In a shocking move for the budding Los Angeles craft beer community, Golden Road Brewing, the area’s largest craft brewery, was acquired in September by multinational beer titan Anheuser-Busch InBev. For an industry that so often prides itself on its locally owned businesses, the buyout was yet another sign of a growing corporate influence.

But tucked away in Downtown L.A. between Little Tokyo and Skid Row is a new brewery that stays true to craft beer’s independent roots. Mumford Brewing, which opened its doors this past summer, is entirely family owned. Aside from brothers Todd and Peter Mumford and Todd’s wife, Tien Tran, the brewery only employs two other people.

“That was always our thing: the three of us,” Todd Mumford said. “I wasn’t interested in just opening a brewery. I wanted it to be us or not at all. Otherwise it’s just a business, and I think that’s not the dynamic we’re after.”

The Mumford brothers, Todd an entertainment lawyer and Peter a research scientist by trade, got the idea to open up their brewery when they looked around and realized that the beer that Peter was homebrewing was on par with what they were tasting from commercial brewing operations. They soon set their sights on Downtown L.A., which up until they opened only had two craft breweries.

“Part of it was us thinking that for a city this big, there’s a dearth of local craft breweries here,” Todd Mumford said. “We didn’t just want to be in an industrial park; we liked the older buildings downtown. We liked what was going on here, and we thought, ‘Look, if we’re going to open a brewery in Los Angeles let’s just put it right in the middle.’”

Over the next year there are plans for four to five other breweries to open in the Arts District and adjacent neighborhoods, the largest of which, Iron Triangle Brewing, aims to scale up quickly to brewing 10,000 barrels of beer annually. Mumford Brewing, on the other hand, would top out at just over 1,000 barrels in a year if it pushed its current 15-barrel brew system to its limits.

But Todd Mumford isn’t worried about the upcoming boom of breweries in the area. In fact, he said, a strong core of brewers downtown would ultimately be beneficial.

“This is a business; we have to pay our bills, but I think the mentality is not, ‘Oh, they're going to eat into what we're trying to do,’” he said. “I think it actually feeds each other’s business, because a lot of people like to go from place to place and do some tours. Right now what we're looking at is a nice little cluster downtown that will bring a lot of beer tourism for us.”

As more players enter the craft beer market, it will become increasingly important for startups like Mumford Brewing to differentiate themselves from the thickening crowd.

Craft Breweries in Downtown L.A.

Rob Croxall, owner of El Segundo Brewing Company and president of the Los Angeles County Brewers Guild, said that the situation facing new breweries in L.A. today is completely different than it was just four years ago, when the county was home to only a handful of craft breweries.

“It’s a lot tougher now; there’s a lot more competition for shelf space and tap handles at places,” Croxall said. “But what that means is you have to have a fresh, high-quality product. With the way this is growing, we need to be vigilant about putting out quality beer as a whole and continuing to gain all these consumers that we've been able to attract.”

While Mumford Brewing won’t be topping many other local craft breweries in terms of sheer size, Todd Mumford said they plan to cultivate a loyal following by focusing on a specific niche – new American styles like pale ales and IPAs, and Belgian classics – and delivering a well-crafted beer every time.

“I wanted our identity to be, ‘Oh, they know what they’re doing,’” he said. “Brewing balanced, nuanced beers – we like to experiment a little bit, but not for the sake of experimentation, like, ‘Hey, look how crazy we can get.’”

So far, it seems to be working. Todd Mumford said the brewery is enjoying a steady stream of new customers at the taproom and is expanding its draft account list at bars and restaurants. They’ve even managed to pick up a few regulars, like Echo Park resident Mathew Malinowski.

“I think where they're at in just becoming a company, they still have opportunities to do some cool things. That's the great thing about watching a business take off, is you can try different things and ideas, and see what happens and what flies,” Malinowski said. “Also, it’s just really good beer.”