Thousands learned to brew thanks to this Lakewood supply shop, closing after 28 years

Robert Christian was an O.G. homebrewer. But in the early 90s — barely 15 years after the federal government approved homebrewing, barring each state’s approval — he couldn’t find everything he needed to replicate the ales and lagers he had learned to appreciate while serving in the U.S. Air Force.

“He wanted more stuff,” recalled Enola Christian. “So I guess you could say, being the wife I was, I’m like, ‘Well, you’d better do it.’”

They opened The Beer Essentials in 1994, selling kegs and tubes, 5-gallon fermenters, hops and yeast from a 900-square-foot store in Spanaway. Within two years, they outgrew it, inherited the contents of a small but beloved beer and winemaking shop called The Lil’ Brown Jug on 38th Street, and moved to a warehouse just north of the Joint Base Lewis-McChord Airfield.

After 28 years, the homebrewing-and-more shop has closed, another victim of the all-too-common confluence of untenable rent, volatile supply chains, fickle consumer behavior and the bittersweet impact of the internet.

“We had a good run while we were doing it,” Enola Christian said just days before the store’s final public hours Dec. 23. “It’s a lot of little things — it’s sad, it’s difficult. My girls grew up here basically. But at some point, you just gotta say, I don’t have the energy to do it.”

Its towering walls decorated with beer posters from around the world, The Beer Essentials became the most comprehensive store in the region for beverage-making ingredients and supplies, guiding thousands of DIYers to success with their new hobby and dozens more to small-business ownership of their own. Former customers include the original brewers of Odd Otter and Dystopian State in downtown Tacoma, KVLT Mead in South Tacoma and Chambers Bay Distilling in University Place.

Only in recent years has the company “un-expanded,” said Christian.

About six years in, she quit her job in city government to focus on the store full-time. In the mid-2000s, they purchased a wholesale business, supporting other supply shops and beverage producers across the country, and added some 5,000 square feet of storage space to their original (and ending) 3,600. They brought in green coffee beans and everything one needs to make cheese, vinegar, mustard, soda and kombucha.

“We tried to adapt to what was going on,” said Christian, even answering curious questions about home distilling, which is only legal in a handful of states but not federally.

IMPACT ON SOUTH SOUND BEER INDUSTRY

There are three big reasons why having such a large homebrew store nearby is essential to the cause, said Clark Whitehead, a longtime homebrewer and member of the Puyallup Brew Crew, which meets monthly to compare notes.

It’s sometimes cheaper to buy in-person, he said, due to shipping minimums and the small-scale nature of homebrewing. It’s also on-demand, and timing is of the essence when it comes to making good beer. Perhaps most irreplaceable, “You talk to somebody with knowledge.”

Christian’s manager, Darrell Anderson, joined 13 years ago and readily shared his passion for the history and science of fermented drinks. Bruce Andeway, now semi-retired, started around the same time and has helped on and off in the past few years.

The Beer Essentials, added Whitehead, is “the grandfather of the homebrewers for our area — they were one of the first.”

Homebrewers are credited with “stretching the boundaries of what people thought of as beer,” as the president of the American Homebrewers Association told VinePair in 2019. Their success means that America offers more styles of beer than anywhere in the world, he added.

When I asked how many brewers got their start shopping here, Christian replied, “I would say probably thousands — several breweries, distilleries, don’t even know how many wineries,” as well as a few meaderies.

By the 2010s, the craft beer industry had taken flight. A few dozen breweries multiplied to more than 400 statewide, according to the Washington Beer Commission, and more than 8,000 in the U.S.

Was it this proliferation of choice that diminished our passion for homebrew?

CLOSING A FAMILY BUSINESS

Precise reasons remain a mystery, said Christian.

She estimates that business “peaked” around 2016, “then it kind of started slowing down a bit.” Two smaller supply stores opened within a 30-minute drive, she noted, and the ease of online shopping obviously stung.

In 2018, Christian’s husband lost his battle with cancer. She vowed to continue what they had built together, but the hits kept coming.

The pandemic, which, like previous economic downturns, provided a modest lift as people pursued fresh home-based activities, while products grew ever-pricier and their availability increasingly volatile. Then her longtime landlord sold the building in November 2020 for $5.5 million, and the new owner spiked the rent for 2022 and again for next year.

“I’ve been looking for two years anticipating that something would happen, with the crash zone and the landlord,” Christian said. “I wasn’t expecting the increase I got. I knew the lease was coming up; they gave the price, I sat on it and said, ‘I can’t do it.’”

Their building, part of Windmill Warehouse Park, sits on a 3,000-by-3,000-square-foot swath of land that the city of Lakewood and JBLM are attempting to vacate of businesses and people. The process has been slow-moving, The News Tribune reported early this year.

In her Facebook post sharing details of her decision to close, Christian said nearby retail units wanted just as much rent — or more — for less space. Some longtime customers suggested crowdfunding, but she believes it would be but a Band-Aid: “I expect rent will continue to go up, and, with many folks no longer brewing or turning to the internet to shop, it may only prolong the inevitable,” she wrote Nov. 16.

Since then, the store’s remaining inventory — including a formidable book collection — has been on super-sale. In the new year, the rest, from forklift to shelving to walk-in cooler, will be auctioned.

“In less than two months,” she said, “we’ll have pulled everything that we built over 28 years.”

Closing the business is doubly difficult without her husband.

“I think he’d be sad, he’d be upset just like I am right now, but he might’ve seen the writing on the wall sooner than me,” she said. “It kind of feels like a second loss. Losing him and then losing what we built together … it kind of feels like starting over.”

A customer of 10 years and Lakewood resident, Jason, stopped by one final time, Dec. 22, selecting the last bucket of unroasted coffee beans. He also brews and makes wine. Reluctantly, he will now voyage to Jon’s Homebrew and Wine Supply in Puyallup for restocks, but nothing will replace the vast inventory and knowledge of the staff of The Beer Essentials.

“On the web, you can’t ask questions,” he said.

“I would love to keep doing it, and I love my customers,” said Christian. “We’re getting so many people walking here and going, ‘It’s so sad.’ You could’ve stayed off Amazon!”

The Beer Essentials, located at 2624 112th St. E in Lakewood, closed to the public Dec. 23. Eli Auctions will host an auction for remaining inventory in January.