Veteran-owned brewery that aimed to serve military ‘and those who love them’ is closing

Forward Operating Base Brewing, a veteran-owned and military-themed taproom that served DuPont since 2017, will close permanently Saturday.

“We tried,” wrote co-owner Jared Wharton on social media April 7. The dream was to build “a local brewery and taproom, with food, to create a space that honored our military and veterans. We did our best with limited resources, the pandemic, inflation, and a less-than-ideal location, but it hasn’t worked.”

The posts on Instagram and Facebook have accrued dozens of shares and hundreds of comments and reactions, with memories of parties, holiday markets, comedy nights, yoga mornings and everyday meet-ups with friends.

Food trucks posted up outside over the years, but the addition of in-house barbecue was a great reason to visit the spacious but still welcoming warehouse. The menu — phased out last year as the cost of ingredients and intensive labor to produce it outweighed the benefit, said Wharton — featured pulled pork in Cherry Coke brine, Texas-style brisket, meat-soaked beans and a kale Caesar slaw. Long picnic tables encouraged making friends amid military memorabilia and surplus decor.

In the past few weeks, Wharton and his wife Jennifer, who managed social media and events, have been selling all of those pieces as they prepare to close the doors for the last time April 20.

“We had a really horrible winter season, and it just got to the point that we were behind with everything,” Wharton told The News Tribune in a phone call this week. They invested some of their personal savings to “see if we can see our way out of it,” but after learning that the property owner wanted to increase the rent, they decided it best to walk away.

Kent-based Davis Property and Investment has owned the building, also home to a gymnastics studio, since its construction in 2016, according to state and local records.

“I had to do the math,” he said. “We’re not making it or barely making it for the past six years at the current rent.” Already it had doubled since they first signed the lease in 2017. “It’s just not sustainable.”

Located in a warehouse-type building at Center Drive and DuPont-Steilacoom Road, F.O.B. nearly abutted Joint Base Lewis-McChord — a very purposeful decision for the retired Army counterintelligence officer.

“We’re in a tough location,” continued Wharton, whose daughter Shanelle managed the taproom and is equally heartbroken to see it shutter. “It was attractive to me because of its proximity to JBLM.”

The taproom often hosted events for active and retired service members, including retirement parties and memorials.

“That was a great honor,” he said, but he wished he could have reached more of that community. He considered advertising on-base, but it was not within his budget.

CHANGING TIDES FOR CRAFT BREWERIES?

As the only brewery in DuPont (or Steilacoom or Lakewood for that matter), its closure will leave a void for a casual, family-friendly destination in the area.

F.O.B.’s beer, which focused both on classic German-inspired styles and West Coast-y IPAs, bore names that honored the theme: Ambush Light, a classic American lager; M4, a blonde ale; SNAFU, an amber ale; Heart of Darkness, an imperial stout; and 1000 Yard Stare, a Belgian strong ale. The taps also supported other local breweries and cideries.

Wharton was not a brewer by trade. His bio admits that his first batch, made with friends in 2002, “was horrible,” but while serving in Afghanistan in 2011, he “started envisioning a place our military and veteran community could recognize as a place for them.”

Breweries have become one of America’s greatest community assets in the past two decades, but market saturation has perhaps begun to take a toll. Washington has more than 400 breweries, the fourth-most of any state. In per capita terms, though, it ranks ninth, according to data from the Brewers Association: There are nearly eight breweries for every 100,000 adults, compared to about 2.5 in Arizona, a state with a similar population size. Tacoma, too, has lost several in recent years, including Odin Brewing and Wingman Brewers; another of the early-renaissance names, Odd Otter, closed for a few weeks but was resurrected by a local father-and-son.

The cost of making beer was, incidentally, the most level element of the business, said Wharton. Those numbers ticked up slightly, but what really stung was the sudden addition of “fuel surcharges and delivery fees that didn’t used to be there, so my pallet of ingredients just got $150 more expensive.”

He had also purchased (and tried to cancel) some new brewhouse equipment, which he hopes a local brewery in a better position will scoop up.

Referencing his initial post about the decision to close, he said, “If I was smart, I never would have reopened after COVID, and it really comes down to that. A lot of us placed serious bets that, when everything was back open and back to normal, that business was gonna boom, because we were just starting to do really well right before the shutdown.”

He hears similar sentiments from other small business owners: “This is not the business we’re used to doing.”

To bring in extra cash in recent months, he worked with a veteran-training program, which he will likely return to full-time. Asked if he would keep brewing and barbecuing, he replied that he does have a little pellet smoker at home and that maybe we would bottle a favorite beer occasionally.

“It was so rewarding to develop a recipe, brew it, get the result you were really looking for and see a room full of people enjoying it.”

F.O.B. Brewing will pour its final beers this Friday and Saturday. On Saturday, Boss Mama’s Kitchen — which happened to be their first-ever food truck — will serve from 4 p.m. until sellout.

F.O.B. BREWING

▪ 2705 Williamson Place NW, DuPont, fobbrewingcompany.com

▪ Final Days: April 20-21, 3-9 p.m.