Before Living Häus Beer Co. filled the space with hanging greenery, pale wood, soft light, and the sort of calm Scandinavian-houseplant energy that makes you instinctively lower your voice, the Southeast Portland facility already carried serious Portland beer history in its walls. The building once housed The Commons Brewery — long revered for elegant farmhouse ales and quiet precision — before eventually becoming part of the Modern Times Belmont Fermentorium orbit, two very different eras of Portland beer layered into the same brewing bones. When Living Häus co-owners Mat Sandoval and Conrad Andrus stepped into the space in 2022, they brought their own deep Portland beer pedigrees with them: Sandoval from years helping shape the Modern Times Belmont Fermentorium as brewer and creative force, Andrus from Culmination Brewing, where his balanced hop work and eclectic brewing instincts quietly made him one of the city’s most respected brewers. Together, they transformed the brewery into something calmer, greener, and more intimate — less psychedelic space bunker, more lush indoor greenhouse where the beer lands with startling precision and every plant somehow looks healthier than the customers.
And that restraint is exactly what makes Living Häus fascinating right now. While much of craft beer keeps chasing louder pastry chaos, harsher bitterness, or whatever social media insists beer should become by next Thursday afternoon, Living Häus has quietly evolved into one of Portland’s most respected modern IPA houses — crisp West Coast structure, refined pale ales, beautifully calibrated lagers, and thoughtful collaborations rooted in actual brewing friendships instead of marketing strategy. Early creative contributor Gavin Lord, former head brewer at pFrime Family Brewers, helped shape the brewery’s visual and cultural tone before eventually peeling off into his own wonderfully eccentric Hetty Alice Beer project within the same Living walls, but the Living Häus identity only sharpened further: collaborations with Brujos, Ghost Town, Von Ebert, Pizza Port, and Oregon hop growers; anniversary pale ales celebrating local community; West Coast IPAs unafraid of bitterness or clarity. Even the taproom feels different — more stylish plant sanctuary than production brewery, the rare kind of beer space where people still slow down long enough to actually taste what’s in the glass.
So here it is: five Living Häus beers built with precision, patience, Oregon hops, and just enough beautiful weirdness to remind you Portland beer still knows exactly what it’s doing.
Peaks & Pints Tuesday Living Häus Flight
Living Häus Nisu
5.9% ABV | Pale Ale | Portland, Oregon
Bright apricot, peach skin, and citrus zest drift through the glass first before Strata’s faintly dank little pulse starts flickering underneath like sunlight catching pine needles after rain, the body lean and beautifully calibrated while Mosaic and Chinook layer soft tropical fruit over a clean Northwest bitterness that stays graceful instead of aggressive, the whole thing landing crisp, floral, and quietly celebratory, like old friends gathering around a table with absolutely nowhere else they’d rather be.
Living Häus Miruna
6.8% ABV | West Coast IPA
White peach and lime zest flash across the palate first before grapefruit pith and pine sap tighten everything into focus, bright tropical notes ricocheting around the edges like reflections bouncing off broken mirrors inside some beautifully questionable wizard laboratory, Brujos Brewing and Living Häus building this collaboration with sharp citrus bitterness, subtle dankness, and just enough hop weirdness to keep the whole thing beautifully unstable in the best possible way, the finish humming with resin, citrus oil, and the quiet confidence of a West Coast IPA that already knows it survived the haze apocalypse intact.
Living Häus Otto
6.9% ABV | West Coast IPA
Mango skin, grapefruit peel, and sticky peach nectar surge forward immediately before a deep green resin note rolls underneath like somebody quietly opened a jar of extremely expensive bad ideas in the middle of a pine forest, Krush and Mosaic throwing tropical sparks in every direction while Chinook and Columbus keep the structure taut, bitter, and gloriously old-school beneath all the modern hop glow.
Living Häus Crux the Cat
7.0% ABV | West Coast IPA
Berry jam and tropical citrus leap from the glass first before a deep resinous bitterness curls underneath with the energy of a cat deciding whether affection or violence sounds more entertaining this afternoon, Mosaic and Nelson layering mango, gooseberry, and dank green electricity across the palate while Columbus anchors everything in firm Northwest bitterness, the last sip lingering sharp and piney like claw marks across a leather couch nobody warned you about in time.
Living Häus Kathy
6.2% ABV | India Red Ale
Orange marmalade and peach skin rise softly at first before toasted caramel malt and faint baker’s chocolate drift underneath like warm kitchen air rolling through an old family house at dusk, the Strata and Mosaic hops carrying bright citrus and earthy resin across a rich red-ale backbone that feels comforting without turning heavy, finishing smooth, layered, and deeply rooted in the kind of storytelling that survives long after trends wander off chasing the next shiny thing.
LINK: Peaks & Pints beer and cider cooler inventory
