Beer of the Week: Circle of Life

From the Beer Writer: With the uncertain nature of the world today, San Diego County’s suds-scape looks much different than in years past. So, too, do the itineraries of craft-beer fans. Connoisseurs who once had festivals and beer-centric events penned into nearly every Saturday and Sunday square of their smartphone calendars and told the not-that-off-base joke about every weekend in San Diego being San Diego Beer Week, have lived a life free of large-scale public events for some time. Brewery anniversary affairs, a staple of the industry, have probably changed the most. What once might be full-scale, indoor-outdoor fests, perhaps even featuring neighboring guest breweries, have been forced to be scaled back due to COVID regulations, but brewery staffers have worked hard to make sure that smaller doesn’t equate to lesser. Today and tomorrow, Black Plague Brewing will celebrate four years in the beer biz. Though seating will be limited, both days will feature live music and other bonuses, including this week’s featured beer, Circle of Life, a hoppy pale ale brewed in collaboration with Carlsbad-based Burgeon Beer Co. New World in its composition, this anniversary offering boasts aromas of orange-candy and lemon peel, which give way to more citrus and a touch of tropical fruit on the palate. It’s proof that all you really need for a good party is great beer. Of course, a couple of killer bands and friends from another quality brewery don’t hurt.

From the Breweries: “With our four-year anniversary on the horizon, we wanted to do a something big while including our immediate craft community. Craft beer, to us, has always been about self-expression and collaboration. Who better to dream up a new tasty brew with than a brand like Burgeon, whom we admire and share similar values with. Together we created Circle Of Life, a crisp, flavorful pale ale brewed with Strata, Mosaic Cryo and Simcoe hops, and equipped with massive aromas of passionfruit, lemon citrus oils, and cantaloupe with hints of blueberry and apricot. Through a combined effort of dark arts and alchemy, this medium-bodied ale is enchantingly bright and crisp, leaving you with a refreshing sense of new life. It will be available on-draught and to-go in our first 16-ounce four-packs starting today.”—Jordan Hoffart, Co-founder, President & Distribution Manager, Back Plague Brewing

“I’ve been chatting with Jordan over the past couple years about finally getting something on the brew schedule. He reached out about possibly brewing up something for their fourth anniversary beer, and I just felt pretty humbled that he’d want to brew with us for that special occasion. Both of our breweries opened right around the same time as one another. When I went over to Black Plague for the first meeting, I finally got to meet their head brewer, Aeryk Heeg. Right away we both thought a West Coast pale ale would be a great fit for the occasion as we both share a huge love of pale ales. For that matter, both the Burgeon and Black Plague teams, in general, share that love. We then got on the discussion of Strata and how they hadn’t used that hop yet. All the while I was expressing my love for this great new hop varietal. We structured the recipe around the idea of Simcoe being the featured hop, then complimented with Strata and Mosaic Cryo. We built the grain bill around the concept of a light color and light body, with no crystal malts but incorporating specific malts to not lose out on head retention. Sort of what I consider the New Age West Coast pale ale. We applied some new-age hopping techniques that we’ve become big fans of and finished off the beer with a dry-hop consisting of about 55% Simcoe, 27% Mosaic Cryo and 18% Strata.”—Anthony Tallman, Co-founder & Head Brewer, Burgeon Beer Co.