FILE - F.H. Steinbart Co., the oldest homebrew supply store in the country, will close at the end of December.
Widak/NurPhoto/Shutterstock / Widak/NurPhoto/Shutterstock
F.H. Steinbart Company, which was founded in Portland in 1918, will close this December.
It is the oldest homebrew company in the nation.
F.H. Steinbart’s owner, James Ameeti, told KGW that years of shifting industry dynamics have made it increasingly difficult for brick-and-mortar shops to survive. He said rising rent and a shrinking base of homebrew customers have both added significant strain to the business.
Ameeti is the founder of a beer systems consulting company called Perfect Pour Services, which bought F.H. Steinbart.
“We are profoundly grateful for the generations of customers, employees and friends who made this place more than a shop. You’ve shared ideas, stories and beers across a century of brewing history, and that community is what kept us going,” F.H. Steinbart said in a statement on its website on Thursday. “From hand-cranked grain mills to stainless conicals, from prohibition to Portland’s craft beer boom, we’ve been part of every chapter. And so have you all.”
The company’s website has since been reduced to a single page that says its store in Southeast Portland is open and that “standard pricing applies.”
According to the American Homebrewers Association, the company’s founder and namesake, Franz Steinbart, was born in 1854 in West Prussia, before he immigrated to New York at age 25. From there, he moved to Iowa, where he worked on a farm and learned English. He later moved his family to Portland in 1915.
Prohibition began in the United States shortly after the first F.H. Steinbart store opened.
To keep the business afloat, Franz Steinbart sold equipment and ingredients to large commercial breweries that continued to produce “near beer” and soda pop. The company also sold to wineries that supplied sacramental wines for use in various religious ceremonies, the homebrewers association said.
F.H. Steinbart’s first location was near SW 1st and Oak in downtown Portland. Its current location is on Southeast 12th Avenue.
“Over the decades, F.H. Steinbart became more than a store. It became a community, a place to learn, experiment, and share what we all love about making beer,” the company said in a post on Facebook.
