Ska Brewing has added another award to its collection for the very first beer the business ever brewed.
The Durango-based brewery took home gold in the English-Style Pale Ale category for its True Blonde at this year’s World Beer Cup, also known as the “Olympics of Beer.”
The event, which drew entries from breweries across the globe, took place Wednesday in Philadelphia. Awards span 113 categories. A panel of judges selected winners out of a pool of over 8,000 beers from over 1,600 breweries in 50 countries.
The True Blonde has been part of the brewery’s offerings since its inception 31 years ago, said co-founder and former owner Dave Thibodeau. He dreamed up the name for the drink alongside co-founders Bill Graham and Matt Vincent before the brewery opened in 1995.
“I remember sitting at El Rancho (Tavern), and we were basically writing our business on the back of a bar napkin, drinking beer late at night, trying to draw up what we were going to do, and we came up with the name for that beer as the first beer we were going to brew,” he said. “The root of the brewery is in the name of that beer.”
The three co-founders created a comic book about the brewery and named their heroine “True Blonde” after the flagship beer, Thibodeau said.
True Blonde has a long award history. The brew has earned five Great American Beer Festival medals, three World Beer Cup medals and recognition from the Good Food Awards.
The brewery has also won several other World Beer Cup awards in past years for other brews, including gold for its Steel Tow Stout in 2012 and bronze for its Milk Stout in 2004.
Thibodeau attributes the win to the hard work of Ska’s brewers.
“The brewers are why we won this award,” he said. “... It’s really validating, because they put so much work into trying to make it perfect every time.”
Thibodeau called the win a “full circle” moment.
epond@durangoherald.com
