Trap Door Brewing in Vancouver, WA put new head brewer, Kyle Larsen, in place last week. After almost exactly five years at the helm, Zane Singleton stepped down from the position and the tall task began to fill his shoes. In the last two years, Trap Door has come into their own - winning numerous awards from Best of Craft Beer and the Washington Beer Awards, including both Gold & Silver Medals at the 2019 WA Beer Awards for Hazy or Juicy IPA with a third medal (Gold) for Hazy or Juicy Double IPA. 

Kyle Larsen started his career at Full Sail Brewing in 2007 under then-Head Brewer, John Harris. (Ask him to tell you the story of breaking John's beloved mash paddle sometime.) He continued from there to Double Mountain where he worked his way up to Head Brewer after a couple years. Most recently, Larsen was Head Brewer at Siren Brewing in Reading, England - a city of roughly 225,000 on the Thames River thirty-eight miles (61km) west of London. It was at Siren that Kyle began developing plans to come back the The Gorge area and start a brewery with his wife, Kacie McMakin, called Kings & Daughters. You might remember the name as one of The New School's 'Most Anticipated Breweries of 2020'.

"I wanted to start [Kings & Daughters] when I got back," Larsen said. "But the world got flipped upside down."

While the dream is still to develop Kings & Daughters one day, the present is all about continuing Trap Door's legacy of envelope-pushing, ground-breaking, barrier-busting beers.

The New School got to sit down for lunch with Larsen and Trap Door owners Bryan Shull and Michael Parsons. The following covers that conversation about how Trap Door met Larsen and where the brewery goes from here with a new head brewer at the helm.

"I was drawn to Trap Door because of the of beers," shared Larsen. "They're beers people seek out and are excited about - it's really the same reason that drew me to Siren." 

So, what drew Trap Door to Larsen? Trap Door owner Bryan Shull, the self-titled "Rudder" of the company, explained: "Kyle has a plan. His plan looks great and he's a handshake kinda guy." Shull added, "It was also important to us that our brewer had a certain amount of longevity in the industry. I tossed out a lot of applications where brewers had been at too many breweries to a short amount of time."

Michael Parsons, a partner at Trap Door (and brother to that other Parsons guy from Baerlic) spoke to the culture fit that was important to Trap Door. Parsons said, "Kyle fit our culture. That's very important to us. We built quick rapport and felt comfortable just talking." Then he emphasized, "If you break culture, a business will fail."

Shull spoke up about one of his favorite patio games to drive that point home. "That's the lowest Jenga piece - culture. You start messing with that piece and you're on your way to toppling over." He issued a warning any small business could stand to hear, "The fall could be instant or could take a couple years. We've seen it happen to our friends and neighboring businesses when they hire outside of their culture."

While Trap Door once brewed a beer called 'Popular Culture', that's not necessarily the culture the brewery strives to create. Their culture can be summed up more appropriately in their company slogan blazoned on the south wall of their tap room. In all caps it reads, "BEER OPENS DOORS." For Trap Door, that goes beyond brewing a good pint. It's about giving back to their community with backpack initiatives for kids. It's supporting the local Hough Foundation. It's collaborating with Final Draft Taphouse for an Earth Day beer that support Columbia River Keepers. It's brewing Black is Beautiful for the National Bail Out Fund and Community Bail Fund. It's doing all of the above in the middle of a pandemic. It's a lifestyle of sharing beer and ideas to make their community and the world better.

While Larsen fits the culture and loves the direction Trap Door has already set out on, that doesn't mean you won't see some new styles and individuality from his beers. Certain not. He has plans to explore some styles Trap Door hasn't previously brewed. "I wouldn't mind doing another more modern-style IPA, and I love sours - kriek-style or kettle-sour beers. Maybe some clean barrel-aged sours," Larsen shared. "I love stouts and barleywines," he added. "I'd like to do some things along those lines on the creative side."

In the end, new experimental styles really are the Trap Door way. Larsen isn't afraid to push the boundaries further. "There's a lot of chances to make mistakes when you're pushing the envelope," he said. "But the key is finding a balance. You can put a lot of coconut in a beer and call it a coconut beer, but if you can balance it with the base beer and have it accentuate those flavors - then you have a truly great beer."

Fans of Trap Door have grown accustomed to unique collaborations over the last 5 years. Those will also continue under Larsen. "I did a lot of collabs at Siren and never really got to do that elsewhere," he offered. "I've learned so much through collaborations, I want to keep that alive. Just a constant thirst for knowledge."

Trap Door will debut a lot of new and vintage beers for their 5th Anniversary coming up November 10th to 14th. The celebration features a new release or vintage tapping every day over the 5-day event. You can catch all of the details for each day on their Facebook page  www.facebook.com/trapdoorbrewing and instagram www.instagram.com/trapdoorbrewing.