Betteridge’s law of headlines says the answer is no, but we say… maybe.

UPDATE: No, of course not, silly. The original article is below the quote from Chris Knott of Abbeywood Brewing Company. Thanks, Chris, and best of luck!

“Hey guys. Chris from Abbeywood here. Not sure the cause for the confusion here is. And we certainly didn’t do anything to provoke this in any way. I wish I could tell you that there was a brick and mortar coming or something coming to fruition that we have been working hard on for a while. But that is not the case. I have zero idea where the Abbeywood tag in DC came from, but I can assure you that there is no plan to pivot to DC in any way. As we got into this game and worked with the amazing team at Oliver to contract, for the past couple years, we’ve had a couple close calls of actually putting boots on the ground in a storefront, but have had challenges making the financials work. when it came to deals with landlords and such. As most of you all know, this is a challenging game, and it’s a challenging time and the last thing that we want to do is go at this half-hearted with financials that just do not make sense. That’s not a white flag that we’re putting up, but it’s just that we’ve been unable find a scenario that puts us all in. Well, again, sorry for any confusion. Cheers everyone! I apologize for any grammar mistakes within this post as I’m using speech to text in the rain tailgating at the Metallica concert.”

Two weeks ago something interesting popped up on Apple Maps for 3126 12th Street NE, what used to be Brookland’s Finest: a location for Abbeywood Brewing. It’s still there for all to see, but only on that service, and not Google Maps. 

abbeywood apple maps
This is literally the only thing we have to go on, work with us here

Abbeywood was founded in 2018 and contract brews hazy IPAs and fruited kettle sours at Oliver Ales. Their first can release was in 2022 at that brewery, and they’ve been on tap at Brookland’s Finest before. We also know that at one point the brand was looking for a brick and mortar taproom location; that information is available on their website. Oliver Ales, by the way, is moving to “our” side of DC, closer to Baltimore-Washington International Airport. Maybe we’ll have more on that soon, too.

We’ve reached out to Abbeywood across multiple channels including email and social media, but have yet to hear back. The landlord for the property has also declined to respond to inquiries. If they are opening in NE Washington, DC we assume it would be as a taproom and not a brewery, but hey, who knows. 

So, there you go, have some scuttlebutt, and maybe more later. Or maybe this is all some sort of error or glitch and doesn’t happen, in which case, ignore this post. 

If you’re missing Brookland’s Finest–and really, who isn’t?–get thee to Denizen’s Riverdale Park brewery where ex-Finest chef Shannon Troncoso runs the kitchen with some familiar favorites. 

FURTHER UPDATE: I guess now we have broken the news that Abbeywood is taking a hiatus and reevaluating their options as a contract brewery. As always, thanks for reading.