{"id":119670,"date":"2014-06-10T17:59:46","date_gmt":"2014-06-10T23:59:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/ska-brewing-co-rolls-into-california-with-new-deal\/"},"modified":"2014-06-10T17:59:46","modified_gmt":"2014-06-10T23:59:46","slug":"ska-brewing-co-rolls-into-california-with-new-deal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/ska-brewing-co-rolls-into-california-with-new-deal\/","title":{"rendered":"Ska Brewing Co. rolls into California with new deal"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"After
After installing a high-speed canning line earlier this year, Ska Brewing Co. now has the capacity to expand to Southern California. It will be Ska's first new market in five years.<\/span>Steve Lewis\/Durango Herald file photo<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Ska has entered into an agreement with Stone Brewing, of Escondido, California, to distribute Ska\u2019s beers in Southern California beginning June 30.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve been considering the Southern California market for years,\u201d Ska President Dave Thibodeau said in a news release.<\/p>\n

Southern California will be Ska\u2019s first new market in five years. A high-speed canning line installed this year enabled Ska to relieve capacity issues that had limited Ska production.<\/p>\n

Ska \u2013 the largest of Durango\u2019s five breweries \u2013 already distributes throughout Colorado, Arizona, New Mexico, Kansas, Nebraska, Missouri, Texas, Illinois and North Carolina, as well as Sweden.<\/p>\n

Ska continues to experience double-digit growth. In 2013, Ska had an 11.6 percent increase in barrels sold.<\/p>\n

Ska will face stiff competition in Southern California, home to a well-developed craft beer scene and hometown breweries including Stone and Ballast Point.<\/p>\n

Thibodeau said Thursday that when Ska was considering new markets, Southern California \u201cstill comes out way ahead.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cEven though there\u2019s a lot of great beer out there, there\u2019s even more people that enjoy really good beer,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Ska gets more requests from fans in Southern California than anywhere else, Thibodeau said.<\/p>\n

Ska has a long-standing relationship with Stone Brewing, which will be distributing Ska\u2019s beers through its distribution company, Stone Distributing Co. Ska has distributed Stone\u2019s beers in the Durango area since 2003, and Stone CEO Greg Koch visited Durango and Ska in 2009. Stone is known for its in-your-face marketing of beers such as Arrogant Bastard Ale.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not clear how many Colorado breweries distribute in Southern California. A spokeswoman for the Brewers Association said the association does not track that data.<\/p>\n

Stone Distributing distributes beers from two popular Colorado breweries, Avery Brewing Co. of Boulder and Oskar Blues of Lyons. Stone has inked a distribution deal with Maui Brewing Co. that could enable Ska to expand to Hawaii, Thibodeau said.<\/p>\n

\n

Ska to offer a new beer<\/h4>\n

Ska Brewing Co. plans to introduce a new beer this summer.
\n The low-alcohol, highly hopped ale will hit the shelves in late July or early August, said Ska President Dave Thibodeau.
\n The beer will be similar to Hello Dave, an ale based on the same recipe that was released in connection with the 2014 Durango Independent Film Festival. Thibodeau said he was not ready to release the name of the new beer.
\n Hello Dave\u2019s successor will be canned in 12-ounce cans, like many of Ska\u2019s beers. The ale will weigh in at 4.5 percent alcohol by volume, a less-intoxicating figure than many craft beers.
\n The new beer will be distributed year-round, Thibodeau said.
\n cslothower@durangoherald.com<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

installing a high-speed canning line earlier this year, Ska Brewing Co. now has the capacity to expand to Southern California. It will be Ska’s first new market in five years.Steve Lewis\/Durango Herald file photo Ska has entered into an agreement with Stone Brewing, of Escondido, California, to distribute Ska\u2019s beers in Southern California beginning […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":119671,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6366],"tags":[13,70,2608],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-119670","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mt-living","tag-frontpage-lead","tag-news-lead","tag-ska-brewing-co"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/119670","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=119670"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/119670\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/119671"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=119670"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=119670"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=119670"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=119670"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}