Scott Hedderich and his son, Wil, are hanging up their government affairs hats and picking up a mug as they embark on a new career making beer.

The Hedderiches have purchased 515 Brewing in Clive and they are spiffying up the place for what Scott said he hopes will be a grand opening in early to mid-June.

515 Brewing, at 7700 University Ave. closed and was put up for sale in 2025 after being in business for more than 12 years. During that time, the previous owners crafted more than 300 brews and earned two Great American Beer Festival gold medals.

Now, it’s the Hedderiches’ turn and Scott Hedderich said with the exception of replacing some hoses on the brewing equipment, cleaning and rearranging some pictures, no big changes are expected.

They closed on the purchase and took ownership of the business on May 1. They have received their grain order to begin brewing and have received their alcohol license from the state. They took control of the business’ Facebook page and website and are beginning to release “drips and drabs that something is changing,” Scott Hedderich said.

He expects to send an email to the business’ customer list and hopefully have beer ready to sell by the second week of June. But until 515 Brewing’s products are ready, the brewery will sell other companies’ products.   

Hedderich has worked for several different companies prior to the purchase of 515 Brewing, including Pioneer, REG in Ames, and a startup working with feedstocks. That job came to a halt with a change in administration in Washington, D.C., as the focus shifted to fossil fuels. At 60 years old, Hedderich said he wasn’t getting any traction in finding a new position.

“I had to ask myself, is the government affairs lobbying space the space I want to be in for the next 10 years?” he said. “As I was going through those questions, the 515 ownership group announced they were shutting down at the end of 2025 and that kind of started the process, and that maybe there’s a there there so I reached out to them.”

Hedderich said there was a lot of discussion about whether he could afford to buy the business, and what he described as “this quaint notion and the opportunity to work with my son, which I thought was kind of cool, so I folded him into the process.”

Everything started to come together between December and February and it took a while to put together an offer and close on the deal, he said.

“It’s given us time to get prepared and get our act together,” he said. “I think we’ve hit the ground running.”

Hedderich said everything in the brewery is in working order and that only general maintenance, such as the replacement of hoses, is needed before the brewery can reopen.

“We’ve been pretty efficient in getting stuff done,” he said. “I would have loved to be open right now. There is a great patio.”

Hedderich said he expects to begin brewing soon. As it takes about six weeks to finish, he doesn’t expect to begin selling 515 Brewing products until mid-June or later.

515 Brewings’ new brewer is Jason Kyte, who has experience in brewing operations in Colorado and Texas, and at Granite City in Des Moines.

“He’s smart as a whip when it comes to making beer,” Hedderich said.

He said there are no plans to change the business’ name.

“It had a really good reputation. It had a really good space and it had a really good crowd,” Hedderich said. “It was a solid business.”

He said there is a little serendipity with him and his son, who’s 28, becoming the owners of 515 Brewing.

“My son and I had been coming to 515 quite a bit, and he got me to love their beer,” Hedderich said. “When they started talking about making a change, the timing was perfect for us. This is going to be my full-time job and this is going to be my son’s full-time job.”

He said they’ve talked about the brewery’s look and ambiance, but have decided not to change much.

“We’ve been coming here and liked the vibe of it and liked the people who were coming here and the decor was pleasing enough,” Hedderich said. “I’m not a Martha Stewart type. None of us are over here picking a better color or different shade of trim or something. So, we’re doing a few tweaks, rearranging where some of the pictures are, just ticky-tack stuff like that, but otherwise we’re going to keep it the same.”

Although he’s new to owning a brewery, Hedderich isn’t a novice to the industry.

He grew up in a brewery town in upstate New York, an area that, according to Hedderich, had a regional brewery “in every town from Albany to Buffalo.”

“So, I remember, I think with my parents, taking my first brewery tour of my hometown brewery at age 7 or 8,” Hedderich said. “I’ve seen the process so it’s not news to me.”

And because of his prior career experience, he said he understands the production cycle and patience that is needed in the brewing industry.

“It takes time to make a product,” he said. “When I was at REG, it took time to make biodiesel. When I was at Pioneer it took time to make seed to sell, so I’m used to a business cycle. I will say it takes far less time to make beer than it does to make biodiesel.”