Landing a job as brewmaster can be a little like playing a game of musical chairs. When one position opens up, there’s commonly a little shifting around in other area brewing operations — someone grabs a seat; others move too, but the overall cast of characters sounds familiar. The east side’s Next Door Brewing and the campus area’s Lucky’s 1313 have announced they have new brewmasters — but both are familiar names and experienced Wisconsin brewers.
Dave Hansen took over for Bryan Kreiter at Next Door Brewing on Atwood Avenue in December. Hansen grew up in Madison and graduated from University of Wisconsin-Madison before heading west to study brewing at University of California-Davis. From there he landed a job at MillerCoors in Milwaukee where he was lead brewer for the Leinenkugel’s Big Eddy series and assisted with specialty products like Leinenkugel’s Honey Weisse, among others.
Production of Big Eddy beers ended this past year, and Hansen decided to leave MillerCoors. At the same time, the recently-married Hansen wanted to move back to Madison, where he’d grown up. He soon discovered that Next Door was looking for a new brewmaster. Kreiter, leaving to pursue other professional interests outside of brewing in Minnesota, was still on staff, so Hanson was asked to brew a batch of beer alongside Kreiter to see how he’d do on the brewpub’s small three-barrel system.
Together they made a doppelbock called Integrator — a name chosen to reflect the integration of the two brewmasters’ expertise. “I’m just getting going, getting my feet on the pedals and about to start driving the bus,” Hansen recently told members of the Next Door Mug Club. While he doesn’t see major changes right away for Next Door, he is very interested in barrel-aged beers, and if space allows he’d like to do more of that. Next Door produces draft beer and limited-release bomber bottles in-house, and contract-brews its core products with Potosi Brewing.
Meanwhile, Keith Symonds has taken over the brewery at Lucky’s 1313 as of this month. Symonds was the founding brewer at Next Door. He left Next Door in 2014 and did some consulting, most recently with Quality Tank Solutions of Oconomowoc (he’ll continue to do that on a part-time basis). Since leaving Next Door, Symonds also helped set up several southern Wisconsin brewhouses, including Stoughton’s Viking Brew Pub, Waunakee’s The Lone Girl , Verona’s Hop Haus and also Lucky’s 1313. There, he’ll be taking over from veteran brewer Grant Johnston.
His consulting background will come in handy. “I’m looking forward to the day-to-day problem solving,” says Symonds. “It’s time to get back on the pipes on a regular basis.”
It’s too early for him to say what changes he’ll make, or what specific brews he’ll be making in Lucky’s 1313 10-barrel brewhouse. Lucky’s 1313 serves about four in-house beers, which have been traditional styles that are less than 6 percent ABV. “I hope to generate some excitement and go from there,” says Symonds. “I want Lucky’s 1313 to be a full contributor to the Madison craft beer community.”
