For the past year-and-a-half, Miramar’s all-organic Protector Brewery has been brewing its beers on a two-barrel system and fermenting in four-barrel vessels. Owner Sean Haggerty says this was the scale at which he wanted to experiment with multiple beer styles, dialing them in before increasing production to the scale projected in his business plan.
“We will focus on expanding our brewery vertically in the space that we have,” says Haggerty. “We will install a seven-barrel brewhouse, four 15-barrel fermenters and two seven-barrel fermenters. We will upgrade our glycol system to handle the increased brewing capacity and drastically increase the size of our cold box.”
Protector brewed 80 barrels of beer last year and is on track to produce 140 barrels of beer in 2018. Haggerty says the brewery and cellar expansions will allow for 500 total barrels in 2019, and 800-plus barrels annually beyond that. But expansion won’t be limited to brewing. Haggerty says he is investing in enhancements for his tasting room as well. A crowler machine will be purchased and a merchandise area will be installed featuring new items.
Away from Protector’s Miralani Makers District facility, 16-ounce cans of a core line-up of four brands will be made available throughout San Diego County. Haggerty says they will focus on a juicy Northeasty-style IPA, West Coast IPA, SMaSH (single-hop-and-single-malt) pale ale and “beast of a stout,” stating these are the styles that Protector patrons prefer.
“The customer is the most important priority to us. We have released some diverse and even crazy styles of beer since opening,” says Haggerty. “We just keep listening to customer feedback and try to align our operations to provide them with beer they want. I am proud of where our beers are at and that they are ready to scale with our expansion.”
Protector’s expansion is currently in process and should be entirely complete by next summer.
