Colorado’s Ska Brewing builds experimental beer lab and tasting room (Mod Brewery)

Beer is a vast chemical laboratory and sometimes a cool mid-sized one.

It doesn’t matter if you’re an astrophysicist, microbiologist, witch doctor or craft brewer, a scientist needs space to work — a comfortable laboratory, correct equipment, an educated staff and (if all else fails) maybe a Yog-Sothoth-style sacrificial table (you know, for those demon conjuring moments). The scientists at Ska Brewing Co. understand this. The Durango, Colo.-based brewhouse realizes that it needs a venue to experiment and create the next generation of recipes and techniques for craft brewing. And why not make it an attraction where you can taste beer while watching the magic happen?

Enter the Mod Brewery.

After months of development and anticipation, the Mod Brewery has been unveiled as the new birthplace for Ska Brewing’s small batch beer creations. Mod Brewery serves as a way for Ska to offer its specialty one-off brews on eight rotating taps in a cool, behind-the-scenes setting. The Mod Brewery will not bottle or can any of the beers it creates, and instead exclusively serve as a tasting room for visitors. The new facility will deliver assorted seven-bbl-batches of blended and experimental offerings on a year-round basis, available only on tap at Ska World HQ.

“Mod Brewhouse will add another dimension to Ska’s craft beer portfolio. It will exemplify our brewer’s talent and versatility across a wide array of styles,” said Ska Founder Dave Thibodeau. “Customers love our current offerings, and we won’t mess with those, but we also want to wow them what more we can do. We can get creative thanks to Mod’s enabling of experimentation and innovation.”

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Magic, ain’t it?

The mad laboratory

In order for Ska to fulfill demand and production of its flagship offerings in the existing facility, the veteran craft brew brand felt that experimental ales and one-offs deserved a mad laboratory of their own. Mod Brewery offers a structured program on which Ska can increase production of its popular specialty beers. Ska World HQ underwent renovations earlier this month to make room for the new brewery. The additional taps will increase the tasting room’s draft selections to 20.

Many Mod Brewery recipes call for local fruits and fermentation in barrels from Ska’s sister distillery, Peach Street Distillers, out of Palisade, Colo. The Mod beers will have varying levels of tartness to complement the blend of local fruits used in producing them. Mod Brewery is an entity of its own within the Ska World HQ. Stop by to enjoy the first concoction of the Mod Brewery and sport some new merchandise at 225 Girard Street in Durango, Colo. Tours of Mod Brewery will be available daily at 4 p.m.