Catching Up with Arne Johnson of Moylan’s Brewing

It’s already been a year since brewmaster Arne Johnson joined the team at Moylan’s Brewery & Restaurant in Novato following the emotional pandemic-prompted shuttering of Marin Brewing Company in Larkspur. Marin Brewing was one of the San Francisco Bay Area’s oldest remaining brewpubs. Today, though, Moylan’s fits that label as well. Since becoming brewmaster at Marin Brewing in 1995, Johnson racked up award after award at prestigious judged competitions all over the world.

Heading into the last days of 2023 SF Beer Week, it’s time to catch up with Johnson, a respected elder stateman in the craft brewing industry just like his boss, Brendan Moylan (see separate interview).

Let’s catch up with Arne.

Q: Do you have any fond memories to share of past SF Beer Weeks?

A: Some of my favorite events have been the beer dinners. We did one at Marin BrewCo with food from Sushi Ko next door. The food, the pairings, and the company were all top-notch. We did another at Noonan's Bar and Grill that was amazing.

Q: What does it mean for a longtime brewer to get a chance during SF Beer Week to mingle with your most respected contemporaries at various events?

A: The best part of being in this business is the people. We've always had a great community of brewers here in the Bay Area. Most of us are friends, and despite the fact that we are competitors, we take pride in helping and inspiring one another. Additionally, there are so many amazing human beings that are beer lovers, beer geeks, beer business owners or employees, or regulars whom I’m come to know. They are the heart and soul of the beer industry.

Q: What was challenging and exciting about coming up to Moylan’s?

A: It's nice to have a new challenge after working my whole career in one brewery. It's much more challenging than you might expect to dial things in, in a completely new environment, but also very satisfying to realize the improvements I am striving for.

Q: Can you summarize the changes you made behind the scenes at Moylan’s and how that affects the products?

A: The first priority was replacing the draft beer lines so the beer tastes exactly as it does from the tanks. Next, we replaced the grain mill, which was 27 years old, and was not getting the job done as efficiently anymore. With our new mill, we are getting about 20% better efficiency and the beer flavor quality has improved. Maintaining and updating equipment in any aging brewery is essential, and I will work with my assistants Jesse Stubbs and Aidan Haberstroh to keep that going.

Q: What was the manufacturing arrangement between the two breweries while BrewCo was still open?

A: Moylan's has been brewing Marin BrewCo branded beers for years. Marin BrewCo. reached its brewing capacity years ago and had nowhere to grow in a confined shopping center setting. Moylan's has a larger capacity and was designed to be more of a production brewery, so it was an obvious decision to grow the production rate at Moylan's.

Marin BrewCo had a long and storied history and dedicated following for its beers, and Brendan and I both would like to carry that forward. We are figuring out how to best integrate the two sets of brands, but Brendan always has the final say. If it were left up to me, we'd have 50 different beers on tap.

Q: Which of the still-alive BrewCo beers mean the most to you personally and will be the strongest part of your legacy?

A: Three Flowers IPA was the most successful beer that I developed. My goal when writing the recipe was to make the perfect beer for my girlfriend (Betsy). The second batch I brewed won the Gold Medal at the Great American Beer Festival, and the following year Three Flowers took Silver at the World Beer Cup. Production and sales of Three Flowers soon surpassed our flagship Mt. Tam Pale Ale, and we never looked back. It continues to have a very positive effect on my relationship with my girlfriend.

Q: Have you made any brand-new styles during your year at Moylan's -- either one that are new to Moylan's OR were ones that you never brewed before?

A: I haven't created any new beers yet at Moylan's, but I am learning to brew the Moylan's beers, and they are evolving a bit to my style and taste. I just made my first-ever nitrogenated beer and my first Dry Irish Stout, Moylan's Dragoon's Dry Irish Stout. I'm also learning a lot about making whisky wash, which is distilled into whisky at Moylan's Distillery.

Q: What’s it been like to follow the original Moylan’s recipes like Kiltlifter Scotch Ale? Are you sticking to those brewer notes or are you tweaking them as you go batch by batch?

A: Kiltlifter has such a great history and following. While I have stuck mostly to the various parameters of previous brewers’ recipes, it has evolved subtly with my preferences for raw materials and yeast strain.

Q: Is there a Moylan’s beer that was different from anything you made at BrewCo that you’ve really come to love?

A: It would have to be the Dragoon's. At Marin, I generally tried not to overlap too much on styles with the Moylan's brands. So, as much as I've always loved a great Dry Irish Stout, I had never made one. We rolled it out earlier this month, and from what I can tell people are enjoying it.

(Brent Ainsworth, a former Novato Patch editor, spent a decade as a contributing writer to Celebrator Beer News and craft beer columnist for the Marin Independent Journal. He still writes about the beer scene once in a long while.)