Franklin’s microbrewery paved the way for craft beverages in Hyattsville, but it’s taken more than a decade for others in the space to follow. The latest? Sangfroid Distilling, a craft distillery that will make fruit brandies, gin and rye whiskey that aims to open in November at 5130 Baltimore Ave. When it opens, it will be the first distillery in Prince George’s County since Prohibition.
It will also join what is becoming a bit of a craft drinking hub in and around Hyattsville. Streetcar 82, the East Coast’s first deaf-owned brewery, opened on Rhode Island Avenue in September and Maryland Meadworks also opened in the neighborhood last month. Just a few minutes north in Riverdale, Silver Spring’s Denizens Brewing Co. is opening an outpost in the Riverdale Park Station development.
Sangfroid is the work of Nate Groenendyk and Jeff Harner, brothers-in-law who got their start in the beverage world home-brewing beer and cider. Though they used to collaborate long distance — Groenendyk, then a teacher, lived in Rhode Island, and Harner, who works for the federal government, in the D.C. area — Groenendyk decided to move to Greater Washington when the two decided to turn their hobby into a business.