{"id":17292,"date":"2017-05-30T08:00:10","date_gmt":"2017-05-30T15:00:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/archives.csusm.edu\/westcoastersd\/?p=17292"},"modified":"2017-05-28T12:23:21","modified_gmt":"2017-05-28T19:23:21","slug":"all-organic-protector-brewery-opens-this-week","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archives.csusm.edu\/westcoastersd\/2017\/05\/30\/all-organic-protector-brewery-opens-this-week\/","title":{"rendered":"All-organic Protector Brewery opens this week"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
Protector Brewery founder and brewer Sean Haggerty serves customer from his tasting bar<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A lot goes with trying to open San Diego County\u2019s first all-organic brewery\u2014sourcing ingredients, all of which are more costly than non-organic, securing enough of them, finding price-points that work for patrons and, of course, making quality beer. These are all very real challenges, but pale in comparison to the obstacles and consequences the founders of Protector Brewery <\/strong><\/a>faced in their former lives as Navy SEALs. By comparison, this should be a fairly straightforward mission. One thing is for sure. They\u2019re going to war fully prepared.<\/p>\n

Sean Haggerty<\/strong> is leading the charge from a base of operations located at 8680 Miralani Drive<\/strong>. If that address sounds familiar, it\u2019s because the business park Protector calls home has become well known as a center of artisanality. Other businesses sited there include 2kids Brewing<\/strong><\/a>, Align Brewing<\/strong>, Setting Sun Sake Brewery<\/strong><\/a> and several urban wineries, with Thunderhawk Alements<\/strong><\/a>, a cidery and meadery in the works directly across the street. The fact Protector can bring something completely unique to such a saturated complex is impressive.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Haggerty\u2014who produces beer with fellow brewer Ben Betz<\/strong>\u2014brewed his first beer seven years ago in the most unlikely of places\u2026while on deployment in Iraq. His team had just returned from a direct-action raid at 3 a.m. and he really wanted to drink a good beer to toast his team’s success. The only problem was, being at a military installation halfway across the world, there was no beer\u00a0to be had. It was then Haggerty\u00a0had the epiphany that he should\u00a0make his own. He had ingredients shipped to him and used a five-gallon Gatorade jug for his debut brew. He\u2019s significantly upgraded his equipment at Protector, where beers are brewed on a direct-fire stainless system that figures to produce 200 barrels of beer annually.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Protector\u2019s portfolio will include a hefeweizen, imperial stout, a pair of pale ales (one of which is New World in its hop profundity) and a pair of IPAs (English and West Coast). The hardest part about creating the latter quartet is sourcing quality hops, but Haggerty is confident in the stock he\u2019s secured. He has Cascade, Centennial, Citra, Mosaic, Simcoe and Zeus in cold storage. Only five states house organic hop purveyors and the price of those hops is three times higher than non-organic hops, on average, with highly coveted varietals like Nelson Sauvin going for as much as ten times its garden-variety counterparts. And unlike other local brewers, Haggerty can\u2019t just head to White Labs when he needs yeast. He currently gets his strains from an Oregan-based company.<\/p>\n

Given the increased costs, one would expect extremely expensive beers at Protector, but prices are competitive and Haggerty says even his costliest beers will never go higher than seven or eight bucks. He knows an organic brewery wouldn\u2019t be feasible at the size of a Ballast Point or Stone, but believes he can make it work at his smaller size. And if he is successful, he\u2019ll look to expand.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>For now, it\u2019s about producing four barrels of beer per week, teaching people about organic beer and showing them it can taste every bit as good as everyday craft ales and lagers. Initially, that will be done exclusively at Protector\u2019s tasting room, a neutral-toned spot punched up with organic color from a framed piece of art made of black barley and hops, depicting a Spartan helmet. Sketched artwork of fantasy-style defenders lines one wall while the brewery\u2019s motto, \u201cpeople, planet, progression, protector\u201d is painted on the wall beside the bar. Haggerty and company hope to improve the planet through their actions, pushing the organic movement and market forward, not just for themselves, but for farmers, their families, wildlife and the environment.<\/p>\n

Protector\u2019s soft-open period begins June 2<\/strong>. The tasting room will be open from 2 to 10 p.m., Fridays and Saturdays<\/strong>, leading up to a grand opening in July.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A lot goes with trying to open San Diego County\u2019s first all-organic brewery\u2014sourcing ingredients, all of which are more costly than non-organic, securing enough of them, finding price-points that work for patrons and, of course, making quality beer. These are all very real challenges, but pale in comparison to the obstacles and consequences the founders […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":17289,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[367,368,369,371,1],"tags":[1353,2922,3748,3948,376,1436,3947,442,3953,390,2483,1010,3952,2053,880,3945,3949,3954,2052,2925,2924,3950,1439,3946,2926,2923,3188,3951,1637],"class_list":{"0":"post-17292","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-beer-events","8":"category-beer-news","9":"category-beer-styles","10":"category-brewing-ingredients","11":"category-san-diego-beer-beverage-news","12":"tag-sdbeer","13":"tag-2kids-brewing","14":"tag-align-brewing","15":"tag-all-organic","16":"tag-beer","17":"tag-beeramar","18":"tag-ben-betz","19":"tag-brandon-hernandez","20":"tag-cidery","21":"tag-craft-beer","22":"tag-indiebeer","23":"tag-ipa","24":"tag-meadery","25":"tag-miralani","26":"tag-miramar","27":"tag-navy-seals","28":"tag-organic-beer","29":"tag-organic-hops","30":"tag-pale-ale","31":"tag-protector-brewery","32":"tag-protector-brewing","33":"tag-sake","34":"tag-san-diego","35":"tag-sean-haggerty","36":"tag-setting-sun-sake","37":"tag-thunderhawk-alements","38":"tag-two-kids-brewing","39":"tag-urban-winery","40":"tag-west-coaster","41":"entry"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/archives.csusm.edu\/westcoastersd\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/protector_02.jpg?fit=1000%2C711&ssl=1","wps_subtitle":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pdtr4y-4uU","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/archives.csusm.edu\/westcoastersd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17292","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/archives.csusm.edu\/westcoastersd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/archives.csusm.edu\/westcoastersd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archives.csusm.edu\/westcoastersd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archives.csusm.edu\/westcoastersd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17292"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/archives.csusm.edu\/westcoastersd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17292\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archives.csusm.edu\/westcoastersd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17289"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/archives.csusm.edu\/westcoastersd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17292"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archives.csusm.edu\/westcoastersd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17292"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archives.csusm.edu\/westcoastersd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17292"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}