These photos were taken Wednesday, October 23 at Moylan’s Brewing Company in Novato, and Saturday, November 2 at Fieldwork Brewing Company in Corte Madera; which were the first and last locations I visited on my Craft Beer Tour 2024.

So yeah, it is that time of year again; that time being fresh hop season, which is my favorite time to visit the Pacific Northwest. While I was definitely out seeking fresh hop beers, I was spending more time hunting down fresh Citra hops for the simple reason that I have become dependent on the Citra hop more than you can imagine. Those that know know; I am still deciding how much of that story I want to reveal, but we shall see how it goes.

Wednesday morning I headed up north to Novato, where I would be spending the night with my aunt and uncle (Linda and Bob). Those of you that have known me a while may recall that I went storm chasing back in 2011, Bob was my navigator … well, he went with me anyhow. Bob and Linda are not exactly what you would describe as craft beer aficionados, but they love me so gladly agreed to join me for dinner at Moylan’s Brewing Company.

I had done a little research about Moylan’s ahead of time and could not help but notice that they seemed to carry a couple beers from Marin Brewing Company, so I made a mental note to find out what that was all about since Marin Brewing closed a couple years ago.

Moylan’s is a brewpub, and my experience has been that dinner time at a brewpub is not exactly an ideal time to ask if I can wander around the brewhouse to take photos. Luckily, when we arrived, owner/founder Brendan Moylan was working behind the bar and he was more than happy to let me wander around.

I apologize that I don’t recall the size of the brewhouse, but I seem to recall it is a 15 bbl system, but it may be 20. I remember thinking it seemed to be a smallish system, but that was before Brendan showed me the eight fermenters upstairs. He has enough to get the job done.

I did ask him about the Marin Brewing situation and discovered he was also the owner of it. He said that even though Marin Brewing closed in 2022, he was doing what he could to keep the name alive. I would not be too surprised if at some date in the future Marin Brewing is resurrected.

On the day of our visit they had 13 of their beers on tap as well as at least one N/A Kolsch that Bob said was the best N/A beer he had ever tried. Personally, I tried their 3 Flowers IPA and Nor Cal IPA, with a Lupulin Gravy Hazy for dessert. Linda had the Stinson Beach Peach, which she seemed to enjoy.

As far as the food portion of the meal, Linda and I shared some calamari and a small pizza, while Bob enjoyed what looked like an amazing turkey avocado sandwich. The fact of the matter is that the three of us returned about 10 days later. They told me that they had been to Moylan’s before, but never picked up on the fact that they brewed beer there. It seems to me that they will return, sans the Craft Beer Guy; they enjoyed the food and Brendan that much.

Moylan’s Brewing Company is located at 15 Rowland Way in Novato. They open at 11:30 AM, seven days a week. They offer growlers and 22oz bottles of beer to go.

Oh yeah, if you enjoy brown liquor, you might consider visiting Moylan’s Distilling in neighboring Petaluma. I am sworn to some secrecy, but if you enjoy whiskey, you will not be disappointed.

The next morning, I said farewell to Bob and Linda and headed up to Oregon, with the promise that if possible I would return to Novato on my way home; whenever that might be (which turned out to be sooner than expected).

Since I am running behind, I am going to combine my visit to Moylan’s with my visit to Fieldwork Brewing 10 days later since they are both in the same general vicinity, that being north of the Golden Gate Bridge and south of Santa Rosa.

Long story short, when I left Novato I headed to Oregon and Washington. When I returned to Oregon my external hard drive, with about 300,000 photos on it, suffered a catastrophic failure, apparently due to static electricity. 300,000 photos gone in a split second! Yeah, I was pretty bummed, and at that point I stopped using my camera because I could not risk using my hard drive until I recovered what I lost and that was not going to happen until I got back home.

I got back to Novato on Friday and it was planned that I would join Bob and Linda at a cousin’s baby shower the next day. Since I was not using my camera, I left it at their place when we headed out to the shower. To everyone’s surprise, the shower was not happening until Sunday, so being the loving aunt and uncle they are, we set out to find somewhere new for me to discover. That is when we found Fieldwork Brewing Company in Corte Madera.

You have to want to find Fieldwork as this location is a tasting room with a restaurant and it is located in an inner walkway of the shopping center it is located at.

The Corte Madera location has a nice outdoor patio, as well as plenty of indoor seating. Their kitchen offered various pizzas, salads, and appetizers like fries, hummus, and goat cheese. I will say this; my aunt ordered the Black Diamond Detroit Style pizza and it was hands down the best pizza I have ever had anywhere, and I am not a pizza guy, but it was amazing.

As I cannot use my Android phone like a Canon 5D, I don’t have many photos of the experience. They are on the last couple lines of page two. I can tell you they had what looked like about 30 taps pouring. I opted for their Pulp Free IPA, Greetings from Raspberry Park sour, and Night Maker Imperial Stout. Bob and Linda opted for some N/A canned options.

Fieldwork Brewing Company is located at 107 Corte Madera Town Center, in Corte Madera. They are open seven days a week and offer cans, crowlers, and growlers to go. Cheers!

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