‘Our family is involved in everything and has been from the beginning’

By Kyle Kirves

Kids like big stuff. Big parks with big playgrounds. Big Ferris wheels and roller coasters. Dinosaurs, whales, elephants. Fire trucks.

No surprise that when they were originally looking to name their Winter Park-based brewery “Trout Brewing,” Tom and Emily Caldwell’s daughter (and unofficial Ambassador of Bigness) Madison proclaimed, “No, Daddy. Not just Trout Brewing. Big Trout Brewing.”

That, ladies and gentlemen, is thinking Big.

It may seem a small difference, but the inclusion of that one word and its source is emblematic of BTB’s family-first, family-friendly approach to brewing.

“We’re a small business, family-owned and operated, and we put a lot of time and craft into making it the very best it can be,” says Tom, who is also the brewer. “We spent countless hours building tables in our garage before we opened. Both of our dads did the framing and painting in our interior.”

Emily, whose responsibilities are in operations and front of house, echoes that sentiment. “Our family is involved in everything and has been from the beginning. It’s been a total family adventure,” she adds.

That pride of family and of place translates to the product as well. Favorites on tap these days include the Emmy Lou, Mighty Madison, and Hoppy Henry IPAs, all named for the Winter Park-based Caldwell clan, as well as the Hickory Hill Raspberry Wheat, for Tom’s grandparents’ raspberry patch on Hickory Hill.

And if it’s not too great a leap to say that family often extends to community, Big Trout is particularly proud of giving back to Winter Park. “We named one beer after dear friend Rick Stone who passed away right before COVID and who was a skiing instructor at the National Sports Center for the Disabled,” Emily says. “We give 20 percent of the proceeds of that beer every quarter to a local nonprofit.” Additionally, the brewery hosts and supports a variety of local fundraisers throughout the year.

Both Tom and Emily admit to a personal preference for hoppier beers, keeping nearly five IPAs on tap. But those who prefer things on the lighter or maltier side shouldn’t fret. Big Trout offers several pales, lagers, and amber beers – true to their stated goal of having something for everyone. And if you don’t drink booze, don’t worry. They offer non-alcoholic beer and other options in house as well.

How Big Trout’s beers come to be is a story in itself. The team prides itself on the fact that their brewing hardware is cutting edge in terms of efficiency. The system, called the High Efficiency Brewing System (or HEBS), allows the brewery to accelerate the brewing process and reduce the amount of water that goes down the drain. It’s the first and only known use of the system of its size in Colorado, and one of just a few nationally.

“HEBS reduces our grain use by 10 percent and water waste by 30 percent,” Tom says. “And we run batches of beer in about half the time as a normal system. The efficiency gains in material use and energy consumption alone are worth it, but we’re also reducing significantly the amount of water that just goes down the drain. Plus, we’re getting a 95 to 98 percent extraction rate out of our grain – giving the beers a lot more flavor and color per batch.”

Consider that in less traditional, less efficient macro brewing systems it often takes as many as four to seven pints of water to produce a single pint of beer. Any reduction in that creates less waste for the brewery itself but also makes for a gentler impact on precious water resources. But hey – leave it to a brewery named after the West’s favorite fish to care about the water, right?

For now, Big Trout is content staying in their local digs. “It’s flattering to hear people ask how many breweries we have, or if there’s a Big Trout Brewing in Denver,” Emily says. “But we’re a small family business – this is the only one and, from the kitchen to the taproom, we all work extremely hard to make it the very best it can be.”

It’s good to be big – especially when it comes to the beers offered up by Big Trout Brewing. The next time you’re in Winter Park, be sure to reel in the good times at the one-and-only BTB - the small craft brewery that still thinks big.