In 2015, when Vista-based Iron Fist Brewing sought to expand its presence beyond North County, it took a chance on Barrio Logan, a neighborhood that was home to but a single brewery venue and was historically underserved from a craft-beer perspective. The area has since developed a taste for local suds, and is now home to four brewery-owned venues: Border X Brewing and its sister concept Mujeres Brew House, Attitude Brewing’s original brewpub and Thorn Brewing’s large-scale manufacturing headquarters. The only entity missing from the booming beerscape is Iron Fist, which went out of business in March of 2020. But new life is being breathed into its former space care of a homebrewing duo working to go pro via a beer biz called Dreamscape Brewing.
That new business’ founders, Tom Lawrence and Zach Dixon, met at work seven years ago. That was shortly after Dixon moved to San Diego from Orange County and started at Amazon where they are both currently employed in supply-chain and logistics roles. Early in their friendship, Dixon shared his love of home-brewing, and it wasn’t long before Lawrence caught the recreational fermentation bug, as well.
“We’ve spent the majority of our weekends the past seven years brewing and experimenting with different styles, processes and ingredients,” says Lawrence, who will head the business side of Dreamscape while Dixon serves as head brewer. “About five years ago we started entering local and national competitions to get feedback on our beer and continue to improve.”
The pursuit of pointers helped them fine-tune their beers, enough that their imperial stout with coffee, coconut and vanilla took gold at the 2019 National Homebrew Competition, beating out 429 other entries. Over the years, the quality of their beers improved across styles, to the point where they began entertaining the notion of opening up their own brewery. That was four years and a great deal of planning ago. Now that they have a space, they are at work bringing their mostly formed dream to life, including a long list of beers spanning an array of styles.
“We’re passionate about all things hops and the ales and lagers on our tap list will heavily reflect that. We’ll also leverage Zach’s culinary-school education to offer beers with a variety of different ingredients,” says Lawrence. “We plan to continually rotate the tap list, releasing new beers with different hop combinations, yeast blends and seasonal ingredients so customers can always find something new when they visit the taproom.”
Lawrence says the following is exemplary of the variety of beers Dreamscape will offer:
- Hazy IPAs: Multiple, including double and coconut-infused versions, all brewed with a proprietary house yeast blend
- West Coast IPAs: Traditional and assertively bitter varieties plus new and non-traditional iterations
- Red IPA: Piney with a dry finish
- Pale Ales: Lower-alcohol and sessionable
- Mexican-style Lagers: A base model with variants infused with ingredients such as lime peel and chili peppers
- Hoppy Lagers: Various editions including one hopped with New Zealand varietals
- German-style Beers: Lagers and ales ranging from light to dark
- Oatmeal Stouts: A base plus rotating versions brewed with vanilla, cinnamon, cacao nibs and more
- Imperial Stouts: Lawrence and Dixon’s NHC-winning recipe plus one-offs that will include a nitro version
- Culinary-inspired Ales: Examples include Peach Cobbler Tart Ale, Banana Coconut Cream Ale & Key Lime Pie Session Ale
The above beers will be brewed using a three-and-a-half-barrel brewhouse racking into three-and-a-half- and seven-barrel fermenters. Iron Fist operated the 3,000-square-foot space in the Mercado del Barrio mixed-use development (which also houses the aforementioned Attitude Brewing) strictly as a hospitality venue. Adding a manufacturing component will require permitting and additional construction. Once completed, Lawrence says the space will be equipped with 30 taps and be able to seat 83 people, including guests on the 600-square-foot outdoor patio. Annual production is estimated to top out at 400 barrels in Dreamscape’s first 12 months and increase to 600 barrels the following year.
Establishing their business in Barrio Logan is hardly the leap of faith that Iron Fist took seven years ago. Though the area is home to far more macro-beer than craft drinkers, its residents have proven receptive to local brewing enterprises and show interest when new operations touch down. The up-and-coming area was on Lawrence’s and Dixon’s short list when searching for a place to site Dreamscape.
“We had been looking for a location around the Barrio Logan area since January 2021 and came across this spot. It provided the perfect opportunity for us as it was already built out as a taproom and we just needed to convert it to a brewery,” says Lawrence. “We love that Barrio Logan is already a thriving area for restaurants and breweries and are excited to add to the neighborhood’s already established beer culture.”
When asked about their ultimate plans for Dreamscape, Lawrence says he and Dixon will be content operating a small brewery with a hands-on approach servicing locals. Their biggest aspiration is to someday open additional tasting rooms to provide greater access to their beers countywide, but they don’t want to get too far ahead of themselves. Right now, it’s all about getting up and running. Lawrence says it’s tough to provide an opening timeframe, but he hopes Dreamscape will debut around September.
Dreamscape Brewing will be located at 1985 National Avenue, Suite 1132, in Barrio Logan