Atascadero's Wild Fields Brewhouse shines at Buellton's Lagerville event

By Michael Chaldu · Tue Apr 21 2026

Figueroa Mountain Brew Co. hosts a block party celebrating the popular brew style

ATASCADERO — On Saturday, April 11, Buellton's Figueroa Mountain Brew Co. threw a festival of sorts celebrating the lager variety of beer.

Welcome to Lagerville, the annual event that's part brewery convention, part competition, and part block party with food and entertainment, and it didn't disappoint. The event celebrated the lager style of beer, prevalent in the most popular brands like Coors, Budweiser, and Miller.

Among the 60 or so breweries on hand was Wild Fields Brewhouse in Atascadero, and they were successful, taking the Gold in the Dark Lager category and receiving a surfboard-shaped prize noting their accomplishment. Owner Ryan Fields manned his brewery's tent along with Assistant Brewer Kayla Morrow, and her fiance Deryk Izou, who's also involved in the business.

Fields grew up in Templeton, just north of Atascadero, and moved around a lot in adulthood before returning to the Central Coast in Atascadero. Like many brewers attending Lagerville, Fields started out making the beer at home.

"I brewed my own beer, and as I kept going I thought 'this sounds like fun,'" Fields said. "So I went into business and eventually opened Wild Fields. The name is a play on my name, and I want it to represent natural things like wood and trees."

Wild Fields as a bit unique among breweries: Opened at the site of a former bowling alley, it offers some mini-lanes, along with arcade games, foosball, air hockey, and a toddler corner.

And last May, Fields purchased the Atascadero Pedal Boathouse business at Atascadero Lake and in tandem opened another Wild Fields location at that site.

Other San Luis Obispo County breweries that took path in this year's Lagerville included Firestone Walker Brewing Company of Paso Robles, which has a location in Buellton also; Central Coast Brewing Co. and There Does Not Exist, both of San Luis Obispo; and Humdinger Brewing of Arroyo Grande.

Of course, the one distinction of Lagerville from other beer festivals is the fact that lager type of beers was available.

Lager is a style of beer brewed and conditioned at low temperature. Lagers can be pale, amber, or dark. Pale lager is the most widely consumed and commercially available style of beer. The term "lager" comes from the German word for "storage", as the beer was stored before drinking, traditionally in the same cool caves in which it was fermented.

"We like lager because it's really the heart-and-soul of beer production," said Ben Wallace, co-owner of Lawless Brewing Co. of North Hollywood.

Lawless' Head Brewer Josh McCombs added, "it's a really focused process and very technical kind of brewing, and I really like that."

Lawless Brewing Co. was the big winner of the day as it won the Gold (first place) in the Light Lager category and then the People's Choice award for overall favorite.

Outside of awards, people were seen sampling drinks from the myriad of breweries, mostly small ones that seem to have a story to tell about their business, and even just about the name.

On such business was Transmission Brewing from Ventura. Their table was set up with a tap area decorated by car parts, appropriate for the name.

"Our brewery and tasting room are actually in a building that used to be a transmission shop," said Jake Logsdon, sales and distribution manager, who said he's been to three or four Lagervilles in the past. "It still looks like a transmission shop, and we actually bring in a few gearheads to come just because they like the car culture in it."

Along with the brewers who come in to showcase their beers and talk shop at Lagerville, there are also attendees who come just for the vibe, to have some brews, and listen to music, which on this day was provided by the bands False Puppet, Cydeways, and DJ Peete.

Two people just enjoying the atmosphere were Santa Clarita couple Harland and Melissa Skogrand.

"We love to find beerfests like these to go to; I've been to Lagerville once and this is the first one Harland's been to," Melissa said.

The two were very noticeable in their brightly colored clothing, with Melissa wearing a yellow shirt with beer mugs drawn all over it. They also gave acquaintances a chuckle by passing tiny plastic hands with a certain finger sticking out.

"We like to have fun with that," Melissa said. "We gotten to know a lot of people on these events, and the attention getter is always the clothes."

Feature Image: (From left) Deryk Izou, Kayla Morrow, and owner Ryan Fields of Wild Fields Brewhouse in Atascadero, are shown April 11 at Lagerville in Buellton, where they won the Gold for Best Dark Lager. Photo by Mike Chaldu/ATN