Road to San Francisco

After a few great days in Napa and Sonoma we headed south to San Fran. Before crossing the Golden Gate we made a few beer stops north of the city. First was Moylans in Novato CA. I have been enjoying their beers since they have been distributed in PA and admit that I am a bit biased. I love what this brewery puts out. The brewery restaurant is conveniently located right off of Route 101/ Redwood Highway. Since this was a quick stop I took a seat at the bar and had an IPA. The beer poured an orange/copper color with a thick white head. Grapefruit tones dominated the smell of pine and other citrus. The hops hit the back of the tongue and bitterness came through and lingered. This is a very good West Coast IPA. Overall Moylans is a total hop paradise. Besides the IPA there's Moylander Double IPA, Wet Hopsicle Triple IPA, Hopsicle Imperial IPA and Tipperary Pale Ale. I had a second IPA and then Kelleigh and I were back on the road to San Fran.

Our next stop was 15 miles south in Larkspur, the Marin Brewing Company. Brandon Moylan, the owner of Moylans Brewery (go figure) is also the owner and Head Brewer at Marin. The brewery is tucked into a shopping and office park area. Again we grabbed seats at the bar. I think my butt was made for a bar stools. This time I went all out and did the sampler along with an order of oysters. This was probably the largest beer sampler I have ever consumed just beating out the nine glass sampler at North Country Brewing Company in Slippery Rock PA. The stand outs were the IPA and the Point Reyes Porter. The porter was dark almost black in color with a taste of dark chocolate, roasted malt and coffee. A slight sweetness also worked it's way into the taste. By the end of the beer and oysters I was sufficiently stuffed and Kelleigh was officially responsible for getting us to our hotel in downtown San Francisco. Next stop the big city.