UPDATE: the auction is underway, will close on Wednesday, October 19th at 11 AM.
3 Stars closed in July, and they have partnered with New Mill Capital to oversee the sale of the brewery. There are a few options here.
The brewery at 6400 Chillum Place NW, is for sale as a turnkey operation. That is, buy the brewery, get your permits in order, remain in that location, and presto, you’re in business. It’s just that easy.* You could even keep the 3 Stars name and branding; the brewery’s intellectual property can convey with a sale.
Interested? New Mill has put together a brochure (pdf) that outlines what’s included.
“If we are unable to find a turnkey buyer, we do have an online equipment auction planned for October 19,” says Jessika Osantowski, New Mill’s Director of Marketing. If that comes to pass interested parties will bid on brewing equipment, tasting room furniture, and some items involved in 3 Stars’ food service.
Despite our best efforts and the frenzied final weekend, 3 Stars still has some beer on-site as well. New Mill cannot sell alcohol, but the brochure outlines what’s available, and that list does not include the beer in Funkerdome barrels. “If someone is interested in aged beer or any remaining wholesale product [which includes both flagships and limited releases] they should contact me directly,” says 3 Stars Chief Operating Officer and Co-Founder, Mike McGarvey. In theory, it’s possible to buy the brewery from New Mill, buy the beer from McGarvey, and then serve said beer while brewing new batches.
Look, if 6400 Chillum can’t remain 3 Stars, we’d–selfishly, we admit–like it to at least remain a brewery. There’s room to for additional brewing capacity if a tasting room isn’t in the cards, making it a solid place for a production brewery, and the space is already divided, which is easier for one part of the brewery to produce “clean” beers while what was the Funkerdome could host more, ahem, “interesting” yeasts and bacterias.
3 Stars bet big on on-premise, first with the Urban Farmhouse and then with the expansion that took place just before the pandemic hit. They then struggled to draw customers to their location, between the Fort Totten and Takoma stations on the Red line. However, the Metropolitan Branch Trail completed an expansion just behind the brewery, and even with rideshare costs no longer subsidized, we hold out hope that a customer base would materialize.
In happier news, 3 Stars’ staff, brewers and bartenders alike, have landed jobs at other breweries and bars. We’ve seen them around town at Atlas, DC Brau, Lyman’s Tavern, Other Half, and Right Proper.
New Mill Capital to oversee sale of 3 Stars Brewing Company.
* We know it’s not that easy.
