It’s a cold and flurry-filled evening in the middle of December, but James Larson and Tommy Vandervort are all smiles. Despite being just days removed from announcing Enlightened Brewing Company—the brewery they started together in 2013—will be closing on January 5, 2025, the pair seems surprisingly upbeat under the circumstances as they sip their own beer in the soon-to-shutter taproom and speak candidly about how things got to this point.
“At the end of the day, the writing was on the wall,” Larson says. “If the money isn’t coming in and you just don’t have the cash to keep going, you pull the plug.”
Enlightened currently has the distinction of being the fourth oldest continually operating production brewery in Milwaukee County. What started as a microscopic brewing operation in a glorified supply closet on the second floor of the Lincoln Warehouse gradually expanded. They soon added a modest taproom in the same building (the current home of Torzala Brewing, and former incubator for both Component Brewing and Eagle Park Brewing) before moving into a new and significantly larger space on the warehouse’s ground floor in 2016 to accommodate their growing beer portfolio and production needs as Enlightened’s reputation spread.
In mid-2019, Enlightened Brewing relocated to its current location at 2020 S. Allis St. The move to the former site of the Louis Allis Motors plant gave the growing business the ability to brew over 10 times more beer than it could in its peak in the Lincoln Warehouse. Customer capacity was also much higher, a canning line was installed, a distribution deal was inked, and everything was great. For a few months.
“It’s cliche to blame it all on Covid, but that was when things took a turn for the worse,” Vandervort says. “Whether that accelerated what was already happening or if it truly caused such a huge change in the industry is anybody’s guess.”
As the dust cleared post-pandemic, the brewing climate was virtually unrecognizable compared to what it was like when Enlightened’s sprawling Bay View brewery and taproom opened in 2019. Hard seltzers, non-alcoholic beverages, and THC-infused drinks have grown exponentially in popularity, variety, and availability. Consumer preferences, both in terms of beverages and their willingness to venture out, have changed noticeably. Meanwhile, more breweries continued to open at an unprecedented pace, leading to more beer options within an industry in a sudden state of flux.
“I think things came to a head. We were able to figure out solutions over the last couple years,” Vandervort says. “Eventually, sales just kept going down, so it was harder to manage cash, and you get behind on bills.”
Like many other breweries in Milwaukee and beyond, Enlightened tried to weather the storm in a variety of ways such as special beer releases, private rentals, trivia and cribbage nights, and their popular summer block parties in order to remain solvent in trying times.
“You can’t ignore the numbers,” Larson says. “If you’re making less beer and making less revenue every year, something is not going right. Realistically, I think we both independently knew that.”
The owners devised a plan with the hope of turning Enlightened’s fate around within a period of 12 to 18 months. They sought investors, tried to refinance bank debt, and explored various other ways to save the business. Ultimately, Larson and Vandervort decided it was time to say goodbye. And maybe the change wasn’t completely motivated by financial circumstances.
“Having a couple kids and getting older, a lot of the shine of the industry wore off for me,” Vandervort says. “Running this thing has been a lot. It’s been gratifying and fun and we’re super proud of it, but it’s been a lot of stress and burnout is real.”
Neither owner knows exactly what the future holds for them, other than the assurance they will not be brewing beer for the foreseeable future.
“I really only know the [brewing] industry as a professional and an adult, so I’m probably going to look for a job somewhere. But my back is sore and my knees are failing. I don’t know if I can be out on a production floor with a bunch of 20-year-olds,” Larson says. “Hopefully somebody out there has a nice desk job with my name on it.”
Though the future in general is unknown, Enlightened’s owners are focused on going out on a high note while maximizing earnings and tips for employees during the business’ last three-plus weeks. They’re planning a final cribbage night, a January 4 blowout featuring music by Wisconsin Space Program is in the works, and they’re bringing in a crowler machine to give customers the opportunity to bring home tap beer once cans (hopefully) run out.
“We want to drain every last drop. That’s the name of the game for us,” Larson says. “Obviously that helps Tommy and I and our personal financial futures, but at the end of the day, we just don’t want the beer to go to waste. We’re really proud of it. We’re really happy with it. And we can only drink so much beer and not die, so we want everyone to share in the spoils of what we’ve done for the last 11 years or so.”
While Enlightened Brewing Company is only a few weeks away from joining Company Brewing and MobCraft Beer on the list of Milwaukee brewery casualties of the past nine months, Larson and Vandervort are still grinning as not-yet-displaced regulars file into their taproom for happy hour beers near the end of our hour-long conversation. Their business’ days are numbered, but they seem to be at peace.
“That’s kind of the nature of the industry,” Larson says. “You dive and hope there’s water in the pool.”
Instead of fixating on where it all went wrong, they’re happy to reminisce about some of the great moments that stand out from the last 11 years: The bridge reopening party at their old taproom. The block parties. The informal partnerships forged with non-brewing businesses like Sweet Smoke BBQ and The Sharpening Company. The birthdays and memorials and countless other important gatherings that took place in their business and were accompanied by their beer.
Once the doors are closed, the beer is all gone, and the age of Enlightened is officially over, Larson and Vandervort can be proud of what they’ve done. They dove in and hoped there was water in the pool. And for a while, there was.
