Washington Business Journal - by Gillian Gaynair Staff Reporter

One of the region's award-winning brew masters is going solo to open his own brew pub in Northern Virginia.

Bill Madden, currently executive brewer at Leesburg's Vintage 50 Restaurant and Brew Lounge, plans to open Mad Fox Brewing Co. LLC in the third quarter of 2009. Rick Garvin, a technology consultant with Arlington's Ten Mile Square Technologies LLC, is investing in the venture, and will eventually serve on its board of managers.

Madden has retained David Dochter and Christina Davies from Cushman & Wakefield Retail Services to represent him in the search for a 7,000- to 9,000-square-foot spot for Mad Fox.

"I've been doing this for a long time. I've gained a lot of experience, and it's time for me to make my own move," said Madden, a brewing veteran who started his career with Capitol City Brewing Co. With a repertoire of at least 30 different craft beer recipes, Madden is perhaps best known for his German-style kolsch ale and Scottish-style wheat heavy ale.

Those brews will be available at Mad Fox, where Madden aims to seat at least 250 and produce a minimum of 1,200 barrels of beer annually. He will continue to oversee operations at Vintage 50 after Mad Fox opens, but likely will hire another brewer there to help with day-to-day operations.

While they don't yet know where Mad Fox will call home, the Northern Virginia market is an attractive one for Madden and Garvin because of its high incomes and, they said, a drought in the diversity of crafted brews.

Some of the breweries in the area include Gordon Biersch in McLean; Sweetwater Tavern in Centreville, Merrifield and Sterling; and Rock Bottom Brewery in Arlington. Old Dominion Brewery is a long-timer in the region, too, which last year was sold to Maryland-based Fordham Brewing and Anheuser-Busch of St. Louis.

"I think it helps the industry in general," Matt Fleischer, chief executive of Silver Spring-based Hook & Ladder Brewing Co., said of another brew pub in the area. Hook & Ladder distributes its beer nationwide, and in the fall will open its first retail location in a historic firehouse at 8131 Georgia Ave. in Silver Spring.

Garvin praised the region's brewing talent, but said brewers often work in the context of a restaurant group or chain. And with consolidations such as Dominion's sale to Fordham and Anheuser-Busch happening, "this region is reducing options for the consumer. They have places to go, but not the variety," said Garvin, who is a master beer judge and has been a home brewer for 25 years. "For the aficionado, this matters."

And it's a growing market.

Nationally, crafted beer was a $5.74 billion industry in 2007. Sales increased 12 percent in volume and 16 percent in dollars from 2006, according to the Brewers Association in Boulder, Colo. Of the 1,449 breweries operating last year, 1,406 were small, independent and traditional craft breweries.

Sales in the Mid-South region -- which includes Virginia, Maryland and D.C. -- grew 26 percent over the previous year, making it the third- fastest growing area nationally, said Paul Gatza, director of the Brewers Association. The Southeast is No. 1 at 31 percent, according to data from Information Resources Inc., which captures crafted beer sales in groceries, liquor stores, some big box outlets and drug stores.

Garvin estimates the venture will cost $2.5 million, and is seeking private funding for $2 million of it. And despite the current uncertainty in credit markets and inflationary fears, Garvin is optimistic about securing the funding for Mad Fox.

E-mail: ggaynair@bizjournals.com Phone: 703/258-0839
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