The co-founder of a popular Silver Spring brewery and restaurant has been appointed to serve in the Biden administration. 

Julie Verratti, owner and operator of Denizens Brewing Co., which opened its first location in 2014, will serve as an associate administrator of field operations for the U.S. Small Business Administration under President Joe Biden. She will oversee nearly 80 offices responsible for providing services to the country’s small businesses starting March 1. 

“I’m looking forward to being able to advocate and push for policies that will help small businesses start, grow and succeed, especially in the COVID era,” she said in an interview. “Small businesses are the lifeblood of communities and our economy and we all really need to do our part to make sure that they survive at the end of this.”

Verratti was a Democratic candidate for Maryland Lieutenant Governor in 2018.

As owner-operator of Denizens, Verratti has overseen marketing, sales and business development for the brewery, which operates two locations. She serves on panels representing brewers, including the Board of Directors for the Brewers Association. 

When Denizens opened its first location in 2014, it was the first production brewery in Montgomery County and one of the few women-owned breweries in the area. Verratti became a leading figure in what became a renaissance for local female brewers. “People sort of gravitate to us,” Verratti told DCist in 2015. “People who are women in the industry have said ‘Oh hey I’m a woman in the industry too,’ since we’re sort of out there as that.”

Denizens expanded in 2019 with a massive new production facility and taproom in Riverdale Park Station. Verratti co-owns the company with her wife, CEO Emily Bruno, and chief beer officer Jeff Ramirez. In addition to serving at its taprooms, Denizens cans and bottles more than a dozen varieties of beer and hard seltzer.

Verratti says there will not be any major changes to Denizens as she departs the company to step into her new role, as Bruno and Ramirez will continue running the brewery.

“People can still expect the same Denizens, the same product that we’re putting out,” she says.

Verratti was a board member for the Montgomery County Chamber of Commerce and was named the group’s Business Advocate of the Year in 2019. She has worked on several political campaigns and non-profit advocacy organizations and served for a short time on the U.S. Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship.

She holds a law degree from George Washington University and a bachelor’s degree from Brandeis University, the release said. 

This post has been updated to correct an editing error. Denizens is not Maryland’s only majority women-owned brewery.