Moylan's Brewery & Restaurant

In 1995 Moylan's Brewing Co. opened at Rowland Plaza, bringing Novato into the ranks of other world class brew towns like Portland Oregon and Seattle Washington by claiming the rights to it’s own Microbrewery thanks to bay area native Brendan Moylan. The 44 year old co-owner of Marin Brewing Company in Larkspur, Brendan brings more than 28 years of brewing experience to Novato, which began with his first home brewing kit one year after college. Moylan’s Brewery & Restaurant, Novato’s only brewpub, was $3.5 million project that has established a strong following among North Marin’s beer connoisseurs. Moylan’s features a 57 foot long bar, a dart room with a fireplace and a reading library featuring brewing books and magazines from Brendan’s personal collection. By constructing the brewpub in an empty lot from his own vision, Moylan was able to increase efficiency and productivity, while still leaving room for expansion as the establishment’s popularity grows. According to Moylan, the location at Rowland Plaza provides good freeway visibility and helps attract a greater number of customers from the nearby theatre and corporate offices. When Moylan co-founded Marin Brewing Company back in 1989 there were only about a 100 brewpubs across the country. Today, there are more than 2000. Moylan’s makes many popular beers such as its Kiltlifter Scotch Ale, India Pale Ale, Tippperary Pale ale and Ryan O’ Sullivan’s Imperial Stout. Moylan’s packages its fine beers in 22 ounce bottles made right on site in Novato and distributes them all over California and five other states. Moylan’s beers have won global recognition in the Great American Beer Festival, The California State Fair and the World Beer Cup, the Olympics of brewing held every two years at a different venue. In 2005 Moylan’s introduced its newest bottled product: Hoppsickle, Imperial India Pale Ale, the hoppiest beer on earth.