By admin 
Two of California’s best-known craft beer names spent decades growing up as rivals.
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Now one is brewing the other’s beer in Paso Robles.
Firestone Walker Brewing Co. has begun producing Stone Brewing beers at its Paso Robles brewery following the acquisition of the Southern California craft beer brand earlier this year.
Stone IPA and Buenaveza are among a number of mainstay Stone beers that have been brewed in Paso Robles over the past few months, Firestone Walker CEO Nick Firestone told The Tribune.
Production is expected to ramp up through the fall.
The change brings a brand long associated with San Diego County into an already substantial brewing operation in Paso Robles.
Firestone Walker employs about 400 people and produces roughly 500,000 barrels of beer annually, according to previous Tribune reporting. About 99% of the company’s beer is produced at its Paso Robles campus.
The brewery has also invested in infrastructure designed for large-scale production, including a $1.8 million carbon dioxide recovery system that captures fermentation gas for reuse in brewing and packaging. Firestone Walker says the system, housed in a new $1 million facility, avoids about 4 million pounds of carbon dioxide emissions annually.
Now Stone is being folded into that operation.
Making Stone taste like Stone
Moving Stone Brewing production to Paso Robles required more than transferring recipes from one brewery to another.
“Every brewery has its own fingerprint,” Firestone told The Tribune.
Firestone Walker went through numerous rounds of test batches and spent many hours in the lab matching beers produced in Paso Robles to the original Stone recipes, he said.
“It was a tremendous undertaking in a short time and a testament to the skill of our brewers,” Firestone said.
The work was led by a brewing operation with an extensive competition record.
Firestone Walker brewmaster Matt Brynildson has been named Champion Brewmaster four times at the World Beer Cup and Brewer of the Year six times at the Great American Beer Festival.
Firestone Walker won three more medals at the 2026 World Beer Cup.
As Stone Brewing production increases through the fall, the added volume “has and will result in longer runs” on Firestone Walker’s keg, can and bottle packaging lines, Firestone said, along with “more beer flowing out of Paso.”
Stone beer produced in Paso Robles will be distributed predominantly in California and a handful of Western states, he said.
Stone’s Liberty Station brewery in San Diego also continues to brew Stone beers and serves as the brand’s research and development brewhouse under longtime Stone head brewer Kris Ketcham.
Firestone Walker has onboarded more than 200 Stone employees across its organization as part of the transition. Firestone said many work in Stone’s Southern California hospitality operations, while others hold jobs in marketing, field sales, national accounts and back-office operations.
Former competitors become part of the same company
Firestone Walker and Stone Brewing share more than a California pedigree.
Both breweries were founded in 1996 and grew into prominent names during the expansion of the American craft beer industry.
For most of that history, however, they were competitors.
Sapporo USA acquired Stone Brewing in 2022.
This spring, Firestone Walker and parent company Duvel Moortgat USA reached a deal to acquire Stone’s beer brand, wholesale business and four Stone Brewing locations in Southern California.
After the sale, Stone production began transitioning to Firestone Walker in Paso Robles and Duvel USA’s Boulevard Brewing Co. in Kansas City, Missouri.
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Firestone Walker took responsibility for Stone’s business in California, the Western United States, Texas and national accounts, while Duvel USA handles markets east of the Rocky Mountains.
When the acquisition was announced, Firestone Walker co-founder David Walker told The Tribune that he expected the company to begin marketing and brewing Stone products locally during the second half of 2026.
That transition is now fully underway, with Stone beers coming off the production line in Paso Robles.
Firestone Walker itself traces its roots to a family vineyard on the Central Coast, where brothers-in-law David Walker and Adam Firestone started the brewery in 30 years ago. The brewing operation moved from Santa Barbara County to Paso Robles in 2001.
The company’s presence in Paso extends beyond production. Its annual Firestone Walker Invitational Beer Festival draws thousands of craft beer enthusiasts to the city.
The brewery also holds a weekly Locals Night on Mondays, offering residents of five designated ZIP codes — 93446, 93465, 93422, 93461 and 93432 — 25% off beer, food and merchandise.
Escondido layoffs are separate from Stone’s new owner
The production shift comes as Sapporo USA winds down brewery and bistro operations it retained in Escondido after selling the Stone business.
Recent layoff notices involving those operations have caused confusion because state-required Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification, or WARN, filings carry the Stone Brewing name.
But the affected employees work for Sapporo USA and are not part of the Stone Brewing business acquired by Firestone Walker and Duvel USA, Sapporo USA CEO Zach Keeling told The Tribune.
“The affected team members are Sapporo USA employees and have no connection to Stone Brewing’s ongoing business under Firestone Walker or Duvel USA’s ownership,” Keeling said in an email.
Keeling said the Stone Brewing name on the WARN filings reflects a historic legal entity under which the company publicly known as Sapporo USA operates.
Sapporo retained the Escondido brewing facility as well as a brewing facility in Richmond, Virginia, according to information provided by Firestone Walker.
For Firestone, bringing Stone into its operation carries some significance beyond the additional production.
“We are proud that Stone Brewing is back in the hands of a California craft brewer, and we feel a real sense of responsibility to steward the brand into its next chapter,” Firestone said.
This story was originally published September 5, 2026 at 5:00 AM with the headline “Stone beers are now being brewed at Firestone Walker in Paso Robles. Here’s how.”
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