By Mia Finley
Even though MacDowell Brew Kitchen already rotates about 50 craft beers on tap, co-owners Nils Schnibbe and Gordon MacDowell wanted to offer a few of their own.
“We had a house brew in 2012 for a year,” Schnibbe says. “But you start to run out of room trying to make beer in such a small kitchen.” Opening this expanded facility adds a 10-by-15-foot space to the current location, which opened in late 2011, plus two indoor bars and a continued beach theme.
MacDowell’s brewer Dan Stiles‘ first beers are a German-style wheat beer, Weiz Ass, plus a yet-to-be-named pale ale and stout. Schnibbe expects to be bottling beers by next year and selling in grocery stores and markets. “That’s the goal,” Schnibbe says.
With this addition, they also have a bigger kitchen and a grill, supplying more than the previously available fried food. “People can get hamburgers with locally sourced meat, grilled chicken and flatbreads,” Schnibbe says. “Oh, and the pork rib eye. That one’s a hot item right now.”
Weiz Ass will be on tap starting Saturday. / MacDowell Brew Kitchen; 202-B Harrison St. SE, Leesburg
