A white trailer crammed with craft beers from Texas was locked up next to the stage at Ska Brewery on Thursday night.

Colorado liquor-licensing laws would not permit the beers to be tapped at the local brewery, but the locked-up beers symbolized the closed-off cause of the cyclists from Austin, Texas, riding for “Pints for Prostates.”

“The real problem with prostate cancer is men. We don’t want to talk about it. We don’t get checked. We literally have to have a limb falling off before we go to the doctor,” said Davis Tucker of Pints for Prostates.

“That’s part of why we’re doing this. Guys like beer. A lot of guys like cycling. So we’re trying to get people interested in the idea of, ‘Look, it’s not a big deal. Don’t worry about it. If you think something might be wrong, even if you don’t, get checked every year,’” he said.

Tucker, who is en route on a 1,400-mile cycling trip to Denver in dedication to a friend and brewer who has suffered from the disease, said early detection is key.

“Once it gets a hold of you, it’s not an easy task. That’s the whole idea of getting checked early,” he said. “Don’t screw around. Don’t think it won’t happen to you, particularly if it happened to someone in your family. The odds just go through the roof.”

The irony of prostate cancer being an unmentionable malady is that most people seem to know somebody who has suffered from it.

On his cycling trip from Austin to Denver, which he plans to conclude Tuesday, Tucker said he has met somebody every day who knows someone who has been affected.

“It has touched so many people we don’t even know,” Tucker said.

Tucker, who is not a regular road cyclist, said he wished he had started the trip in much better shape.

Accompanied by two other riders and averaging about 120 to 140 miles of cycling a day, Tucker is looking forward to descending into South Fork today.

He said locals from various stops often ride part of the way with him.

Tucker, owner of North by Northwest microbrewery and restaurant in Austin, knows a lot about beer and said Durango has a very good reputation in Texas for its craft beer.

Listing his three favorite places as “Austin, Taos and Durango,” Tucker said most Coloradans he knows love Austin, if not exactly Texas.

When he tells people he is from Austin, he gets the reaction, “You’re OK.”

jhaug@durangoherald.com