By Brendan MoylanOn January 31st 2022, we will pour our final pint, serve our last Mt. Tam burger, and say goodbye to 33 years of Marin Brewing Company. I am heartbroken, but I am proud and I am grateful.
Proud of our role in the legacy of craft brewing and the countless awards we’ve won at the Great American Beer Festival.
Proud of the $500,000 we’ve donated to Schools, Clubs, Teams, Churches, and Organizations throughout our community and for 20 year partnerships like the Breastfest Beer Festival, raising over $250,000 for breast cancer.
Grateful to the 1000’s of employees that gave their all in the kitchen, on the floor, in the brewhouse, and behind the bar — and some, for decades themselves. A special thank you to our world-class brewmaster of 27 years, Arne Johnson, and Jenn Procopio our incredible GM for 30 of dedication.
If you love Brew Co. as much as we do, we do have a little bit of good news. We will be holding a silent auction of our iconically Brew Co. art and decor — including decades of hand drawn coasters — to raise money for our employee fund, as they no doubt feel the greatest impact of our closure. Stop on by and place a bid.




In 1987, we originally hired Frank Appleton, a brewing consultant from Canada to help us establish the brewing component of our planned brewpub in Bend, Oregon. In addition to designing the equipment, and having it installed, he would formulate the first three beers in our line-up. Not knowing much about it in 1988, we wanted something light, medium, and dark. Frank came up with Cascade Golden Ale, Bachelor Bitter, and
Once while meeting with our distributor in Portland, Oregon, Jim Kennedy, he posed a question. He said, “You need to decide what you want to be as a brewery. Now, you can sell these lighter colored beers and carve out your small but reasonable slice of the very large, light colored beer-pie, competing with everyone for that slice. Or, you can sell Black Butte Porter and, although the dark-colored beer-pie is much smaller, you can own the whole thing”. I guess being a contrarian at heart, that proposition appealed to me. Although we had to sacrifice quite a bit to make that happen. You see, the path of least resistance for beer salespeople was certainly not in dark beer. Particularly when we had developed some really popular lighter beers like Mirror Pond Pale Ale. But we were committed. For the next few years, we kept the brakes on Mirror Pond and limited its market exposure to ensure Black Butte could gain a foothold in the market. It didn’t hurt that it was winning awards at a pretty good clip in those days. As a result, you could say we developed our second brand first, and we actually had two flagship brands with Black Butte and Mirror Pond sharing that distinction.
Niagara on the Lake, Ontario – Staff and students at the 
Richmond, VA – The Virginia Craft Brewers Guild announced the 2020 Virginia Craft Beer Cup winners on Monday, August 31, 2020, at Bon Secours Training Center in Richmond, Virginia. The event looked different this year, with face masks, social distancing, and hand sanitizer placed all over the venue, but the excitement in the air was unchanged.