Ear to the ground

“Why don’t they call him Shaun Red?”

– A local 6-year-old expressing confusion over the fact that Shaun White doesn’t actually have white hair and a beard

Hops to riches

The local Star Search for brewers has come to a happy end, and Ska Brewing Co. has announced the winner of the second annual Snowdown Homebrew Competition. Clancy Calhoun, a homebrewer from Aztec, is coming out of the garage and onto liquor store shelves with his “Clancy’s Black.” The dark lager follows a German style known as Schwarzbier and beat out 70 other entries from around the Four Corners.

By taking top honors, Calhoun will see his recipe bottled by Ska in a signature “Local Series” batch, and the beer will be entered into the Pro-Am category at the 2010 Great American Beer Festival in late September.

“I’ve been brewing for 25 years, and I knew there were competitions out there, but I wasn’t too interested in that part of it,” Calhoun said. “I just enjoyed brewing. But to have my recipe with my name on it going to the Great American Beer Festival, that’s a big deal. I’ve got a lot of friends and family that are pretty excited about this.”

Ska co-founder and Brewing Operations Czar Bill Graham pointed out that the competition is a natural extension of Ska’s humble homebrew roots. “We started out as homebrewers,” he said. “Homebrewers drive a lot of innovation in craft brewing, and contests like this are a way to support and increase that influence. May the Schwarz be with him.”

Clancy will brew a full batch of “Clancy’s Black” in coming weeks at Ska, and it should be on shelves by August.

Find a happy place

A state locale many Durangoans love to loathe has scored top honors in the Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index. Boulder recently earned the title of “happiest place in America.”

For the survey, Gallup asked 353,000 people across the nation to assess their jobs, finances, physical health and emotional state of mind. The results indicated that Boulder’s setting against the Flatirons, its greenbelt spaces and low unemployment rate are some of the reasons why the city ranked first. Other happy haunts included Honolulu, Provo-Orem, Utah, and Santa Rosa, Calif.

Meanwhile, Colorado just squeaked into the top 10 in Gallup’s “happiest states in America” survey. Hawaii was the leader for well-being, edging out the 2008 leader, Utah. Not surprisingly, nine of the 10 happiest states are located west of the Mississippi.