Firestone Walker’s Annual Ale, Crafted by Local Winemakers, Celebrates Community & Collaboration
Story by Lori Rice
In this Perspective piece, beer journalist Lori Rice shares her experience helping blend the brewery’s annual Anniversary Ale.
The words of Brewmaster Matt Brynildson, echoed in my head. “Don’t screw it up.”
It was a joke, of course, but as a beer writer sitting in a room with the Central Coast’s best winemakers, I was worried that I would do just that.
A few weeks earlier, an invitation landed in my inbox; it was from Firestone Walker Brewing Company inquiring if an Edible team member would like to take part in this year’s blending session for their Anniversary Ale. The email asked if I would like to be that person.
As if clearing a cluttered desk with one strong swipe of the arm, I wiped my calendar clean and blocked the date. Yes! I’ll be there.
I’ve enjoyed the Anniversary Ale for years, and while I’ve never brewed, I’ve had my share of beer experiences. My husband and I have visited breweries around the world. I once assisted on the bottling line as a volunteer at a small town brewery before it was opened to the public and volunteers were prohibited from doing such a thing.
In 2016, my background in food and drink writing and love of travel and breweries led me to a role of beer writer, culminating in two cookbooks – one about cooking with beer and the next baking with beer, published by The Countryman Press. Those book offers prompted me to make my education formal, and I passed the Beer Server exam with Cicerone.org. All of this is why an invitation to attend this event was quite a big deal.
The blending session for the Firestone Walker Anniversary Ale takes place each summer. It results in a commemorative barrel-aged beer that has been crafted and bottled each year since the brewery’s first release in the fall of 2006. To say it’s one-of-a-kind is an understatement.
A carefully crafted combination of barrel-aged beers comes together to create the Anniversary Ale. These beers are diverse in their aroma, flavor, and mouthfeel. Not only do the beers used in the blend change each year, the formulas of each do, too. No two Anniversary Ale releases are the same.
Each annual release of this beer is impossible to replicate because of how it is blended, yes, but even more important to its success and originality are the people who are blending it. California’s Central Coast is home to the world’s most skilled winemakers. That skill requires a level of understanding of science and flavor profiles that few of us wine fans can fathom.
Every year, a select group of local winemakers is invited to participate in the blending party. And then the hometown competition begins. Teams of winemakers are formed. The winemakers blend ales from the component beers provided by Firestone Walker. Formulas are calculated. Sips are taken. A favorite for the table is picked.
I had always thought the Firestone Walker brewing team chose the winner, but it turns out it’s a popular vote among the participating winemakers. Each team’s final blend is voted on via a blind tasting. The beer with the most votes wins. A homemade crown, passed around each year, is awarded, and some cheers and pats on the back ensue. That beer is then blended on a much larger scale by the team at Firestone Walker to be released as the next Anniversary Ale.
So it is with that history that I found myself sitting at a table of four with winemakers, but not just any winemakers; it was the winning team from the previous year, including Molly Lonborg of Booker Vineyard and Little Soul Wines, and Kyle Jury of Truss Wines.
Pitchers of dark beer sat around us. Beakers, mixing glasses, tasting glasses, and formula sheets were arranged into place settings in front of us. I hadn’t been at such a table since my nutrition labs in college, and I found myself thinking that those would have been a lot more fun with pitchers of beer, too.
Fortunately, the winemakers quickly took over the math. I consider myself experienced at recipe formula development when it comes to food, but translating milliliters to barrels of beer proved challenging. The winemakers took charge and I was assigned to identifying which beers and how much of each were to be added to the blend. My anxiety eased a little. Pouring and measuring was all I needed to do, and I could handle that.
We created blend after blend, tasting each and commenting on what we needed more or less of
“Too bitter,” they all said of our second option as I sat with a sip on my tongue. But beer drinkers like bitter, I thought to myself. Well, a lot of us do, myself included. A complex bitterness supported by pine or citrus flavors from a carefully selected hop combination is my favorite thing about an IPA. And a stout with a coffee bitterness? The best.
But I wasn’t with beer drinkers. I was with winemakers. So I watched them work, while also pulling my weight as a team member. They tasted, and I listened to their comments about what they were looking for in the flavor and mouthfeel. It was fascinating for someone who enjoys wine but with a palate more refined for beer.
I’ve always had respect for this beer. But it was through this quiet observation that I realized I was taking part in something truly special.
The Anniversary Ale is a beer crafted by winemakers. It highlights the best of both beverages. It’s a marriage of aromas and flavors pulled from wine knowledge that are unexpected in the beer world. Its creation is a phenomenon that takes place right here in SLO County every year.
While it’s a beer that fans anticipate the release of each fall, behind the scenes, how this beer comes to be is a much deeper reflection of Paso Robles. The blending session and the final product represent a collaboration of the larger local beverage community.
Every year, despite busy summer schedules and the looming harvest season, the winemakers prioritize this gathering of the minds and palates. The brewers entrust the winemakers and their expertise to create something that stands up to the name and long history of Firestone Walker Brewing Company.
On the surface, the Anniversary Ale is a quality beer, but what’s even more unique is how it captures what it means to live here. It reflects the support we get from each other in our work, the friendly competition, and the smiling faces cheering us on.
In the end, our team was not victorious. I’ve tried to convince myself that I wasn’t the reason for that, but we may never know for sure. Instead, I attribute it to the fact that there were some incredible blends produced, as there are every year. There is no place for sore losers here. When the 2025 Anniversary Ale is released, I plan to pour a glass and toast not only to great beer, but to the local community and collaboration that make it possible. You can do the same in early November when it becomes available from Firestone Walker.
