Former Dry Dock Head Brewer Teams With Live Slow Brewery and Bowling Alley in Wheat Ridge

Breweries can be noisy places. So can bowling alleys. So one of the first questions former Dry Dock head brewer Alan Simons asked before teaming up with the two owners of Live Slow Brewing, a future bowling alley and brewery, was this: "How much will I hear the bowling pins? Because I may go crazy."

The answer must have been a strike, because Simons, a well-known and longtime Colorado beer maker, is joining the unusual Wheat Ridge business as a part-owner and head brewer.

Simons, brewery general manager Joe Malouff, and advisor and financial backer Grant Babb plan to open Live Slow this fall in the redeveloped Paramount Bowl building, at 2625 Kipling Street, which is now part of Gold's Marketplace, a shopping center that is being overhauled with a new look and new tenants. It'll have six lanes of bowling, some bowling alley-style food and easy-drinking beers.

Babb is the co-founder of Joyride Brewing in Edgewater, and Malouff works in the taproom there, which is how they got to know Simons. "I've been going there for quite a while," says Simons, who lives close to Joyride. "I reached out to Grant and asked if they were looking for a brewer, and the response was 'Maybe.' So we met over the course of a few months, talking and hanging out and having beers."

Eventually the three decided they could "stand each other," Simons says with a laugh. It was good timing, as Simons had left his job in January as head of brewing operations at Dry Dock Brewing after seven years. Before that, Simons made award-winning beer at Backcountry Brewery in Frisco.

Live Slow takes its name and ethos from Malouff, whose spirit animal is the sloth — a creature whose motto is "Live slow, die whenever." In this case, however, it will be "Live slow, drink whenever," he says.
Despite the motto, however, Malouff, who worked as a beertender at LandLocked Ales for a few years before moving to Joyride, has invested a lot of energy and forethought into the brewery. The twenty-barrel brewhouse will be custom designed to fit the unusual space, while the fermenters will be lined up parallel with the bowling lanes. The bar and the tables, meanwhile, will be made from the reclaimed wood of the other six lanes that existed in Paramount Bowl, which had twelve total.

There will also be a patio with a possible stage and TVs. The walls between the taproom/bowling alley and the brewery will be partially made of plexiglass to give the whole place an open feel.

"With the bowling alley being a part of it, and since we have a kitchen, we want to be family-friendly. But we also want the late-night crowd," Malouff says. Live Slow's location at the corner of Kipling and 26th Avenue will be helpful on both fronts since Kipling connects the brewery to a lot of nearby apartment buildings.

He also stresses that although Live Slow will serve elevated bowling alley food, "This is not a sit-down place. We are a brewery with food. The entertainment and beer is what we will push."

The 59,000-square-foot shopping center will also include Esters Neighborhood Pub, Berkeley Park Running Company, Queen City Collective Coffee and other offices and retail businesses.

And while Malouff and Simons will handle day-to-day activities, Babb says he will work behind the scenes, since his primary responsibilities are still with Joyride, which he founded in 2014 with Dave Bergen.

The three hope that demolition will begin in April and that they can open in October.