In the last half decade, Fort Wayne's craft brewery scene has been strapped to a rocket.
Since 2012, there's been Summit City Brewerks and Trubble Brewing, Junk Ditch and Hop River, Birdboy and Hoppy Gnome and, soon, two more, with 2Toms Brewing Company and Old Fort Brewing planning openings in 2018.
If you're a beer connoisseur, you might even know your favorite brewery's brewing schedule.
But if you're only a casual imbiber, or someone who hasn't seen this shift happening at all, you're perhaps wondering what softened the ground so these all of these hoppy, malty ventures could take root and thrive?
The answer to that question is, from Tuesdays through Sundays, running her shop, Brewers Art Supply, at 1425 Wells St. 
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Francie Lengerich of Brewers Art Supply.
She wears glasses, has long fingernails and blond hair that falls halfway down her back, and she has a tendency, if she knows you, to call you “friend.”
Her name is Francie Lengerich, and since she was 19, she’s run Fort Wayne’s first homebrew store that has laid the foundation for the city’s thriving craft brewing scene.
Over the last three decades, she’s taught virtually every professional brewer, winemaker, and cidermaker in the Northeast Indiana region, and even a few from Northwest Ohio.
But she wouldn’t tell you so herself.
Selling expertise
Drive down the Wells Street Corridor, and you'll see locally owned businesses nestled into quaint storefronts.
There are no drive-through restaurants. They're not allowed, according to a by-law established by the businesses leaders of Wells Street, and Francie is one of the people behind that, too.
While you might not know her name, feeling her influence is as simple as living in Fort Wayne.
Across the street from Hyde Brothers Bookstore in a brick storefront next to La Michoacana, her shop is stocked with supplies that have helped northeast Indiana’s homebrewers break into the craft.
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Brewers Art Supply at 1425 N. Wells St.
Step inside, and you’ll find bags and tubs of grain, hops, and yeast. There's a wall full of funnels, hoses, nozzles, and other gadgets for making craft beer. And in back, there are boxes for winemaking.
Brewers Art Supply does wine and cider, too.
Since homebrewing became legal in 1978, the craft has become a popular hobby across the US.
Amateurs tinker with brews in their spare time to create unique flavors for family and friends.
Joe Martin, Francie’s partner and Store Manager, says that’s how nearly every brewery and winery in the region got started. Someone came into Francie’s shop with an interest in making beverages, and she helped them get going.
“She taught Larry Satek how to brew wine 20 years ago and taught Mad Anthony’s how to brew beer,” Joe says. “Now Bird Boy and Hop River are big customers. Any local brewery or winery, you name it. They all started off as customers here at some point.”
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Brewing equipment on display at Brewers Art Supply.
When Francie talks about her customers who have opened establishments of their own, she speaks of them with a mama bear pride.
"You can tell which customers are going to start their own breweries because they're your best customers," she says, laughing. "They're the ones brewing two or three times a week, which is great, but then when they start their breweries, you end up losing your best customers."
It’s a trend that’s putting small homebrew suppliers out of business nationwide.
While the rising interest in craft beer has allowed shops like Brewers Art Supply to thrive, ironically, it’s also taking business away from them.
With a wider variety of craft beer on the market, customers no longer feel the need to make their own beer, or if they do, they decide to start breweries and have less time for hobbies.
With the internet, even lifelong homebrewers can get most of the kits and supplies they need at the click of a button.
But the benefit of having a local supply store is more than the equipment itself; it’s having someone to turn to when you need advice or want to try something new. And that, Joe says, is what makes Francie’s shop special.
In a complicated industry, she’s selling expertise.
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Joe Martin is the Store Manager at Brewers Art Supply.
A many-layered onion
In an online review, a customer explains how he was in Fort Wayne for a summer internship when he started homebrewing beer.
He says he researched it online, went to Walmart, and purchased the equipment to do it. Then he stopped into Brewers Art Supply for a few of his more obscure ingredients, and when he did, he got a lot more than that.
He says he was talking with Joe and trying to play it off like he knew what he was talking about at first, but Joe quickly realized that he needed help and stepped in to guide him.
“He really knew his art and was able to answer all my questions as well as help me pick out some simple grains and hops to get started with,” the reviewer says. “He's been there every other time I've been, and as I've learned more each time, he has helped me with more and more advanced techniques and equipment.”
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Brewers Art Supply hand packages all of their malts, grains, and hops.
Joe explains that while Brewers Art Supply isn’t selling online, and while it can’t compete with the likes of Walmart or Budweiser, it’s doing something those companies can’t—providing people with good old-fashioned advice and knowledgeable shopkeepers who can answer their questions.
“While this is primarily a retail-based operation, it’s also a service,” Joe says. “I have probably spent months of my life just standing here talking to customers.”
Part of the reason is that brewing beer, wine, or cider is complicated. It takes special equipment and slight variations in hops, temperatures, or times can make a big difference.
Joe describes the brewing industry as a “many-layered onion” that takes time to peel back the layers and understand.
“You’re not going to be good at it unless you’re able to answer those questions and provide that service,” Joe says.
He explains that Francie taught him everything he knows when they started dating about 14 years ago.
“Now, she says I know more than she does,” he says, laughing.
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Brewers Art Supply helps customers turn hops into beer.
Joe, too, has plans to help open a brewery. He’s part of the team starting the Old Fort Brewing Company just south of downtown on Harrison Street later this year, pending approvals from the state.
And he says when the brewery does open, it’s planning to pay Francie a special tribute.
"We're going to have a Francie Lager," he declares.
But while Francie appreciates the recognition for her work, it’s not her motivation.
"I want to build stuff," she says.
And over the years, she’s managed to do exactly that.
The first person to do it
Francie learned the craft of homebrewing by doing it herself.
When she first tried store-bought beer, she didn’t like it because it gave her headaches.
So she bought a homebrew kit for a significant other in college and, on tasting the results, found she was able to enjoy it.
After a semester of school at Saint Joseph’s College in Rensselaer, IN, she realized her ambitions didn't align with academics, and while working at Cedar Point in 1993, she got a call about running a homebrew shop back home in Fort Wayne.
So she left school and went to work.
Originally, the shop was at 6208 Covington Road, and it was called Great Fermentations. Then, when Francie bought it with her father, they moved the shop to its current location on Wells Street and gave it a new name, Joe says.
If you ask Francie, she’ll tell you the name Brewers Art Supply wasn't even her idea, but her father's.
"He was my silent partner when I bought out the stock of Great Fermentations,” she says. “But I liked to joke with him: ‘you're not being silent enough!’"
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A mural outside Brewers Art Supply.
Since Francie’s father passed away about 10 years ago, Joe has helped her manage the shop, and the two have made a habit of helping customers tweak their recipes.
As people come into the shop, Francie offers advice and makes recommendations, helping them find the right tools or create the flavors that they’re wanting.
A regular customer, Vincent Wargo, says Francie is highly intelligent, but also extremely giving and humble, eager to help others succeed.
It’s this unique combination of qualities that makes her the powerful, unseen force at the center of Fort Wayne’s craft brewing scene.
"If she were an academic, she'd be the person to come up with some great idea and just pass it to whoever was interested," Wargo says. "She's one of the most generous and knowledgeable people I know."
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In addition to beer, Brewers Art Supply also offers winemaking kits.
But Francie's knowledge and skills aren’t exclusive to homebrewing, and perhaps that is what allows her to make such an impact on the region.
She’s finding ways to improve processes in several industries, and it’s this quiet spirit of ingenuity that keeps her one step ahead of the times—no matter what the times bring.
When she originally started advertising for her shop on the radio, she realized that at the end of the month, if a station hadn't sold all its ads, they'd simply play music, and earn no money for the lost time.
So Francie called the local radio stations and proposed buying all available ad inventory at the end of each month, on the idea that the stations would recognize that something was better than nothing.
They took her up on it, and, she notes with a smile, "I was the first person to do that."