USA, MD: Saints Row Brewing to launch this summer in Rockville
After Martin Prebula learned the craft of brewing beer at a Baltimore brewery, he wanted to bring his skills home.
The longtime Gaithersburg resident said he and his wife, Lacy, had always wanted to start their own business—and they decided to do so in the community they knew so well, BethesdaMagazine.com reported on July 20.
The husband-and-wife team is opening Saints Row Brewing this summer in Rockville, a few miles away from where the Prebulas live with their infant daughter in the same neighborhood where Martin grew up.
“We’re from here and we’re for here,” Martin Prebula said. “That’s the idea—this is where we’re from and this is where we want to do our business with the people I’ve grown up with, my neighbors, my family, my friends.”
The nanobrewery will occupy a 3,000-square-foot space on the corner of East Gude Drive and Taft Street. Prebula said they plan to open in late August.
Focusing on brewing for the community rather than for distribution, Prebula said he isn’t planning for heavy production. Using a three-barrel system, he wants to brew about 300 to 500 barrels in the first year. The beer will be served in a 35-seat tasting area and canned and sold in small quantities to local stores.
Prebula said the Saints Row’s style will pay homage to the tradition and history behind different types of beer with some fun personal innovations. Five of the brewery’s standbys will be an American cream ale, a moderately hopped farmhouse saison, a tart-style gose with coriander and sea salt, a coffee-infused stout and a fall red IPA. The six tap lines will rotate between two of these and other seasonal brews.
Saints Row Brewing will also serve nitro cold-brew coffee and some pre-packaged bar food, though Prebula said he plans to bring in local vendors to serve food from food trucks or other partnerships. He hopes to use extra space in the brewery for pop-up restaurants, shops or craft spaces.
The interior will have a rustic look featuring unfinished natural wood and an exposed industrial-warehouse style, he said. There will also be beer garden-style lighting and murals from local artists.
Saints Row’s expected opening is the latest in a wave of breweries settling in the area. Another husband-and-wife team is set to open True Respite Brewing Co. about a mile away off Gude Drive early next year, around the same time Astrolabe Brewing will start service in Silver Spring.
Prebula said he is excited to see more brewing in the area and is looking forward to playing the “little guy” alongside the nearby 7 Locks Brewing and other operations such as Denizens Brewing Co. in Silver Spring and Waredaca Brewing Co. in Gaithersburg. Baying Hound Aleworks, a small brewery a block away from the future site of Saints Row, closed in March after operating for nearly six years.
“We’re really excited about building this craft beer destination,” he said. “We’re just excited to be a part of that, and to playing ball with these guys.”
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