REVIEW: Pinstripe Red Ale from Ska Brewing Co.

I like Durango. I spent about two weeks there getting a wilderness first responder certification and doing a little kayaking on the side. It reminds me a lot of my home town of Silver City, New Mexico; a college town, with a nice downtown, close on the heels of some amazing wild country.

There are two main differences that I noticed in my short time there. One is the Animas River. It’s hard to miss as it beautifully winds its way through town. The other is the craft beer scene. Durango is maybe twice as big as Silver, but where Silver doesn’t have much of a local beer scene, Durango sustains more than its share with five microbreweries in operation. Something is wrong with this picture and will have to be remedied one day, but until that time, Durango is a great place to visit.

Durango is a unique spot and Ska Brewing fits well, with a microbrew revolutionary attitude, which pits them against the corporate evil of “big beer.” They heartedly express and maintain this attitude through a website dressed in the black-and-white rowdiness of an old style comic bash of heroes against villains. This comic jaunt extends to their labeling and naming of their beers.

In the Legion of Ska, Pinstripe is one of the villains, president and chief of conglomeration, he is quoted as saying “I eat the little guy for breakfast. I cover him in ketchup and eat him, just swallow him down, like a sausage made of hopes and dreams. A tasty little craft-brewer kielbasa.” Luckily the heroes of Ska Brewing fight on against Pinstripe, his henchmen, and Buster the Taste Destroyer.

Why would Ska name a beer after one of their greatest threats? What better way to slap a villain across the face then naming the very thing he fights to destroy after said villain. Now that’s sweet irony.

Pinstripe may wake every morning, jump out of his huge bed built on a framework of craft-brewer souls and scarf down that breakfast of artisan brewer dreams, but when he turns to put on that pinstriped suit… he’ll remember a certain red ale. He’ll remember who made it, and that out there, just out of reach of his grubby boney hands, is a whole army of like-minded brewers who practice a craft unfathomable to Pinstripe, a craft loved by an ever increasing tide.

The Pour and Aroma

Pinstripe falls into the glass a classic amber and not quiet the red the name implies. But it is easy to forgive a little color disparity. American Amber and American Red are really the same beer style, though usually when “red” is used in the beer name the color leans in that direction a bit more then my current example.

A tightly packed, off-white head rolls and clambers to get above the liquid, before dropping back to beer-line. Aroma of heavy malt, with nice rounded roasted grains, and hints at caramel. There are thin floral notes and some sweetness, whispering its siren song from the edges of rocky malt outcroppings.

Mouthfeel and Taste

Mouthfeel brings light carbonation to the table with a smooth medium-thin fullness. Sweet malts hit hard, with modest roast and caramel following close. Mid palate brings out minimal and fleeting apricot-like notes. A bit of bittering on the swallow balances the sweet but only enough to keep the malt from overrunning.

Finishing The Impression

Though nothing in this beer will jump out at you, make you lift the bottle toward the heavens, and proclaim its greatness, it is a very good American Amber. It’s important to think of this beer as an American Amber and not expect the “red” of some other so called red ales.

Though the styles are the same and this beer is well within the style guidelines the name does tend to throw you for a moment. It would have seemed just as easy to call it Pinstripe Amber and avoid something that some customers could potentially hang on.

That being said, if you are searching for a good all-around beer with a little more body then a lager, this one could mark the end of your search. Pick it up, give it a whirl, and don’t forget to check out their website. It’s one of a kind and well worth it.

Cheers!

More Beer Reviews:

• 90 Shilling Ale from Odell Brewing Company
• Prohibition Ale from Speakeasy Ales & Lagers
• Espresso Amber from Peak Organic Brewing Co.
• Spring Blonde from New Belgium Brewing Company