After outgrowing its nanobrewery almost as soon as it opened three years ago, Raleigh’s Trophy Brewing Company is finally unveiling its sprawling new location next week. Located in a 28,700-square-foot warehouse at 656 Maywood Ave., Trophy’s brewery and taproom will open Monday, Dec. 21, at 3 p.m., with 12 beers on tap.
The taproom is phase one of a larger project, which will eventually include a restaurant that’s connected to the brewery by a beer garden. Construction on the restaurant will start early next year, but for now, food trucks will replace the pizza Trophy’s patrons came to love at the old location.
“We’re really excited,” says Woody Lockwood, who co-owns Trophy with David Meeker and Chris Powers, the trio behind other Raleigh standbys like Busy Bee Café and State of Beer. “There are tons of breweries popping up all over the place, and everyone’s doing really well. Everyone’s supportive of each other, and we’re happy to be a part of it.”
With this expansion, Trophy will at least be poised to distribute its beer. Beer distribution has been a goal of Trophy’s since the nanobrewery opened, but finding an adequate space for production proved to be a bit of a struggle. The Raleigh real estate market, especially downtown, wasn’t particularly friendly to such a venture.
Three years later, however, the Maywood warehouse—right by the Farmers Market and across the street from a planned development of 60 new homes—offers the company a strong launching pad. Lockwood says they’ll start small, selling to Raleigh restaurants they know and a few bottle shops.
“It’ll be really exciting to see taps popping up all over town,” Lockwood says. “That’ll be surreal.”
