The owners are a bit older now, with gray hairs in evidence, but the beer is still fresh.
For the 20th year, brewers from Ska Brewing Co. and Steamworks Brewing Co. met to brew their Face Plant Ale in what they believe may be the oldest collaboration in the burgeoning craft beer industry.
The Face Plant Ale – it’s a lager this year, but never mind that – first was brewed in 1995 in cooperation with Yeti Cycles, then a bicycle manufacturer in Bodo Industrial Park not far from Ska’s original brewery.
Brian McEachron and Kris Oyler from Steamworks met Ska’s co-founders, Bill Graham and Dave Thibodeau, around that time. By the next year, Steamworks had opened at 801 East Second Ave., and the collaboration was on for good.
“We never really saw each other as direct competitors,” McEachron said Wednesday. “We had the brewpub model; they had their brewery out in Bodo. We went to all their Ska-B-Q’s, and they ended up dating and marrying our servers.”
Ska and Steamworks both have risen atop the swelling wave of the craft-beer industry. Craft beer in 2014 grabbed 11 percent of the market share, according to the Brewers Association, in an industry dominated by giants such as Anheuser Busch-InBev, the maker of Budweiser. Sales volume for craft beer rose to nearly $20 billion.
Ska and Steamworks were Durango’s third and fourth breweries after Carver Brewing Co., founded in 1988, and Durango Brewing Co. in 1990. More recently, BREW Pub and Kitchen and Animas Brewing Co. have opened.
Brewers Spencer Roper from Steamworks and Thomas Larsen from Ska kicked off the brewing process Wednesday by mashing in pilsner malt and stirring it with a giant river paddle. Oyler passed around glasses of Steamworks’ Colorado Kolsch to give the brewing dignitaries an eye-opener. A pile of peanut shells remained from the night before.
“It used to be hard to drink beer in the morning,” McEachron said. “All of the sudden, it’s become easy.”
The beer will be released May 22 in 22-ounce bomber bottles around Durango, on tap at both breweries and from a truck at Buckley Park during the Iron Horse Bicycle Classic. Each year, Ska hosts a bicycle ride to Steamworks during the Iron Horse to release the Face Plant Ale. A portion of the proceeds will benefit Mercy Health Foundation.
Over the years, several different beers have appeared under the Face Plant Ale label. Among them: an English-style bitter, a “Mud and Blood” combination of amber ale and hefeweizen, a pale ale and a hop-forward pale lager. This year it’s a Czech-style pilsner, a classic light lager using the same yeast as Pilsner Urquell, considered a model of the style.
Roper said he expects the pilsner to be an easy-drinking summer beer. It should come in less than 5 percent alcohol by volume, he said.
As Iron Horse cyclists train for the race to Silverton by steaming in spin classes, Face Plant Ale will ferment at Steamworks at about 50 degrees Fahrenheit.
Collaborations between breweries are an increasing trend in craft brewing, even resulting in their own beer festival – Collaboration Fest, held March 21 in Denver. Thibodeau said he’s been unable to unearth any earlier collaborations in the craft beer industry than Ska and Steamworks’ Face Plant Ale.
Yeti, which moved to Golden in 1999, donated a bike to be given away at this year’s Iron Horse.
“I really think it was the first collaboration,” Thibodeau said. “Between us and (Steamworks) and Yeti, it was all about handmade in Durango.”
cslothower@ durangoherald.com
