Full Belly Files | Winning Firestone-Walker Anniversary Ale Battle

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A dozen years ago, I received what remains one of my most coveted invites ever: to be the first-ever journalist allowed to cover and participate in Firestone-Walker Brewing Company’s annual Anniversary Ale blending competition. This tradition, which was started by brew boss Matt Brynildson back in 2006, challenges teams of mostly Paso Robles–based winemakers to craft that year’s winning cuvée from a lineup from their existing barrel-aged beers like Velvet Merkin, Parabola, and Stickee Monkee.

As I learned firsthand back in September of 2014 — yes, the winemakers ditched an afternoon in the heart of harvest season to participate — each team gathers around tables of pipettes, graduated cylinders, and small samples of different, very strong ales, employing their professional palates to test various combinations in search of harmony. The competition is fairly fierce, and the winners’ reward of handcrafted, ever-more-decorated crowns is — albeit somewhat silly in appearance — treated with serious respect.

That year, I was paired with football-star-turned-winemaker Terry Hoage, who’d never won but always placed in the top three. Well, except that time. We failed to reach any podium with our blend — Hoage seemed displeased with my performance — while Sherman Thacher (a former brewer, convenient …) and Daniel Callan of Thacher Winery took the crowns, which they were tasked with protecting and enhancing over the ensuing year.  

I did a sidebar on this experience at the bottom of this story for Beer Advocate magazine, and then, unsurprisingly, did not get the call to return the next year. Or the next year, or the next, and so on.

But then an email popped into my inbox two weeks ago, requesting my return to this year’s blending battle. In fact, it’s Firestone-Walker’s 30th anniversary in 2026 — just a decade behind the Santa Barbara Independent’s own 40th celebration — so this year’s Anniversary Ale would be even more exalted than usual.  

Though it required a jenga-like rearrangement of winemaker meetings and Paso trips, I could not turn this down. So, I shifted some appointments, confirmed my attendance, and arrived right on time last Wednesday afternoon, February 18. (In the small world department, Raj Nallapothala of Dom’s Taverna happened to be hanging in the taproom on unrelated business when I arrived.)

I joined the couple dozen wine pros in the barrel room, where Brynildson explained the Anniversary Ale’s history and then announced the six teams. There were plenty of returning stars, like Russell From of Herman Story and Matt Trevisan of Linne Calodo; a healthy showing of women like Maggie Tillman of Alta Colina and a rather pregnant Riley Roddick née Hubbard of Hubba Wines; a French squad fronted by Guillaume Fabre of Clos Solène; and even a S.L.O. Coast rep in Mikey Giungi from Scar of the Sea.

I was hitched up with competition veteran Mark Adams of Ledge Vineyards (who recently, somewhat randomly, sent me an academic book called The Ethnology of Salinan Indians) and first-timers Brian and Stephy Terrizzi, owners of Giornata Wines and Etto Pastificio. That was fitting, as I’d just seen Brian at Etto Pasta Bar an hour earlier while I lunched with a Sonoma-based winemaker. I also recently wrote about their pasta in Goleta schools.

We christened ourselves “The Noodlers” — for the pasta, obviously, but noodling also applies to writing (me) and music (Adams is a guitarist/singer/sound engineer) — and went to work, sipping through the eight base ales provided and mixing them up carefully in the various measuring devices. The pouring-into-pipette part was easy enough, but the fractional math converting millimeters to barrels of beer was more complicated, thankfully handled primarily by the Terrizzis.

After about an hour, every team’s entry was submitted, so Brynildson’s crew crafted the proposed blends and then poured them into six samples. We all tasted them blindly, and then voted on our top three ales, which were tallied in the backroom.

Brynildson returned to announce the winners, giving nods to the third and second place finishers before revealing the gold medalists. “Our first place this year is C,” he said referring to the third sample, which was the lightest of the batch and one of our table’s collective favorites when we voted. “The Noodlers.”

“Whoa ho ho, we won!” I shouted, and high fives exploded around our table. We were presented with our two crowns and four brand new championship belts, all of which we must further adorn in advance of next year’s event. The requisite photo shoots ensued, and most of us went to Firestone-Walker’s restaurant for dinner. (Everyone was raving about their smashburgers, but coming off of our own Burger Week, I had to go with the chicken schnitzel.)

They made me take one of the two crowns home, proud that it would reside in Santa Barbara County for the first time ever. The multi-tiered, bejeweled beast now sits in the entryway to my house, atop my late grandfather’s old typewriter, greeting house guests with half-naked photos of Russell From, lots of sparkles, and stickers from past winners like Tablas Creek, Denner, and Castoro Cellars.  

If you’d like to try our winning blend, Firestone-Walker will release its 30th Anniversary Ale in early May. That’s just in time for the 2026 Firestone-Walker Invitational Beer Fest on May 30. As usual, the main event sold out very quickly, but there is also a 30th anniversary block party the night before on May 29 and the hangover brunch on May 31, both at the taproom in Paso Robles.

I’m working to figure out if we could do a special Santa Barbara release of the ale later this year. Stay tuned.