Silver Branch Brewing Company has announced an expansion to Rockville, seeking investment to enhance its offerings and relocate brewing facilities to the new location.
The Rockville location would be the brewery’s third since opening in downtown Silver Spring in March 2019 and in Warrenton, Va., in 2023.
The downtown Silver Spring brewery was at capacity within one year of opening and had previously announced plans to merge with Old Ox Brewing in April 2022, but the merger was called off three months later.
“We were running at capacity much sooner than expected and began considering different opportunities to expand, including partnering with other breweries, but we couldn’t find the right fit,” marketing director Chris Bonnell said in an interview with the Prince William Times last year.
This week, the brewery launched an investment campaign on Honeycomb Credit, the same crowdfunding platform that the local coffee roaster Bump ‘n Grind used to successfully fund the expansion of its Analog Market community hub in downtown Silver Spring.
Along with the Rockville expansion, Silver Branch owners Christian Layke and Brett Robison plan to use the funding to expand distribution to Virginia and Delaware, enhance its Warrenton location, and launch its Mosaic Pizza brand, as well as launch a Mosaic Pizza Truck and Silver Branch Bierwagon.
After moving the brewing equipment to Rockville, the plan is to add a full kitchen at the downtown Silver Spring and Warrenton locations for Mosaic Pizza, which would be co-located in each of Silver Branch’s taproom locations.
Additionally, they plan to launch a beer and food delivery service and convert the space occupied by the brewing equipment at the downtown Silver Spring location into a large events space overlooking Colesville Road.
“Silver Branch has been capacity-limited for over two years,” the brewery said in its crowdfunding campaign listing. “We have needed more space to brew so we can meet the demand of Silver Branch beer in wholesale, and we have needed more space to build a kitchen in Silver Spring so we can meet the demand for private events and a more diverse menu for groups and family dining.
“Opening Warrenton in 2023 has helped to address some of our capacity constraints, and has grown Silver Branch revenues by nearly over 50%, but at the same time, it has accentuated the need in Silver Spring for a larger kitchen and the need for an efficient brewery. The new brewery space in Rockville is designed to allow for simultaneous shipping and receiving, brewing, and packaging.
“Our current too-small space only permits us to undertake one of these activities at a time. The ability of the brewing team to work in parallel rather than sequence will improve efficiency and the additional space will allow for production of at least twice as much beer, permitting us to expand distribution to new geographies and to higher-volume retailers. In particular, this means the ability to open conversations with grocery store chains in Virginia.
“In terms of our hospitality business, moving our brewing operations to Rockville will expand our tradition of bringing people together over beer and food to the great Rockville-Gaithersburg area, and increase the range of food we offer at all of our locations.
“Silver Branch Brewing is bringing Mosaic Pizza to life! Since opening our second location in Warrenton in 2023, our talented chefs have been creating our amazing pizza lineup and our art and marketing team has been preparing the brand assets needed to launch Mosaic Pizza online and in brick and mortar locations.
“Our pizza receives rave reviews, and the recipes are ready to be exported to the new kitchens we will be building in 2025 as we launch Mosaic Pizza.
“With the brewing equipment removed from Silver Spring, we will have space to build a full kitchen in Silver Spring to launch Mosaic Pizza. We will also use the vacated space to create a large, bright events space overlooking Colesville Road.
“In the coming years, we aim for Silver Branch to expand to have between 4 and 6 joint Mosaic Pizza/Silver Branch taproom locations. We also intend to open independent Mosaic Pizza locations that sell Silver Branch beer in smaller stand-alone locations.
“Our buildings in Warrenton are one of the most visible properties in Old Town Warrenton, especially for traffic coming off of Rt. 29. Before we Silver Branch Warrenton Station, our buildings sat empty for two years with weeds growing in the parking lot. With this equity raise, we plan to launch another round of renovations to continue to beautify the space and to add vibrancy and services to the Old Town Warrenton location.
“We will open our Mosaic Pizza storefront based on the pizza that Warrenton has come to know and love, and we will renovate the beautiful 1870s building to restore its charm and integrity. This building will be seating for Mosaic Craft Pizza and will double as an events space, with its historic exposed brick walls and large windows.”