SLO County company wins brewery of the year at Great American Beer Festival
A San Luis Obispo County brewery recently won numerous awards at the Great American Beer Festival.
Wild Fields Brewhouse in Atascadero, founded by husband-and-wife duo Ryan and Jacque Fields, won brewery of the year for breweries producing 501 to 1,000 barrels a year.
The brewery also won gold metals in three different categories, earning accolades for its Scottish-style, English-style and American-style ales, according to a news release from the brewery.
“It’s just such an honor,” Jacque Fields told The Tribune on Friday. “To be able to win that and bring that home, and really put this business and our town on the map, it’s really, really wonderful.”
Ryan Fields has been professionally brewing beer for 15 years, and this is the first time he’s won brewery of the year, his wife said.
“It’s more than a dream come true. It’s a fairytale,” Jacque Fields said.
Wild Fields Brewhouse’s Magic Swirling Ale won a gold medal in the Scottish-style ale category.
According to the brewery, the ale has “nice malty notes of caramel and toffee, a medium body, and very low hop bitterness.”
The brewery’s Pine Mountain Monolith beer won the top prize in the English-style brown ale category. The ale features “notes of baked bread and toasted nuts compliment hints of caramel” with “a nice toasty malt backbone,” according to the company.
Wild Fields Brewhouse’s Three Bridges Brown ale took gold in the American-style brown ale category. The ale “falls somewhere in between a red and a stout,” and has a “medium body with just enough bitterness to back up the malt character,” the brewery said.
More than 2,100 United States breweries entered 9,904 beers into competition the Great American Beer Festival, which was held Oct. 6 to Oct. 8 in Denver, the release said.
After nine days of judging, 235 beer experts from seven countries awarded a total of 300 medals, according to the release.
Winning multiple awards “just feels really incredible,” Fields said. “We still can’t believe it’s true.”
Wild Fields Brewhouse wasn’t the only San Luis Obispo County brewery to place in the competition.
Liquid Gravity Brewing Company in San Luis Obispo won a bronze medal for its beer Pale from the Crypt in the American-style pale ale category, and Grover Beach’s Apogee Brewing Company won a bronze medal for its Space Cadet beer in the Belgian-style ale or French-style ale category.
Wild Fields Brewhouse opened in December 2019 at 6907 El Camino Real in Atascadero.
In addition to craft beer, cider and wine, the brewery features pub grub food, mini bowling lanes, an arcade and a toddler corner.
On Sunday, Wild Fields Brewhouse will celebrate its Great American Beer Festival victory from noon to 3 p.m. at an outdoor market featuring local vendors in its parking lot.
For more information, call 805-399-2337 or visit wildfields.squarespace.com.
This story was originally published October 15, 2022 at 9:00 AM.
