Ska-B-Q resumes

The season's first Ska-B-Q kicks off tonight (Thursday, May 14) at Ska Brewing HQ on Girard Street in Bodo Industrial Park.

Ska currently has the Bootleggers Society's Spring Tonic Elixir on tap in addition to Ska's seasonal Mexican Logger and all the usual favorites.

Coors on fire

A Coors beer truck caught fire in Durango on Wednesday, wasting untold amounts of Rocky Mountain goodness. The Durango Herald reports:

Firefighters used foam to suppress the fire. Apparently, the cans of beer that exploded in the heat weren't enough to douse the flames, said Dave Abercrombie, spokesman for the Durango & Fire Rescue Authority.

"They were popping off, but not a sufficient amount of volume to put the fire out," he said.

Soggy Coaster wonders how the Frost Brew Liner stood up to the intense heat.

Questions for Thibodeau

Soggy Coaster will be sitting down with Dave Thibodeau, president and co-founder of Ska Brewing, for a Q-and-A as soon as our mutual schedules allow. The results will be posted here.

I have my own questions I'd like to ask the man, but I'll put it out there for y'all: What questions would you like answered?

Leave a comment or e-mail me at soggycoaster(at)gmail(dot)com.

Victory is mine

Soggy Coaster has been working his way through a six pack from Victory Brewing in Pennsylvania, split evenly between the Whirlwind Wit and Prima Pils.

One can't really go wrong with any of their beers, but Soggy Coaster was in the mood for some easy-sipping summer brews.

A summer seasonal, Whirlwind Wit is a Belgian-style wheat beer. It pours very pale, almost white. The taste is wheaty, fruity and refreshing. If you like Ska's DIFF, you'll like this, too. It's well worth checking out.

Prima Pils is oddly hoppy for a pilsener. Perhaps Soggy Coaster should have been tipped off by the hop cone adorning the bottle label of this year-round brew.

If you're a hophead, the Prima Pils will appeal. I personally preferred the Whirlwind Wit.

(Logo courtesy Victory Brewing).

Honest pints

Jeff Alworth over at Beervana has been plugging away on his Honest Pint Project for a while now. His basic premise is that if you pay for a pint, you should get a pint. He started by certifying certain Portland pubs as purveyors of honest pints.

The rub is that many pints you receive on tap don't actually contain 16 oz. of liquid. Some have false bottoms that rob the glass of capacity. (This is apparently most often a problem at chain restaurants). But even 16 oz. glasses don't yield 16 ounces of beer after the foam has dissipated.

Alworth's idea has caught on way beyond the blogosphere. He earned a write up in the Wall Street Journal last year. On Thursday, Oregon's House of Representatives gave its approval to a bill that would allow bars and restaurants to request a health inspector to measure their glassware. As Seattle Weekly reported, "If it passes the full-pint test, the establishment is certified as serving an 'Honest Pint,' good for two years and for the privilege to display a sticker on premises."

Oregon's legislation is amusing but it may have some real effects. It's probably most valuable as a public relations vehicle in getting people to associate Oregon with serious beer drinking.

Locally, Soggy Coaster congratulates Steamworks and The Irish Embassy on serving honest pints. Those two establishments offer 20 oz. "imperial pints" that if ordered guarantee at least 16 ounces of actual beer.

The other option is to simply not call your beer a pint. Lost Dog advertises its $2 beers as "drafts." That's honest, and for $2, it's one of Soggy Coaster's favorite taps in Durango.

More on grocery store sales

The Durango Herald has an editorial today on efforts to allow full-strength beer to be sold in grocery stores. The piece comes down on the side of the liquor-store owners and brewers, who fear competition from grocery stores would hurt local businesses and jobs. The meat of it:

" ... the profit ... will go to an out-of-state corporation instead of a local liquor store. That business' employees, the guy who used to load the truck in Denver, the truck driver and the salesperson who used to call on the liquor store will all be looking for work.

That is a high price to pay for so little convenience."

Beer and everyday life

Jeff Alworth over at Beervana has some interesting thoughts about beer's place in everyday life:

A week or two ago, I was in the County Cork after work having a pint and a lentil burger. In that sun-suffused neighborhood pub, eleven tables were occupied and in the room, eight of the patrons were children under ten. They were accompanied by their parents, nearly all of whom were also having a pint, and by seven, seven-thirty, they had all departed, mostly by foot. Of the many ways in which to gauge what a "beer city" really is, I can think of no better marker. If you have local pubs where families go to dine and enjoy locally-made craft beer, you have deep penetration into the culture of the town. You have young parents who are beer fans and who are rearing their children to regard beer not as a vice, but a healthy, wholesome part of the diet and the pub as a healthy, happy place to see members of your community. The health and roots of such a beer community are robust and sturdy and will support the creation and consumption of local beer for decades to come.

He was talking about Portland. Yet this seems to me a fairly close approximation of what Durango is like at its best. Durango breweries attract their fair share of asinine tourists and college binge drinkers, but they also attract a lot of locals who just like to enjoy a pint.
Alworth touches on beer "not as a vice" but part of everyday life. We need to move toward that, toward a healthy relationship with alcohol that is neither abstemious nor overindulgent, and away from binge-drinking culture. Breweries, I think, do encourage a healthy relationship with alcohol. Most of their patrons aren't going to follow up their pint with a night of Jaeger shots, drunken-driving, wife-beating and child neglect.

A day in the life

A pitcher of Steamworks Slam Dunkel enjoyed on the patio of the brewery's Durango restaurant Monday.

Dunkelweizens have always struck me with a bit of cognitive dissonance: they look dark, almost as dark as a stout, but they taste like wheats. Perhaps not surprisingly, as dunkelweizen translates literally as "dark wheat."

This particular beer, Slam Dunkel (5.9 percent ABV, 21 IBUs), was delicious. It poured a substantial two-finger head out of the pitcher. A light, crisp and refreshing but hardly simplistic taste followed. I'd give it a solid B.

Review: Cinder Cone Red Ale (Deschutes)

Cinder Cone Red Ale holds a special place in my heart as one of the beers, along with Mirror Pond Pale Ale, that got me into craft beer in the first place.

Cinder Cone means spring has sprung. It means the time has come to unearth the backpacking gear and to think about heading to Utah for the weekend. It means hope remains in the nascent baseball season.

Cinder Cone has returned to the shelves for its annual seasonal appearance. It's available fairly widely; most well-stocked liquor stores in Colorado should have it. I wish it were like chiles, and I could freeze some for the long, Cinder Cone-less winter. Sadly, I doubt the taste would hold up.

As the name would suggest, Cinder Cone is a red ale, and in this, it has plenty of competition. Pinstripe Red Ale from Ska is the best-known local offering, but there is also Steamworks Lizard Head Red Ale and Durango Amber Ale. Not to mention the other out-of-state offerings, such as Stone Levitation.

Cinder Cone is brewed with Amarillo and Tettnang hops, along with caramel malt and roasted barley. Both Cinder Cone and Stone Levitation tend toward the hoppier end of red ales, as befits the West Coast breweries from which they come. Levitation, in particular has a piney resin taste that is quite different from Pinstripe, which has a maltier taste. Here's a comparison of a few red ales:

Cinder Cone: 5.4% ABV, 55 IBUs
Stone Levitation: 4.4% ABV, 45 IBUs
Pinstripe Red: 5.2% ABV, 42 IBUs
Lizard Head Red 5.6% ABV, 25 IBUs
Durango Amber: 5.5%, 19 IBUs

The list above taught me a little about my own tastes; I clearly prefer reds on the hoppy side. Cinder Cone has a deep and inviting flavor, suggestive of hops. The flavor profile is much stronger than in many other red ales.

Cinder Cone is brewed by Oregon’s Deschutes Brewery. Deschutes is best known for its impressive session beers like Mirror Pond and Black Butte Porter. Lately, it has moved into some of the most adventurous brewing territory in the country with special releases like The Abyss, an imperial stout that is among the best of its kind, and The Dissident, an arresting Belgian-style sour.

Cinder Cone Red Ale is not unlike many other reds. It just happens to be exceptionally well done. When one wants a break from the usual offerings, Cinder Cone is an excellent choice. B+

Liquor store owners anticipate campaign

The grocery-store sales debate marches onward.

A recap: Under Colorado law, grocery stores are not allowed to sell beverages exceeding 3.2 percent alcohol by volume. In practice, this means grocery stores sell the standard Coors, Bud, etc., all at 3.2 percent ABV, while liquor stores sell all the good beer.

Current law essentially gives liquor stores (along with bars and tasting rooms) a monopoly on selling full-strength beer. This has worked enormously to the advantage of liquor-store owners, who are understandably reluctant to lose their monopoly.

Brewers are siding aggressively with the liquor-store owners, fearing that they would lose access to customers if they had to compete in chain supermarkets.

Everybody expects a bill to resurface to allow grocery stores to sell full-strength beer. A bill died this legislative session that would have done that. A voter initiative is another real possibility that is thought to have strong chances.

Local brewers would probably feel a hit if the law was loosened, but liquor-store owners are the ones with a gun to their heads.

A group of liquor-store owners gathered recently at Ska Brewing in Durango to plan for the fight, reports Ted Holteen of The Durango Herald.

Soggy Coaster's speculative take: A law allowing grocery stores to sell full-strength beer looks likely to eventually pass. Some of the smaller, weaker liquor stores will close, leaving those with the largest selections alive. Durango breweries will have a tougher time distributing in Denver, but they will survive and continue to prosper.

Agree? Disagree? Thoughts? Rants? Leave a comment.