Father and son team Ray and Troy Beer (yes, that's really their last name) have been working for over three years to bring their vision for a new brewery with a rooftop deck in Littleton to life.
Located in a former autobody shop, Littleton Brewing Company finally made its official debut at 1201 West Littleton Boulevard on Saturday, March 15 and we visited to drink it all in.
What we saw: A large space that is beckoning for crowds.
Most new breweries recently fall into one of two camps — passionate, focused brewer-owners taking advantage of opportunities in the market to launch their own place (like Full Frame Beer); or bigger, attention-grabbing build-outs and brands.
Littleton Brewing is the latter, and it does not skimp on the brewing part of the process at all.
Wayne Waananen is a veteran brewer and it shows in the wide range of quality beers that Littleton Brewing opened with. There’s a beer for everyone here, starting with Half Moon, Waananen’s take on Blue Moon — he brewed the original when he was at the Sandlot Brewery working with Keith Villa. He’s brewed similar versions over the years at other stops but this spiced ale focuses more on the orange character, with the coriander hanging around in the back, providing depth and complexity. It's obvious that Waananen has brewed similar spiced ales for decades — the beer tastes well-balanced and refined for the style.
Scott Huntley
Another crowd-pleaser is High Plains Lager. This is Waananen’s answer to Banquet except this beer uses rice, not corn syrup. (Fun fact: Coors used to brew Banquet with rice.) This is the go-to for any macro drinker or anyone who is looking for an easy-drinking, smooth lager that still has fresh malt and hop flavor.
Conversely, Praha Czech Pils is aggressively hoppy. The beer has the same kind of growing bitterness as the famed Pilsner Urquell — the type of herbal, spicy hop that lingers well into the finish. It's reminiscent of the even more bitter Hendrych H11, a well-respected Czech lager found in north Czechia.
Rough Cut Bock is big, rich and malty yet smooth and well-rounded. The beer was lagered for six weeks.
A pair of IPAs highlights the vast difference a swap in yeast can make. Waananen brought on former Outer Range brewer Billy Willits to help out in the brewhouse and one of Willits’s early contributions has been in these IPAs. Calibration Hazy is a wonderfully juicy IPA that is sure to please fans of the popular style.
Recalibration Hazy is the same recipe, but Willits swapped the yeast to Berkeley Tropics, a thiolized yeast strain that works in tandem with specific hop varieties to increase the tropical flavors in the final beer. The two IPAs drink like entirely different beers because of this simple ingredient swap. It’s great to try them side by side to see just how drastic the difference is.
A popular lemongrass wheat and a malty, yet bitter pale ale are also being offered. Waananen plans to soon have a beer similar to his Vail Pale Ale, a beer he created when he founded Hubcap Brewery in 1991.
The beers primarily use local malt, often from Loveland’s Root Shoot or Troubadour in Fort Collins. The fresh malt flavor really shines, especially combined with the German brewing system that allows for decoction and step mashing techniques.
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What surprised us: The finished quality.
Most breweries open with just a handful of beers on tap. Sometimes, all the decorations aren’t up, or the seating isn’t fully installed. Littleton Brewing Company is already a well-oiled machine; it looks like a complete brewery with consistent, appealing branding, shelves full of merchandise, a large tap list, and to-go beer in the coolers.
“Perfection, or as close to it as we can get,” is co-owner Troy Beer’s response when asked what took so long to open. “It’s not just putting something on that can sell. [We wanted] something that we were proud of."
Beer and his father run their own building company, but they hired out the work for Littleton Brewing. Waananen adds that Beer told him it was the hardest build ever because it was for himself, not his clients.
That hard work seems to have paid off. Hundreds of patrons lined up to see the space during its grand opening. With so many people coming to see the brewery, anything less than a stellar first experience could cost the business tremendously in the long term — it could even be the difference between success and failure.
But judging by the early reviews, Littleton Brewing is leaving a strong first impression on most. The beers are well made, the front patio garden is fun and inviting, and the rooftop deck offers sensational views of the Front Range.
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There’s more to come, too. Sunday yoga and brunch is in the works. The food menu, which currently includes about a half dozen pizzas made in the wood-fired oven as well as smashburgers, will likely continue to evolve.
And more beers are on the way. In October, Beer told Westword that he has no plans to distribute and that if you want to drink Littleton Brewing beer, you’ll have to go to the source. He’s since purchased a canner for to-go sales, which were always a part of the plan. But he’s backed off the no-distribution stance, at least a bit. “Never say never,” he says. “But the answer is no, for now.”
In the meantime, Littleton Brewing will continue to apply the same mindset to its growth as it did to the buildout. While a lot of the heavy lifting is done, the team must now move into making sure its high-level experience is being delivered consistently to customers.
“How you do one thing is how you do everything,” says Beer. “You build a big, beautiful building; you eat and drink with your eyes,” he says. “The first time you come in, you’re like, wow, it changes your entire experience.”