More than a decade-and-a-half ago, Andrew Campbell took a trip to the Czech Republic, where he ventured to Plzen and tasted fresh, unfiltered Pilsner Urquell on tap. It was delicious enough to send him searching for the beer or a brew of equal or greater quality when he returned to the States. Alas, the craft-beer movement was still gaining momentum and Pilsners weren’t nearly as en vogue as they are at present. Unimpressed but not one to cast aspersions on all local takes on Bohemian Pilsners, he returned to Plzen the following year, just to make sure the original was as incredible as he remembered. It was, and he decided if he was going to enjoy beer like that back home, he was going to have to make it himself. Campbell has been brewing ever since, but he’s about to go from fermentation hobbyist to vocational beer-man along with fellow long-time homebrewer Darren Baker, when they open Circle Nine Brewing (7292 Opportunity Road, Kearny Mesa).
Campbell and Baker selected their Kearny Mesa business-park location based on their respect for the area’s extensive line-up of good breweries and beer-centric retailers, specifically citing Council Brewing, Societe Brewing, O’Brien’s Pub and Common Theory Public House. They hope their operation can fit into visitors’ beer- and pub-crawl itineraries, and hope to provide “a complete portfolio and something for every craft-beer lover, even those who don’t really like craft beer.”
That’s a pretty tall order, but when Circle Nine opens in late-July or early-August, its beer list figures to be fairly varied. Scheduled to be on tap are a rice lager, pale ale, India pale ale (IPA), double IPA, stout and barrel-aged stout. The names for those beers range from Circle One for the lager and Circle Nine for an upcoming whiskey barrel-aged imperial stout. That nomenclature evokes Italian poet Dante Alighieri’s epic, Divine Comedy, which artfully and meticulously diagrams the author’s vision of the afterlife; the more robust the beer, the further along in the order it falls.
Those beers will be produced on Circle Nine’s three-and-a-half barrel brewhouse. Campbell and Baker will double-batch into three seven-barrel fermenters, a pair of bright tanks of equal capacity, plus two single-barrel fermenters for experimental and specialty beers. More seven-barrel fermentation tanks will be added after the brewery opens, and will help them achieve an estimated 300-400 barrels of annual beer production.