D.C.-based 3 Stars Brewing Company has been cranking out all sorts of suds this year, including a rye-based pale ale called B.W. Rye and a light, spicy farmhouse ale dubbed Syndicate Saison. None of these libations, however, were actually brewed in the District. The local company has been collaborating with breweries in Baltimore, Delaware and other places while its own 15,000-square-foot facility is under construction in D.C.’s Takoma neighborhood.

“It’s a way to stay relevant while you’re in construction,” says 3 Stars’ Dave Coleman, “a representation of what to expect from us.”

Coleman and partner Mike McGarvey are nonetheless anxious to get their own place up and running. And they’re getting closer. “It’s right around the corner,” says Coleman. “After about two years of putting this thing together, we’re pretty much getting to the starting line. Some people like to think of it as the finish line. I’m like, ‘No, this is the just the beginning.’ We’re getting to the point where we can actually start doing what we’re working to do.”

Once completed, the new brewery will be considerably larger than the facilities of its contemporaries, DC Brau and Chocolate City, which Coleman expects to allow for rapid expansion without having to change addresses. Most of the permits and licenses are already in place. “All we have left to is do is, basically, some construction work over the next few weeks and then get our health inspection and our [certificate of occupancy],” he says. “We’re looking to be releasing beer in the first quarter of 2012.”

The brewers are plotting a splashy first release—-“multiple beers at once,” says Coleman. “It’ll be an opportunity where we’ll be able to showcase three distinctly different styles that will kind of let people in D.C. know that, wow, this brewery has a lot of depth.”

Photo by Darrow Montgomery