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Beer Review: SKA Pinstripe Red
Skankin’ Telluride Bluegrass by Josh Mishell from Flying Dog Ales
Ok, so I had previously mentioned that I’d be writing about Denver watering holes and restaurants, but this week will break my promise. But if you know me, that’s not really much of a stretch. This past weekend I had the opportunity to cruise down to Telluride to take in some bluegrass and some Southwest Colorado beer.
If you’ve never been to Telluride, it’s a pretty long six and a half hour trip to the Southwest corner of the state. We left Thursday afternoon and I spent 4 wonderful days hanging out in one of the most beautiful parts of the world. Being so far from civilization is what keeps Telluride cool, though. It’s not like Frisco, where any sucker from Denver can cruise up for skiing, a show, or hiking. You actually sort of have to plan to go there.
I did the bare minimum of planning via the internet, which involved finding carpools to and from Telluride and a place to stay. Most people plan a few months in advance, I was planning a week in advance. So I took what I could get.
The beauty of Telluride in the summer is their festival scene: Yoga festivals, mushroom festivals, Blues & Brews (Flying Dog was a sponsor of that one last year), and even the Telluride Bluegrass Festival.
I saw tons of music, not all bluegrass acts. People like Brett Dennen, Tift Merritt, Darrell Scott, Bela Fleck, Yonder Mountain String Band, Mike Morris, and about 25 other bands… I like lots of things about bluegrass, being an acoustic musician. There’s a ton of improvisation in bluegrass these days. Growing up, I was huge into Ska music, which shares the same emphasis on improvisation, albeit with electric instruments and a horn section. Bands like Skavoovie and the Epitones, Let’s Go Bowling, Johnny Socko, the Skatallites, and Spring Heeled Jack (and everything on the SKA NYC label) made me tick when I was in high school.
Why all this music talk? Because I drank a bunch of SKA Pinstripe Red while I was down there.
SKA is a brewery from Durango that started in 1995. Their employees were passionate about beer and about Ska music. 1995 was the heyday of Ska music and craft beer was just catching on. These days ska is something that people reminisce about, and craft beer is huge. How things change in 10 years. I still have my black and white Doc Marten wingtips that I bust out on special occasions.
Telluride was hot, considering that it’s in the mountains. When you’re sitting outside in 80° heat for 4 straight days, excessively heavy or bitter beer doesn’t exactly sound awesome to me. So I decided to make Pinstripe Red my warm-weather craft beer of choice. Red beers, brown ales and amber ales are cousins in the brewing world, and many share similar characteristics (namely not a lot of hop bitterness and moderate malt sweetness). Pinstripe Red is 5.1% ABV, and when you don’t have a car and everything is within walking distance, you might be drinking quite a few beers in a day (mission accomplished). Brewed with Caramel malts and Liberty hops, I found that Pinstripe Red was perfectly refreshing, and there was a very minimal fruity finish in the beer. Sure I drank a bunch of other craft beers while I was in Telluride, but I kept coming back to SKA’s delicious Pinstripe Red.
50 days ago / / Link
Ska is a rad brewery, I visited a few years back…super friendly…gave us an impromptu tour. Their beer is tasty. The red being my second favorite to their brown. Boomshakalaka…back to work.
— Ryan Lee · Jul 1, 08:59 AM · #