MacLeod Brewing, Brews Brothers and a Shoutout
by Chauncey B. and Eleanor
In between covering Craft Beer on Vacation (or StayCation) and writing about such far-flung breweries as Bishop’s Finger in Kent, our mainstay Trumer Pils in Berkeley (by way of Salzburg), or innovations like Patagonia’s Kernz® Lager, your So Cal Craft Beer Bloggers kept on trucking’ and chugging’ their way through the summer season.
BeachRock Bill may or may not write about his discoveries on an adventure in Kern County. BrewHead Ted may return from his annual visit to Southern Oregon with tales to tell (or he may decide to pack in his SoCal life and move permanently on stage at the Shakespeare Festival in Ashland and help festival organizers reimagine the future of theater).
Meanwhile, Chauncey and Eleanor visited some SoCal breweries this summer that were new to us — Macleod and Brews Brothers — and we scored a new follower, Nepali Brewboy, whose own blog is a revelation, so we just had to share.
MacLeod Brewing Company
On their website, MacLeod Brewing describe themselves as “a craft brewery with roots in Van Nuys, brewing traditional British beers with an LA twist.” Having lived in London as a toddler and spending his elementary school years Van Nuys-adjacent, this description appealed to Chauncey. When Chauncey and Eleanor discovered that MacLeod occupied the former site of Maximiliano in Highland Park, they were intrigued and set out to discover something new.
MacLeod Ale was founded in 2012, and officially opened its doors on Calvert Street in Van Nuys in 2014. Founders Alastair (who grew up in Scotland, which is where Chauncey’s maternal grandfather hails from) and Jennifer (who grew up in Sierra Madre here in SoCal and worked at her father’s late, lamented, and legendary deli in Pasadena, Stottlemeyers) are clearly onto something. Exactly a year ago (September 2022), MacLeod expanded to York Boulevard in Highland Park, so they hadn’t even been there a year when Eleanor and Chauncey visited.
The pizza was good, the English ales, especially, were good. Service needed work the day we visited, and locations on a patio, in the sports bar, and the triangular dining room off the street (identical to when it was Maximiliano) felt a bit Balkanized.
Below are some tasting notes.
Calvert Crush Hazy ABV 7%
Sabro & Cashmere hops create a multi-layered citrus taste which is slightly bitter and a bit rough in the mouth, not necessarily unpleasant. The beer starts soft & sharpens. The flavor lingers like a good kiss.
The Lucky Penny ESB ABV 6%
This English Special Bitter brew is copper colored with the malt cut by the bitterness of the hops. There were coffee notes and it was nicely carbonated.
Fulton Foe Hazy ABV 7%
This hazy was foggier, thicker, and cloudier than Calvert with more traditional bitterness. The mouth feel was less pillowy and the flavor akin to hard candy sweetness. Not tropical. Neither hazy was super heady.
Son of Leod, Viking Pilsner ABV 5.3%
Delicious! Bitter, but sweet & flavorful.
Lost in London, Oatmeal Stout 5% ABV
This is a basic low-alcohol stout. Nothing fancy. Standard coffee overtones. Too watery for Eleanor.
Grant’s Fancy, Nitro Chocolate Milk Stout ABV 5%
Flat, creamy, chocolate. Better than Lost in London in terms of flavor.
Brews Brothers
Twins Billy and Joey Anderson, the eponymous Brews Brothers, first opened for business in North Hollywood, back in 2018. We visited the Brews Brothers second location in Burbank, which opened in July 2021 on property originally occupied by Simmzy’s. The Burbank location includes a seven-barrel brewhouse.
We visited Brews Brothers with SCCBB guest blogger 93KHJ, who doubles as Chauncey’s sister, as well as another sister, Karla-Jean, and her husband the Right Honorable Harv. Between us we sampled a number of worthy Brews Brothers brews, which we’ve listed below, with data from the Brews Brothers website — because we were being social and took neither notes nor photos (shame!)
Barr Hill Blonde 8.5% ABV
Belgian Style Blonde Ale, brewed with 70 pounds Of Vermont honey & fermented with a Belgian Saison & Belgian Golden Yeast.
We also drank a 10% ABV barrel-aged version of this ale (see photo), but the description was not available on the Brews Brothers website when we checked. Luckily, Untappd described it as having been aged 18 months in “Caledonia Spirits Gin (Tomcat) Bbls.”
Butt Chin IPA 7.1% ABV
Double dry-hopped IPA, described by Joe Keaney on Untappd as “Dark golden body with a citrusy hop aroma and a hoppy bitter taste.” The description was not available on the Brews Brothers website when we checked.
Dubbel Take 8.2% ABV
Belgian Style Dubbel Brewed w/Belgian Dark Candi Sugar
Helles Yeah! 4.6% ABV
German Style Helles Lager Brewed w/Czech Saaz & Citra Hops
Shoutout to Nepali Brewboy
We use WordPress to compose and distribute this blog, and one of the benefits is that when someone else using WordPress likes our posts, they can subscribe to our blog and we can subscribe to theirs.
After our most recent post (Craft Beer on Vacation 4 – Maine), we started following Nepali Brewboy.
In his own words:
Nepali BrewBoy is a craft beer travel blog and adventure channel that celebrates the joy of drinking and exploring the diverse world of beer, booze & brewing
As a native of the Himalayas, I grew up with a culture of drinking and celebrating with adult beverages, and my love for scotch and wine only deepened as I got older. However, it wasn’t until I visited the United States and had the chance to try some of the incredible craft beers on offer that I truly fell in love with this amazing drink.
At the beginning of September, Nepali Brewboy posted a Beer Guide Complete List. We were so taken with it that we had to share it with our other So Cal Craft Beer Blog friends. This is a handy tool to help guide the beer-curious individual through the myriad terms and technical jargon that craft beer aficionados drop on occasion. Consider this a public service, created by Nepali Brewboy and shared by the SCCBB family with you. Below is an indication of the topics you can find on Nepali’s post:
- ABV
- Ale
- Amber
- American
- Barleywine
- Belgian
- Bock
- Body
- Cascade hops
- Cask-conditioned
- and so on, all the way to
- Scottish Ale
- Stout
- Wet Hops
- and White, or witbier
We encourage you to check it out!
And that’s it for us this time. Equinox, Libra, balancing day and night, grateful for health, family, and friends.
Until next time, cheers!
— EleanorJulieAnne
— Chauncey B, aka, the So Cal Craft Beer Blogger
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