Started by Jason Bell, Living the Dream Brewery has wonderful views of the mountains and even better beer. I made the trek down to Littleton, CO after work one day to check out Living the Dream after tasting their raspberry stout at Collab Fest this year. As I pulled up into the dirt parking lot, seemingly in the middle of nowhere, I wasn’t sure what to expect. To my surprise, the place was packed! You can tell Living the Dream is a haven for families and groups of friends in Littleton who are looking for a solid brew and laid back atmosphere.
The tap room was bustling, but I quickly settled into tasting the Powder Run, a vanilla cream ale, while chatting with Jason about the story behind Living the Dream. Jason was initially drawn to brewing through his love and experience with cooking. He began his studies in civil engineering but quickly moved to work as a chef’s apprentice and getting a degree in hotel and restaurant management. Everything clicked when I learned about Jason’s cooking background. You can tell, both from talking with Jason and tasting the beer at Living the Dream, that flavor combinations are at the forefront of their brewing process.
Living the Dream is focused on classic beer styles, and only add their own twist once they have perfected the foundation style. In fact, every Living the Dream beer begins with a classic base, and the brewers build on it from there. Further, each fruit beer the team makes begins with a Belgian golden base. This team is really focused on consistency and I must say, it shows. They have several variations of the same base, which is great for those who really like that pure Belgian golden, but also keeps it interesting for those who like to experience the nuanced difference changing just one or two ingredients can make.
That’s not to say Jason and his team don’t experiment. The Living the Dream team is always trying new techniques and flavor combinations while maintaining classic consistency. They recently released a small batch chili beer after getting several customer requests for that style. The brew team wanted to respond to their customers without making a chili beer so hot that it wrecks the palette. They settled on a pineapple hatch chili beer, which was so popular they’re now planning to put it in the regular rotation.
After finishing my tasty vanilla cream ale, I sampled a few others. The Or Belge, the Belgian golden base beer, was just what you would imagine. A light, crisp, refreshing taste with hints of coriander. The spice factor in this beer though is much lighter than many Belgians, as it’s often used with fruits or other ingredients, which may not come through if the Belgian flavors were too heavy. Next was the Tangerine Or Belge, modeled after a tangerine cream ale but with a Belgian base. It was light and drinkable, with a nice hint of tangerine that wasn’t overpowering. Jason mentioned that they started this fruit Belgian varietal with blood oranges, but have since decided they all prefer the tangerine. I was surprised at the difference between the two fruits can be subtle, but even without having tried the blood orange, I think they made the right decision. Third was the Belgian Brune, a brown ale style beer with the Or Belge base. It was light, but surprisingly still tasted like a delicious malty brown, which you don’t always see with lighter brown ales. Jason also sent me home with a bottle of their wit style beer aged in both pinot noir barrels and then Old Tom Gin barrels. Old Tom Gin is known for being a bit more citrusy and less juniper-forward, making this beer burst with citrus and pine. The wine flavor also came through making it an interesting and balanced mixture of all three flavor profiles.
My absolute favorite of the day though was yet another spinoff of the Belgian base, the Barrel Aged Du Miel Reserve. This imperial Saison began with the Belgian base, was brewed with local wildflower honey then aged in Rombauer chardonnay casks for seven months. Let me tell you, Chardonnay isn’t usually my first choice of white wine but this beer was truly enchanting. The base was flavorful from the Belgian yeast, the honey balanced out the traditional Belgian spices and added a silkiness, and the Chardonnay came through in the perfect way; giving the crisp essence of wine, but tasted like a beer. If I could have rolled a whole keg of this out to my car, I would have!
As we were sipping on some of the aforementioned brews, Jason took me on a tour of the brewery itself. Of all the breweries I’ve toured, Living the Dream has the most intricate setup I’ve seen. There is a room off the main tap room that you can reserve for private events, where you can see barrels stacked up that the team is using to experiment with different sour styles. Next is the canning area where you can see the new branding on the cans that will go out for distribution. Next to the canning room is the grain room where you can see Jason’s original home brew system and the grain masher that was initially used for all Living the Dream Production. It’s hard to imagine that tiny thing crushed grain for a brewery that has been close to 100%, if not over, capacity since the beginning.
They have since upgraded to a larger and more automated system, but I like the idea of keeping the roots around to reminisce about the growth this brewery has seen in only four short years. Jason is committed to using the classic grain styles for each different brew foundation, and you can see the different bags of imported grain from France, England, and Minnesota. After being crushed, the grain is transported to the boil tank, and the wort is then cooled through a tube and run into the correct fermenter. Jason is able to monitor the temperature of each fermenter with brewery control systems, meaning he never has to worry about walking into a surprise ruined batch of beer when he comes into work. This place has every bell and whistle you could imagine to make a brewery run smoothly and make each recipe very consistent. Though these are all the standard brewery practices, it was amazing to me that most of the equipment has been built by Jason and his team, keeping with the homegrown aspect of local breweries.
It is clear Jason is incredibly passionate about both beer itself, as well as making his business thrive. He sees two distinct groups of customers in the craft beer world. Those who revel in everything beer – the beer geeks, and everyone else. As a business brewer, Jason tries to make interesting beers that are still accessible. He and his brewers also keep a healthy balance of different ABVs on tap to appeal to those who aren’t into the heavy imperial stouts. Jason maintains that Living the Dream will always be a full spectrum brewery and you’ll never see them making beers disguised to taste like something else. This was one of the most incredible brewery tours I’ve been on and if you can’t tell, I was pretty into the beer as well. It is absolutely worth the trip to check out this one of a kind brewery and take in the mountains all at once. In fact, Living the Dream is celebrating their 4th anniversary on July 21st, 2018; a perfect excuse for enjoying great beer and getting to know one of Littleton’s hidden gems.
The Denver Hopper Notes:
Dogs are welcome in the Living the Dream taproom!
Living the Dream welcomes the gluten sensitive! They reduce gluten in their beer as much as possible.
Give them a follow on IG: @livingdreambrew, FB: @livingthedreambrewing, Twitter: @LivingTheDreamBrew
Living the Dream Brewing
Website: //livingthedreambrewing.com/info
Address: 12305 N Dumont Way, Littleton, CO 80125