, conferences and much cross-germination and sharing among brewers, it has become downright rare to find a craft beer that tastes truly bad. This is one. D

Review: Marble Red Ale

My planned series of New Mexico beer reviews collided headlong with a busy week in real life. But let's get on with it:

Marble Brewery is a bit of a jewel in the still-developing world of New Mexico craft brewing. Founded in 2008, it is based in Albuquerque but also has a substantial tap room on the plaza in Santa Fe.

I was first impressed by a Marble beer I had at Three Rivers Brewery in Farmington, which was offering the Marble beer as a guest tap. I think it was an Old Ale, a deep, dark, boozy brew that stood out.

I didn't have another Marble beer until their folks showed up at Ska Brewing's 15th anniversay party. (A recap of that event is here). From the Wood,  a 9.2 percent ABV Scottish ale aged in oak barrels, had a delicious, full and well-rounded character, with hints of vanilla and oak.

So I couldn't help but pick up a six-pack of Marble Red Ale while at Trader Joe's in Santa Fe.

Marble Red is fairly burly at 6.5 percent ABV. It uses substantial caramel malt, which is more than balanced by the contributions of Crystal, Cascade and Simcoe hops.

It pours a dark amber, with a decent head of off-white foam. The smell has a bit of caramel and a ton of hops.

Marble Red is aggressively hopped - the spices wash over your tongue and dominate the taste. It's more like a cross between a red ale and an IPA than a typical red.

I particularly enjoy generously hopped reds. They carry a ton of flavor, but seem better balanced than some IPAs. If you ever find yourself in New Mexico, grab this beer. And hopefully, given Marble's impressive consistency, it won't be long before the young brewery distributes here. A-

Review: Sante Fe State Pen Porter

Sante Fe is one of the most stunningly unique places in America. It's as if someone took bits of Mexico and Spain and plopped them down firmly in the American West, surrounded by desert and mountains.

Every place name is in Spanish. The street grates say "Don't dump - drains to arroyo." The adobe architecture pleases the eye, as do the imposing Catholic cathedrals and the world-class art. And the food. Oh, God, the food.

Santa Fe has been thoroughly "discovered." Between the small city of 70,000, nearby Taos and environs, everyone from Julia Roberts to Val Kilmer, the late Dennis Hopper and former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld has chosen to live there at least part-time.

Fortunately, the land of Georgia O'Keefe and Tony Hillerman also offers ample craft beer to explore.

Santa Fe Brewing Co. is the oldest brewery in New Mexico. It is also the New Mexico brewery whose products are easiest to find in Colorado.

To start at a strong point in this week's New Mexico beer series, let's consider the State Pen Porter. It's one of Santa Fe's year-round, flagship offerings, and is readily available in six-packs here and there.

It pours a deep, inky almost-black with an imposing tan head of foam. The foam, no matter how carefully poured, will impress.

At 6.4 percent ABV, State Pen is relatively strong for a porter, a centuries-old English style that is widely brewed in the U.S. (including by Ska, with its comparable Ten Pin Porter).

Let State Pen warm for a few minutes to let the malts express themselves. And boy, do they - a wash of chocolate malt, with a little nuttiness. Some tasters perceive a hint of smoke in State Pen Porter (named for the nearby prison); I don't.

The dominant sweet chocolate taste is followed by a second wave of hop bitterness. This one has Cluster, Cascade and Willamette hops, and they're substantial enough to balance the ample chocolate malt.

It would be difficult to find a better porter. From the pour to the aroma to the taste, State Pen is a pleasure every time.

Santa Fe's website calls State Pen a "trademark beer of the Santa Fe Brewing Company’s master brewer, Ty Levis." Fine work, Mr. Levis. A

(An aside: If you visit Santa Fe, don't bother with the brewery itself. I went two weekends ago. It's out of town along a highway, past strip malls and chain restaurants. Only four beers were on tap. In fact, Trader Joe's had a better selection of Santa Fe beers than the brewery itself. Furthermore, the restaurant was out of chicken when I visited, and that ruled out about half the menu. Just buy their beer in a store).

Review: Deschutes Hop in the Dark

“From the nothing’s sacred Pacific Northwest comes a whole new beer style: Cascadian Dark Ale. Welcome to the curious place where the velvet dark of roasted malt meets the hop snap of IPA. Cheers.” –Deschutes Brewery

For a while now, the Northwest has been abuzz about a new beer style that the local advocates call Cascadian Dark Ale. Named for the Cascade mountains of Oregon, the beer style is essentially a black IPA.

Beer styles never stay confined to one region for long, so I offer a few thoughts about probably the most widely available example: Hop in the Dark from Deschutes Brewery, based in Bend, Ore.

Deschutes is arguably among the very best breweries in the nation. It complements an accomplished line of session beers such as Mirror Pond Pale Ale and Black Butte Porter with innovative releases like The Abyss imperial stout and The Dissident, a Flanders-style brown ale.

Deschutes recently released Hop in the Dark in 22-ounce bomber bottles as part of its Bond Street series. I purchased my bottle in Denver, but Deschutes does distribute in Durango, so it should be on the shelves here soon if it isn’t already.

Hop in the Dark pours a deep black with a modest tan foam head. The beer style presents an immediate quandary: do you drink it immediately after pouring, as you would with an IPA, or let it sit for a few minutes to draw out the dark malt flavor?

I don’t know if that question has a correct answer, but I chose to start drinking with little delay alongside a dinner of homemade macaroni and cheese (not the boxed stuff).

The ale’s first taste contributes dark malt flavors of coffee and chocolate. The hop sharpness comes later, but soon cedes to a clean, malty aftertaste. Hop in the Dark does not carry the lingering, bitter aftertaste typical of IPAs.

Hop in the Dark comes in at 6.5 percent alcohol by volume and 70 IBUs.It is a somewhat hefty beer, but the malt nicely counters the hop bitterness.

Most beer geeks seem to agree that Cascadian Dark Ale (or whatever one wants to call it) is indeed a new beer style, but I was struck by how… familiar … it seemed. Dark malt, hop kick: Yeah, I can handle that.

Hop in the Dark was brewed with oats, dark, Munich and crystal malts, along with Cascade, Citra and Centennial hops.

It isn’t so dramatically different from imperial porter, although hoppier and not reaching the high alcohol content typical of that style.

Deschutes says its brewers made 22 test batches of Hop in the Dark before they were satisfied. It shows. Hop in the Dark is well-executed and nicely balanced.

Hop in the Dark is not stunningly exotic, but it’s a nice change of pace. It tastes good. And at about $5 per bomber bottle, it’s a reasonable value.

Add one more worthy ale to Deschutes’ quiver. B

Review: Odell Saboteur

Odell Brewing's new release, Saboteur, is named for the yeasts that work within the rich brown ale. Saboteur was brewed with brettanomyces, a type of souring yeast than can indeed sabotage beers. But not this one.

Breweries are increasingly experimenting with brettanomyces. Ska Brewing in Durango joined the trend with their release earlier this year of Ska Sour.

Saboteur is a full-flavored brown ale aged in barrels with brettanomyces. This beer is not cheap: it comes with a suggested retail price of $12.99 per 750 ml (1 pint, 9.4 fluid ounces). Saboteur is bottled in a beautiful brown battle topped with a cork and cage.

Saboteur pours a shade of brown so dark it might as well be black. It gives off a rich, vanilla-inflected aroma, with a small head of chocolate-brown carbonation.

This one is special. A mild sourness comes rolling in, followed by a full, malty brown ale flavor. The finish is long and heavy on vanilla, reminiscent of pulling off a fine cigar.

Some sour beers are too sour for my taste. Saboteur strikes a great balance. The taste is immensely complex, with a slight sourness, vanilla, oak and maybe even a bit of cherry. A little alcohol warming from the 10 percent ABV slides down the throat.

If I were to nitpick, the slight sweetness gets a little tiring toward the end of the bottle.

I haven't paid much attention to Odell, a well-respected Fort Collins brewery, apparently to my detriment. Saboteur is an excellent beer. This is one you should seek out. (I found it at Star Liquors). Saboteur will be one of the best new Colorado beers of 2010. A

(Image courtesy of Odell Brewing).

Review: Ska Saison Du'Rango

Ska Brewing Co.'s Local Series has to be counted as one of the best things going in the Durango beer scene.

Several times a year, the boys in Bodo release a tasty, limited-run beer in 22-ounce bomber bottles for our enjoyment.

In the last few years, these Local Series beers have included a fresh-hop IPA, a pilsener and an oak-aged orange cream stout. There doesn't seem to be a whole lot of rhyme or reason for the releases. Ska's brewers just brew what suits them, and release them when they can.

It's important for brewers to have chances to experiment. It would get boring if they were just brewing Pinstripe every day.

Which brings us to no. 15 in the Local Series, Saison Du'Rango. Ska Head Brewer Thomas Larsen made it for a saison festival put on by Jason Yester of Trinity Brewing in Colorado Springs.

It's plentiful in Durango, and according to Ska, limited quantities are available on the Front Range.

A traditional rustic Belgian style, saisons are distinguished by their yeast character, big, fluffy pours, light color and dry, crisp finishes. They're great for hot weather.

Saison Du'Rango is the second or third saison brewed in Durango, depending on whether you consider Durango Brewing's 20th Anniversary Ale to be a saison. Carver Brewing's Saison de Tour last summer was the first.

It comes in at 6.2 percent ABV and 19 IBUs, Larsen says. That's typical of the style. Saisons tend to be a little boozy but lightly hopped. The yeasts must be allowed to shine through without too much hop bitterness.

Notably, Larsen used two yeast strains: that of Saison Dupont - the classic of the style - and a French farmhouse yeast strain. A bit of lemon peel and some green peppercorns were added to the brew.

Saison Du'Rango pours a light amber color, perhaps a shade or two darker than is typical of the saisons I've had. A slight head tops the glass.

Ska's saison, like most, is refreshing. It's a great beer for washing down all sorts of food. The carbonation and fresh, grassy taste cleanse the palate.

It's slightly tart from the yeast. Green peppercorns and lemon peel contribute mellow flavoring to this saison.

Saison Du'Rango is quite good, but it stops short of being transcendent. The yeast character is more subdued than in other saisons I've tried.

As with all beers brewed with farmhouse yeasts, Saison Du'Rango can be expected to change over time. Within a few months, it may be significantly tarter than it is today. I look forward to seeing those yeasts do their thing. A-

Review: Durango Brewing Co. 20th Anniversary Ale

Rarely have I been as conflicted about a beer as I am about Durango Brewing Co.’s 20th Anniversary Ale, recently released to celebrate the brewery’s founding in 1990.

On one hand, it’s a risk-taking beer, and I always cheer experimentation by our local breweries. Durango Brewing has not brewed a Belgian-style ale in recent years, to my knowledge, so this is a bit of a jump.

Belgian-style brewing is rapidly catching on in the American craft brewing scene, and we’ve seen Durango’s breweries put out several Belgian-inspired ales in the last 12 months. It’s a trend I like and hope to see continue.

On the other, DBC’s 20th Anniversary Ale is schizophrenic. Let me explain: It uses a farmhouse yeast that should dry and sour the beer, but it is not a saison. Likewise, it uses wheat malt, coriander, orange peel and honey – ingredients common to Belgian-style wits – but it is not a wit.

DBC’s 20th Anniversary Ale hews to no known style. Instead, it is a kitchen-sink “Belgian-style ale” that combines wit, saison and golden ale characteristics. The result leaves me with questions.

It’s a great idea to brew with funky farmhouse yeasts. I’m not sure if it’s such a great idea to then add honey and wheat, which flattens and obscures the qualities of those yeasts.

What makes saisons and some other Belgian beers like Orval so amazing is the yeast. Farmhouse yeasts can make a beer slightly tart to puckeringly sour, with a dry, crisp finish to boot. They will funk your beer up.

Perhaps they ought to be allowed to do their thing without adjuncts.

DBC’s newest beer is not tart or sour or even dry. It’s a tad sweet, with an aroma of wheat and hay. Czech Saaz hops contribute to the mix, but hops are not the star of this show.

DBC’s 20th Anniversary Ale seems like a beer trying to do too much, as if given the opportunity to brew a Belgian beer, the brewers couldn’t resist trying to brew three styles in one.

A huge caveat: Beers brewed with these types of yeast will change over time. How 20th Anniversary Ale tastes today is not how it will taste in six months. These sorts of yeasts like to assert themselves, and time may result in a dryness and tartness that is not present today.

It’s possible that there’s a great beer in those bottles waiting to get out. I could see the yeast beating the wheat and honey into submission until they are no more than pleasant complexities to a tart ale that’s more similar to a saison.

Happily, DBC bottled 20th Anniversary Ale in brown glass bottles of 1 pint, 9.4 fluid ounce volume (750 ml), topped by a cork and a silver-colored cage. The packaging should keep the beer unspoiled as it ages.

My recommendation: try it fresh, try it again in three months, then six months, then a year. I plan on drinking it over time to see how it changes.

It may get better as time goes on. But for now this one gets a B.

Review: El Oso Agrio (Carver Brewing)

At Carver Brewing Co., I generally read past the usual offerings on the menu board to try whatever seasonal is on tap. This time, it's El Oso Agrio, a sour beer gently cared for by Carver's brewer Erik Maxson.

El Oso Agrio comes in a goblet for $5. It's a big beer, about 11 percent ABV and 90 IBUs. The sour taste is up front. I wouldn't want it to be any more sour, but it stops just short of being excessive.

El Oso Agrio (the sour bear) is a relative of Carver's Big Grizz Barleywine that has been hanging out in barrels. I'll let Maxson tell you about it:

"In 2003 I put some of our 120 Shilling Scotch ale in a whiskey barrel, and it sat in the corner of the upper level of the patio for a while. In 2003 the Big Grizz that was barrel aged was consumed, but for the batches of Grizz 2004 through 2007 we held a whiskey barrel on the patio. I'd check them periodically to see where they were going, and tried to act in their best interests; some were fruited, some were not. The goal I had in mind was to let the character that the barrels had developed to go, with minimal interference from me. I never re-pitched the barrels with yeast or other critters.

"When the barrels were no longer 'clean' I put them to work on this project. In early 2009 we brought the all the barrels (one six-year old Scotch, and four consecutive years' versions of the Grizz) back into the cellar and blended them with some of the 2008 batch of Grizz that was on draught. Once the new blend was allowed to age for several months it was racked into kegs and stored for the remainder of the 2009.

"We did briefly put the El Oso on line at the end of spring last year for a test. We had the pleasure of serving it at the Governor's Mansion local beer and food pairing during the (Great American Beer Festival), and also at the Vail Big Beers (Belgians and Barleywines Festival) in early January."

El Oso Agrio is one of those special beers that doesn't quite exist anywhere else. It's heavy, sour and boozy, and not surprisingly, reminiscent of barleywine with a sour kick. It's not an everyday beer, but it makes a heck of a winter warmer. A-

Review: Oak-Aged Orange Cream Stout (Ska Brewing)

Thomas Larsen, head brewer at Ska Brewing Co., had a sore throat last spring. He wandered the grocery store aisles looking for ice cream. He ended up with Swedish sherbet, an orange sherbet with chunks of chocolate.

It was good, and Larsen thought, “I’ve got to make this a beer,” he recalled.

Months later, Local Series #14 is born: Oak-Aged Orange Cream Stout. It appeared on the shelves in Durango last week.

Orange Cream Stout is based on Ska’s Steel Toe Milk Stout, a bronze-medal winner at the 2009 Great American Beer Festival and an old mainstay in the Durango brewery’s lineup.

Orange Cream Stout was aged for three to four months with sweet orange peel in Peach Street Distillers’ Colorado Straight Bourbon barrels (Ska and Peach Street in Palisade have some overlapping ownership).

Given its Steel Toe relation, it’s no surprise that Orange Cream Stout is quite good. It pours black, with little head. A roasted coffee taste yields to a mellow sweetness from the orange peel. It gets better as it warms, allowing the flavors full expression.

I would imagine it pairs well with all sorts of desserts. I split a bomber, drinking one glass with the beer alone. With the second glass, I made a float with vanilla ice cream. It worked well.

Ska’s Local Series comes out a few times a year with something new. The mad brewers have made everything from a pilsener to a fresh-hop IPA in this limited-distribution series, always packaged in 22-ounce bomber bottles. Orange Cream Stout is particularly limited; Larsen brewed only 75 cases. He gave me a bomber to sample and we split another at the brewery. Ska employees kept coming up to taste it. It was an admittedly biased audience, but everyone seemed to like it.

The brewery ought to be proud of Orange Cream Stout. It’s really a pleasant beer, not overpowering with booze or hops (5.5 percent ABV, about 30 IBUs). The orange taste is a natural fruit flavoring, not the uber-sweet artificial taste we’re used to from orange sodas.

I love imperial stouts, but sometimes it’s nice to drink a stout that’s not overpowering. I’ll be restocking my fridge with this one. Besides, it’s winter, and during winter, dammit, I want to drink stout. A-

Review: Ska Sour

Sour beers are the latest craze to hit the American craft-brewing scene. A number of breweries, like New Belgium, Avery and Deschutes, like to stretch their creativity with sours. Others, like Russian River and Cascade Brewing, make it the core of their offerings.

It's a time-consuming, labor-intensive and expensive brewing method. The Belgian souring yeasts used to give these beers their character are cantankerous and can cause havoc if not properly restrained.

Ska Sour is Ska Brewing Co.'s aptly named entry into the category, and it is the first Durango beer to tackle this style of brewing. The beer spent the better part of a year in Heaven Hill bourbon barrels with Brettanomyces and Lactobacillus yeast knocking around.

Head Brewer Thomas Larsen said Ska simply wanted to experiment with the brewery's first sour beer. Ska unleashed it at last weekend's Big Beers, Belgians and Barley Wines festival in Vail.

Ska was exactly right to call Ska Sour a "Belgian-inspired sour pale ale." It may be inspired by Belgian brewing traditions - the Belgians have used Brettanomyces in beers like Orval for quite some time - but it is not brewed to any classic Belgian style.

Ska Sour comes in sizable brown glass bottles that top $9 each after sales tax. The stout price reflects the intensive brewing process.

The yeast are eager to play. As soon as I popped the cork, foam peeked out of the bottle top. When poured, the white head settled quickly atop a copper-amber body. It's a pretty beer.

Ska Sour landed at 6 percent ABV. More notably, it's aggressively hopped to about 62 IBUs. That's IPA territory. (By comparison, Ska's Modus Hoperandi IPA is 65 IBUs).

Ska Sour is dominated by two tastes: sour and bitter. The souring yeasts are readily apparent, but so are the aforementioned bittering hops. This is a peculiarly American creation. The Belgians would not hop their beers this aggressively, nor would the English mess with souring yeasts.

These flavors - sour and bitter - seem to be at war with each other within the beer. Some craft beer fans seem to love the combination of West Coast-style hopping and funky Belgian yeasts. Try as I might, I'm not one of them. I find the flavors not at all complementary.

Ska Sour is worth trying for the novelty, and to support the extraordinary time and effort that went into creating this beer. The brewery is in the middle of a flood of releases, with Snowdown's Hyper Fierce Gnar Gnar Hefe only recently unveiled and Orange Cream Stout and DIFF, a recurring seasonal witbier, soon to come.

And actually, Ska already brews an impressive Belgian-inspired ale that is too often overlooked: True Blonde Dubbel.

As for Ska Sour, I give it a C+. I'm curious how others will react. It's not for the faint of heart, but it might win some acclaim from the beer-geek set. Some beer drinkers, with apologies to George Clinton, will surely want to make their funk the Ska funk.

Please tell me your impressions by leaving a comment.