Ska Brewing Wins 18th Great American Beer Festival Medal, First in Belgian Beer Category

DURANGO, CO— Ska Brewing took its 18th Great American Beer Festival® award home on Sunday, the brewery’s first in a Belgian beer category: a bronze medal for WestSKAlle in the Belgian-Style Abbey Ale category.

Ska Brewing’s 18th Great American Beer Festival (GABF) medal joins four World Beer Cup medals, totaling 22 medals for Ska in two of the world’s most prestigious beer competitions. This award continues to showcase Ska’s brewers’ talents in brewing a wide variety of international beer styles.

The path of their 2026 GABF award winner, WestSKAlle, started several years earlier and several thousand miles away. In 2023, Ska took a group of longtime employees to Belgium to celebrate their 10-year anniversaries with the brewery. What could loosely be described as research at Belgian breweries and beer halls sparked a deeper interest in traditional Belgian beer styles back home in Durango.

Enter WestSKAlle, an amber-brown Trappist-style ale with a creamy head and aromas of caramel and dark fruit. The flavor is rich, balanced, and complex: herby, fruity, and deeply malty with a long, dry stone fruit finish.

“Taking our crew to Belgium reminded us how much history, technique and personality can exist in a single beer style,” said Ska Brewing Co-Founder Dave Thibodeau. “We came home wanting to explore some of those traditions ourselves. WestSKAlle grew out of that, so having this beer earn our first GABF medal in a Belgian category makes this one especially meaningful.”

Ska’s latest medal continues a run of international beer style awards, with its most recent GABF medals for beer styles rooted in four different brewing traditions: True Blonde Ale in the English-Style Pale Ale category; Oktoberfest in the Vienna-Style Lager category; Mexican Logger in the International-Style Pilsener category, and now WestSKAlle in the Belgian-Style Abbey Ale category.

“We’ve never wanted to be good at just one kind of beer,” Thibodeau said. “One of the best parts of brewing is getting interested in a style, figuring out what makes it great and then trying to do it justice. Sometimes that takes you to England, sometimes Austria, sometimes Belgium—and sometimes Mexico ends up here in Southwest Colorado through our curiosities. 22 GABF and World Beer Cup medals later, the mission remains pretty familiar: make great beer, keep learning, and try not to take ourselves too seriously while doing it.”

Contact Emily Hutto at hutto at radcraftbeer dot com with media inquiries about Ska Brewing.

ABOUT SKA BREWING

Founded in the spirit of punk rock and a little bit of ska, Ska Brewing has been challenging the status quo and brewing beers that refuse to conform since 1995. From the iconic Mexican Logger to the rebellious Modus Hoperandi IPA, Ska Brewing is dedicated to crafting unforgettable beers and beverages that are as unique as the people who drink them. For more information, samples, or just to chat about how great peaches are, contact Ska Brewing at info at skabrewing dot com or visit our website at skabrewing.com.

Photo © Brewers Association