Rip Current Brewing

Go Against the Flow

Beer

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Barrel-aged Black Lagoon Bottle Release on June 30th

 

After 2 years maturing in Heaven Hill bourbon barrels, we are thrilled to announce the release of our latest batch of Bourbon Barrel-aged Black Lagoon Scottish Strong on Saturday, June 30th! It will also be available on draft until the keg kicks.

Black Lagoon is our popular Scottish-style Strong Ale (AKA Wee Heavy) that has won many awards in international competitions including a Silver medal at the prestigious 2015 Great American Beer Festival and the 2018 California State Fair.

Black Lagoon has a silky smooth dark malt character with rich caramel, toffee and hints of chocolate and dark fruits. This beer is ideal for extensive barrel aging to round out the spectrum of flavors with bourbon and oak-derived goodness. We don’t rush the barrel-aging process, allowing our beer to blend in the bourbon flavors preserved in the barrel while extracting notes of coconut and vanillin deeper in the oak.

Come try it on tap and buy a bottle to go! This is a limited bottle release, so please don’t wait as they will go fast!

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Rip Current Racks-Up Awards at International Beer Competitions

Rip Current Brewing (Rip Current) recently won several awards during the World Beer Cup and the San Diego International Beer Festival and for its German-style bock and pilsner beers.

Rip Current’s Breakline Bock won a bronze medal May 3 at the World Beer Cup, a prestigious competition with more than 8,000 entries from 2,515 breweries. Breakline Bock is a German-style dark lager featuring a rich, dark malt flavor—yet, it finishes semi-dry, so it can be consumed by the liter-glass at festivals. This style is one of the most difficult to brew, making it especially significant to achieve a world-class example.

Winning entries were blindly judged by a panel of beer experts from 33 countries. Because the competition was worldwide, this means judges considered Breakline Bock to be among the best in the world.

“We are excited to announce our victory in the renowned World Beer Cup, which is our first, but are confident will not be our last,” said Rip Current Co-founder and Brewmaster Paul Sangster, adding that the brewery was one of only six Independent breweries in San Diego County to earn a medal. “We are proud and humbled to have won a medal in this fiercely competitive category—especially considering how many quality German-style bock beers were entered, including many from Germany.”

Just a couple days earlier, Rip Current’s Breakline Bock also won a silver award at the San Diego International Beer Festival—which included over 1,500 entries from 260 breweries.

During that competition, Rip Current also claimed a gold award for its Delaminator Doppelbock, a doppel (double) sized, higher alcohol-by-volume (ABV) beer that is a more dark-malt-forward version of traditional bock. Lastly, Rip Current won another silver award for its Choppy Surf Czech-style Pilsner, a bohemian pilsner lager with a complex graham cracker-like backbone supporting an herbal hop aroma and flavor.

This is the third year in a row that Rip Current has amassed one of the highest medal counts of any brewery at the San Diego International Beer Festival.

“This year we had another very strong showing at the San Diego International Beer Festival, which really speaks to the fact that our team at Rip Current is continuing to make world class beers of many diverse styles,” said Sangster of the brewery, which just celebrated its fifth anniversary. “We invite everyone to help us celebrate at one of our tasting rooms with some of our award-winning beers.”

All of Rip Current’s award-winning beers are available this week at their tasting room in San Marcos at 1325 Grand Avenue, suite #100, and in North Park at 4101 30th Street.

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FiftyFifty Brewing Tap Takeover & Meet The Owner @ Rip Current North Park!

On Sunday, November 5th from 2-8PM, we are thrilled to welcome our friends from FiftyFifty Brewing Company of Truckee, CA to our North Park location. They are bringing an amazing line-up of their core and specialty program creations, including two rare variations of the world famous Eclipse Barrel-aged Imperial Stout!  Don’t miss this exciting opportunity to try so many of their beers on tap and to speak with FiftyFifty’s owner Alicia Barr.

We will have the following beers on tap (while the kegs last):

Eclipse Imperial Stout aged in Apple Brandy Barrels

Eclipse Imperial Stout aged in Maple Barrels

Spring Fever Blonde Ale (2015 and 2016 GABF medal winner)

Donner Party Porter (2012 World Beer Cup medal winner)

Session 267 Session IPA with Azacca Hops

Brewer’s Intent Series: Ferme de Montagne Barrel-aged Saison

 

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Rip Current Brewing’s Barrel-aged Beer Blast!

Each year our bourbon barrel-aging cellar produces some amazing beers that we gradually release when they are ready. Our philosophy is to allow the beer to stay in contact with the barrels for at least a year, so it extracts some of the complex, yet subtle flavors from the barrel. This requires patience and a generally slower release cycle, but we believe you can taste the difference. This year we produced the most barrel-aged beers in our history, and we hope that will continue into the future.

After the barrel-aged bottle and tap release, we save a small amount for us to enjoy 🙂 and a few kegs to bring each one back for a curtain call during our San Diego Beer Week barrel event! We think this year’s list might be the finest we have ever assembled and challenge you to taste them and let us know what you think!

This year’s barrel-aged beer blast will occur on two different dates, so you can hit both!

North Park – Friday, November 10th
San Marcos – Saturday, November 11th

We are stoked to offer the following tap list:

2017 Woodford Reserve Barrel-aged Black Lagoon Scottish Strong
2017 Coconut Barrel-aged Rescue Buoy Imperial Stout
2017 Barrel-aged Dangerous Undertow Belgian Dark Strong
2016 Coffee Vanilla Barrel-aged Rescue Buoy Imperial Stout
2016 Barrel-aged Vanilla Storm Coffee, Vanilla Imperial Porter
2016 Single Barrel-aged Storm Imperial Porter
2015 Barrel-aged Black Lagoon Scottish Strong

All of these amazing gems from the past will be pouring until the keg kicks. We expect several to go pretty fast so plan accordingly.

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Coconut Barrel-aged Rescue Buoy Bottle Release!

On November 6th, both Rip Current locations will release Coconut Barrel-aged Rescue Buoy Imperial Stout! At the start of each locations’ tasting room hours, we will be offering of this amazing small batch beer on tap and in bottles to-go!

After 15 months slumbering in Heaven Hill and Woodford Reserve barrels, we introduced Bourbon Barrel-aged Rescue Buoy (BARB) in October. We aged a small amount of BARB on freshly toasted coconut chips and the results were amazing. Rather than just drink it ourselves, we decided to bottle some up and to have it on draft during beer week! That is right, you can try it on tap (while the keg lasts!) and then buy your bottles to go.

Rescue Buoy (the base beer) has received several medals in the Imperial Stout category including at the 2017 Los Angeles and San Diego fair international beer competitions! Coconut Barrel-aged Rescue Buoy leads with a burst of coconut followed by bourbon, molasses and chocolate aromas and flavors. The mid-palate satiates your palate with dark malt character including: dark chocolate, molasses, fig, dates and hints of coffee. The finish reminds you of the start with a return of coconut and bourbon hints of oak barrel tannins.

This was a small batch, so we are not doing pre-sales. We have a very limited run of bottles that will be sold on a first come, first satisfied basis.  We don’t expect they will last very long, so don’t wait.

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Caught in a Rip Triple IPA Release during SDBW

On Friday November 3rd, San Diego kicks off its annual salute to craft beer by hosting San Diego Beer Week (ok, its really 10 days but who is counting).  We are very proud to be a member of the San Diego brewing community and take this opportunity to make something special for our patrons to help with the celebration.  This year, we are introducing our crazy hop monster, Caught in a Rip Triple IPA on the opening day of beer week.

Caught in a Rip is an 11.2% beast of a San Diego-style IPA featuring all of our favorite hops from both hemispheres. Seriously, we have hops from Australia, New Zealand and of course the USA to maximize the complexity of this very fruit-forward IIIPA.  Despite its huge ABV, this beer is light blonde in color and has a clean, bone dry finish that is only sweetened by the amazing fruit flavors from the hops.

If you haven’t tried it, be sure to stop by our tasting rooms during beer week. We only make this beer once a year, so you don’t want to miss having your share.

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Barrel-aged Rescue Buoy Bottle Release!

After 15 months slumbering in Heaven Hill and Woodford Reserve barrels, we are stoked to announce the release of Barrel-aged Rescue Buoy Imperial Stout in wax-dipped, 22oz bottles AND for sampling on tap starting Oct 20th! This year’s Rescue Buoy has received several medals in the Imperial Stout category including at the 2017 Los Angeles and San Diego fair international beer competitions!

The bourbon barrel-aged Rescue Buoy has a silky smooth dark malt character featuring dark chocolate, molasses, dark fruits (prune, date, fig) and coffee, all surrounded by complex bourbon flavors and oak tannins with fleeting notes of vanillin.

Come try this amazing beer while it lasts and take a few bottles home to enjoy with friends later.